winlogon.exe crashes on logging off or shutting down

[Guest Ron Hirsch]

I've had an ongoing problem for about 7 months. My system is a high end

system running XP Pro, which I built 2 years ago. It runs flawlessly, but

when shutting down, since the fall of 2007, winlogon.exe crashes. It also

crashes if I just log off, and don't shutdown.

 

In Safe Mode, it never crashes during shutdown or logging off. Periodically,

after taking some specific action such as uninstalling a piece of software

or hardware, or running RegCure, the shutdowns may become normal. And that

may last for 1 hour, 1 day or up to 3 weeks. But then things return to

crashing.

 

When the system is running, it runs very smoothly, with no problems visible

of any kind.

 

I have played around with most of the non Microsoft items in the Startup

listing (I use WinPatrol), but that has not really uncovered anything. I've

scanned the sytem with a wide range of security software scanners - but

nothing has ever been discovered.

 

I have a HiJackThis log just in case. but I cannot locate a good place to

post it, and actually have it read.

 

I have looked in the event viewer, but have not spotted anything that seems

to be a cause for this.

 

Does anyone have any ideas that I could follow up on.

 

As I noted, the system runs flawlessly - never crashes during normal

operations - only on shutdown.

 

Ron Hirsch

[Guest Thee Chicago Wolf]

Re: winlogon.exe crashes on logging off or shutting down

 

>I've had an ongoing problem for about 7 months. My system is a high end

>system running XP Pro, which I built 2 years ago. It runs flawlessly, but

>when shutting down, since the fall of 2007, winlogon.exe crashes. It also

>crashes if I just log off, and don't shutdown.

>

>In Safe Mode, it never crashes during shutdown or logging off. Periodically,

>after taking some specific action such as uninstalling a piece of software

>or hardware, or running RegCure, the shutdowns may become normal. And that

>may last for 1 hour, 1 day or up to 3 weeks. But then things return to

>crashing.

>

>When the system is running, it runs very smoothly, with no problems visible

>of any kind.

>

>I have played around with most of the non Microsoft items in the Startup

>listing (I use WinPatrol), but that has not really uncovered anything. I've

>scanned the sytem with a wide range of security software scanners - but

>nothing has ever been discovered.

>

>I have a HiJackThis log just in case. but I cannot locate a good place to

>post it, and actually have it read.

>

>I have looked in the event viewer, but have not spotted anything that seems

>to be a cause for this.

>

>Does anyone have any ideas that I could follow up on.

>

>As I noted, the system runs flawlessly - never crashes during normal

>operations - only on shutdown.

 

Is this your issue? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/903251

 

I would try installing the current winlogon.exe from the following KB

article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938375

 

Some slightly older KB article about problems with winlogon.exe:

 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/912354

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/900903

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/906277

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/910849

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/910482

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938375

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922410

 

- Thee Chicago Wolf

[Guest Ron Hirsch]

Re: winlogon.exe crashes on logging off or shutting down

 

Thanks for the links. But my problem is not the one discussed in

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/903251.

 

As I noted in my message, my system runs fine, and does not crash while in

operation.

 

The crash occurs when Windows is shut down, or if I log off prior to

shutting down. So it is my logging off that precipitates the crash, since

logging off occurs automatically when shutting down.

 

Also, the "fix" noted in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938375 states

clearly that it should not be used unless the problem specifically is as

noted, and that that fix will be incorporated in a future patch. And, that

message was back in 9/2207, and noted that the fix would be incorporated

into a forthcoming MS patch/fix.

 

Ron Hirsch

 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

"Thee Chicago Wolf" <.@.> wrote in message

news:6kbrr3tuem1ba9jomkqi7oi927dbcpu1om@4ax.com...

>I've had an ongoing problem for about 7 months. My system is a high end

>system running XP Pro, which I built 2 years ago. It runs flawlessly, but

>when shutting down, since the fall of 2007, winlogon.exe crashes. It also

>crashes if I just log off, and don't shutdown.

>

>In Safe Mode, it never crashes during shutdown or logging off.

>Periodically,

>after taking some specific action such as uninstalling a piece of software

>or hardware, or running RegCure, the shutdowns may become normal. And that

>may last for 1 hour, 1 day or up to 3 weeks. But then things return to

>crashing.

>

>When the system is running, it runs very smoothly, with no problems visible

>of any kind.

>

>I have played around with most of the non Microsoft items in the Startup

>listing (I use WinPatrol), but that has not really uncovered anything. I've

>scanned the sytem with a wide range of security software scanners - but

>nothing has ever been discovered.

>

>I have a HiJackThis log just in case. but I cannot locate a good place to

>post it, and actually have it read.

