# Fixing the Win98 never finishes shutting down bug?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fixing-the-win98-never-finishes-shutting-down-bug/280722>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 20, 2004, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fixing-the-win98-never-finishes-shutting-down-bug/280722 "2004-12-20T02:23:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fixing-the-win98-never-finishes-shutting-down-bug/280722/1 "2004-12-20T02:23:10Z")

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How do you fix the Windows 98 bug that leaves the “Microsoft Windows98 Windows is shutting down.” screen on forever, without shutting down?

I know I’ve done this on other machines before but can’t remember how. This is a clean ThinkPad laptop, new Win98 reinstall, all the critical updates as of today, no applications installed on it yet.

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**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fixing-the-win98-never-finishes-shutting-down-bug/280722/2 "2004-12-20T02:30:57Z")

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[Windows 98 Second Edition Shutdown Supplement](http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/downloads/contents/WURecommended/S_WUFeatured/Win98SE/Default.asp)

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**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fixing-the-win98-never-finishes-shutting-down-bug/280722/3 "2004-12-20T02:55:47Z")

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I find that the power switch usually clears it up.

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**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fixing-the-win98-never-finishes-shutting-down-bug/280722/4 "2004-12-20T04:18:12Z")

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If that doesn’t work, or you wanna try something different, go into msconfig -\> General Tab -\> Advanced button, and [turn off “Fast Shutdown”](http://support.microsoft.com/kb/187607).

If it fixes it, leave it that way.