What about automatic updates running on shutdown? I've had them take a very long time sometimes.

>It finally shutdown and started responding. I don't know what the heck it was doing .. but it makes me VERY nervous.
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>>>I have a new laptop and have been slowly loading things on it. It's running Vista Business. This morning I hooked up my fingerprint reader, webcam, and external harddrive and installed the drivers for each. Then when I tried to shutdown the machine .. it's stuck. It's sitting there saying "Shutting down..." and it's been that way for over 30 minutes. I even tried to power it off .. wait a while .. then turn it back on and it said "Shutting Down..."
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>>>Help .. I'm dead in the water on that machine.
>>Control Alt Delete and check the task manager ?