When shutting down Windows, the screen goes black (except for white cursor) and hangs for upto 5 minutes before eventually shutting down; sometimes not at all. This is a recent event, but does not appear to be related to any new installs, as I haven't done any for weeks except antivirus/spyware up-dates.
I have XP Pro SP2 (all up to date) on a laptop, 1Gb Ram, 40Gb HDD.
Any thoughts please??

This article may be a solution to the problem, even though you don't see any message.

http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;313290&spid=1173&sid=156

Many thanks.
I have Toshiba laptop, which has it's own power saver setting process.
APM does  not appear as an option, so i cant follow this articles suggestions.
Any other thoughts please?

Did you clean your HD from all kind of trash ? Do you have antispywares ? did you clean your REGISTRY ? if everything is fine there , try LAST GOOD CONFIGURATION . A better description of your running programs is appreciated . OLIVIER GEBUHRER

Thanks for your reply.
HD is clean, Registry is clean, I use AVG & Ad-aware SE plus & Norton Internet Security & Spybot. "Last good config" would be too long ago to be realistic - this has been happening for several months. I use System Mechanic 6 to clean everything. I am mostly running Microsoft Outlook, IE6, MWord, Excel.
Does that help??

Another possibility from the Microsoft database:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/830957/en-us

This relates to USB devices causing such hangups.

Have you tried running SFC to put your files back where they should be.

I also notice that you are using two AV Programs, this coulc be the cause of your problem too.