Windows 7 randomly locks up during shutdown

[Corrderio]

For about the past week my computer will randomly lock up on me when I'm shutting down. When this happens my task bar seems to freeze when it's closing a program and while I can move my mouse, everything is unresponsive (Start button, desktop shortcuts, etc.). The only thing I can pretty much do is use CTRL+ALT+DEL, which will bring up the screen fine. However, when I click anything from the available options, my screen just goes black.

[xerodok]

This indicates there are processes and/or services that are hanging up Windows. From what you have described, it's starting the shutdown process by shutting down explorer (your desktop environment, i.e. start button) but is getting stuck at some kind of boot/service process.

It could be anything from device drivers, a program, or something that's running in the background (i.e. virus protection, server, etc.) If I were you, I'd look through your msconfig Startup menu (Start -> msconfig.msc) and get rid of things you aren't using. To confirm that it's actually a process that's hanging you up, which it probably is, in the msconfig menu under the Boot tab, you can run a Selective Startup. With this, you can tell Windows to only load system services, and not other programs. After that, try to shutdown.

[Corrderio]

I'll have to take a look into that. Maybe something got corrupted from a crash?

I have a feeling it could be Windows Live Messenger. That was the program that was closing on my taskbar last night before it locked up. Why it would do that I have no clue, but it's been sorta buggy.

[xerodok]

I'll have to take a look into that. Maybe something got corrupted from a crash?

I have a feeling it could be Windows Live Messenger. That was the program that was closing on my taskbar last night before it locked up. Why it would do that I have no clue, but it's been sorta buggy.

It's possible. And, yes, Windows Live Messenger is full of bugs. Uncheck that in your msconfig startup menu, restart, let your computer boot up fully, then shutdown.

[Corrderio]

Guess I'll give it a shot. I'm hoping I can clear the cache for MSN to see if that'll fix it. Since right now it's random on signing me in.