>

>I have looked in the event viewer, but have not spotted anything that seems

>to be a cause for this.

>

>Does anyone have any ideas that I could follow up on.

>

>As I noted, the system runs flawlessly - never crashes during normal

>operations - only on shutdown.

 

Is this your issue? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/903251

 

I would try installing the current winlogon.exe from the following KB

article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938375

 

Some slightly older KB article about problems with winlogon.exe:

 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/912354

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/900903

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/906277

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/910849

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/910482

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938375

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922410

 

- Thee Chicago Wolf

[Guest Thee Chicago Wolf]

Re: winlogon.exe crashes on logging off or shutting down

 

>Thanks for the links. But my problem is not the one discussed in

>http://support.microsoft.com/kb/903251.

>

>As I noted in my message, my system runs fine, and does not crash while in

>operation.

>

>The crash occurs when Windows is shut down, or if I log off prior to

>shutting down. So it is my logging off that precipitates the crash, since

>logging off occurs automatically when shutting down.

>

>Also, the "fix" noted in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938375 states

>clearly that it should not be used unless the problem specifically is as

>noted, and that that fix will be incorporated in a future patch. And, that

>message was back in 9/2207, and noted that the fix would be incorporated

>into a forthcoming MS patch/fix.

>

>Ron Hirsch

 

I know what the fix says and I also know many issues with winlogon.exe

have been addresses since the original version that was in XP Service

Pack 2. That it doesn't explicitly speak to your issue doesn't mean it

won't help you. What is address in that KB article. and prior, will be

integrated into Service Pack 3. That will not be released for at least

4 more weeks. You can always request and try KB938375 and see if it

helps you. If not, you can always uninstall it. Or you can wait until

SP3 is released. Don't shoot the messenger.

 

- Thee Chicago Wolf

[Guest Ron Hirsch]

Re: winlogon.exe crashes on logging off or shutting down

 

Hey, I'm not shooting the messenger. <G>

 

As I noted in my original message, the crashing goes through its cycles.

Right now, the crashing is taking a holiday. What's strange is that in the

past, the situation was impacted by any one or more of the following, which

would often cause a cessaton of the crashes.

 

Installing or uninstalling programs

Uninstalling or installing hardware

Running my Registry cleaner (RegCure)

 

The crash would never happen when in Safe Mode. But I could never pinpoint

any non MS item in the startup folder which really impacted things.

 

The one MS startup item that I have disabled is CTFMON.EXE. MS states that

this is used for various Office programs. But I have no office programs

installed, other than viewers for Word, PP, and Excel.

 

But, every time I disable it, apparently MS tries to reactivate it again.

But, one of my security programs now signals me on bootup that MS is trying

to change the Registry to reinstall it, so I've left "firm instructions" to

not allow that. But it retries on each bootup, and I get a small window

(displayed for a few seconds) telling me that my instructions are being

followed on each bootup.

 

However, I do not have any real indication that CTFMON.EXE is in any way

related to the crashing.

 

I've also edited the Registry to set "AutoEndTasks" = 1, and set the time

delay for "WaittoKillApp" and "HungAppTimeout" down to just a few seconds

 

So, lately there haven't been any crashes. But every time I say that, they

start again. :-(

 

So, if SP 3 is coming out in the near future, I'll wait and see if

installing helps the situation.

 

Thanks for your help

 

Ron Hirsch

 

+++++++++++++++++++

 

 

"Thee Chicago Wolf" <.@.> wrote in message

news:uortr3dcom4u92mqbhj59l5su73gb4jsrd@4ax.com...

>Thanks for the links. But my problem is not the one discussed in

>http://support.microsoft.com/kb/903251.

>

>As I noted in my message, my system runs fine, and does not crash while in

>operation.

>

>The crash occurs when Windows is shut down, or if I log off prior to

>shutting down. So it is my logging off that precipitates the crash, since

>logging off occurs automatically when shutting down.

>

>Also, the "fix" noted in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938375 states

>clearly that it should not be used unless the problem specifically is as

>noted, and that that fix will be incorporated in a future patch. And, that

>message was back in 9/2207, and noted that the fix would be incorporated

>into a forthcoming MS patch/fix.

>

>Ron Hirsch

 

I know what the fix says and I also know many issues with winlogon.exe

have been addresses since the original version that was in XP Service

Pack 2. That it doesn't explicitly speak to your issue doesn't mean it

won't help you. What is address in that KB article. and prior, will be

integrated into Service Pack 3. That will not be released for at least

4 more weeks. You can always request and try KB938375 and see if it

helps you. If not, you can always uninstall it. Or you can wait until

SP3 is released. Don't shoot the messenger.

 

- Thee Chicago Wolf