I've got a computer with W2K SP4 installed. For couple months I've been facing problems with shutting down the system. All the usual windows (windows is shutting etc) disappear, I can see only blank desktop with mouse cursor still on and functioning. I have to hold the power button to switch off the ATX power supply. The longer computer works the bigger is the probability of it to happen. I've been trying to find the cause, without result. The main problem is that it doesn't happen every time I switch off the PC and I have to wait couple hours every time I make any change.
Generally it looks like some driver or service is messing it all up. The weird thing is that this configuration had been working for quite long time and I didn't make any significant change in both software and hardware. Maybe one of Windows updates?
My question is, instead of listing all my programs, all hardware and so on, what do you suggest to analyse the problem? How to find out which driver/service is hanging? Any other suggestion how to cope with it?