Laptop will not close down normally

[Telegraphman]

Dell Inspiron 3800
Win XP SP3
10GB HD
Most likely due to full HD (less than 3 MB free space).
Updates ready to install shield showing in notification area.
When trying to close down screen shows message "do not turn off computer" etc and "Installing updates" etc. These two messages keep showing ad infinitum and closure never happens. I have to turn off power at wall.
Question: how do I get rid of these updates ready to install represented by the update shield. I do not care if earlier updates are deleted to make more free space. Could this be the solution? I have turned off Automatic Updates. Help appreciated.

 

[Coodu]

In my experience turning off updates was the correct solution to stop any pending updates from installing, on XP that is.

Have you tried running a disk cleanup to see if that helps free up some working HDD space?

It's a bit strange that those updates are still trying to install even when updates are disabled...

 

[Telegraphman]

Thanks for that. I have done disk clean up and defrag prior to the original post. I gained about 1 GB of free space. However, this was all used up by updates that I installed. I may be wrong, but this possibly indicates that the major part of the HD is taken up with updates, as it is only 10GB. Anyone know if there is a way to check this? There is very little in the My Documents folder and I am not running any programs that are HD hungry. Guess I will just have to close down using the "close down without installing updates" option. At the moment I have no room for any anti-virus program which is really necessary for web browsing, more important than a lot of those security updates I reckon. BTW Automatic Updates were not turned off - my mistake. The laptop is a hand-me-down and has a protected user icon so maybe there is stuff in there that is also hogging the HD. Will see if I can contact the previous owner who is possibly the administrator. Will get back when have more info.

 

[DelJo63]

SERIOUS risk in running defrag with only 3mb free. The proper procedure to run defrag is:

1. chkdsk c: /f /r
2. cleanmgr
3. defrag

Use (1) ensure the HD is safe and defrag will not cause more damage.
(2) gives back as much space as possible for defrag to work properly.

 

[Telegraphman]

Thanks to Norbur and jobeard. There was very little data left by previous owner. It appears that Windows Update had hogged all the HD space. I performed a clean and install of XP Home and turned off Automatic Updates. This gained me about 7.5 GB of space. The laptop will be used only occasionally on line so this should cause no problems. Problem solved. (y)

 

[DelJo63]

XP/Home? You're aware there's no support for that system and a ton of security issues were solved, but now are no longer available to you!

Minimum actions to protect your system are:
[1] Never use an admin account to access the Internet. Instead, run day-to-day from a Limited Account. If necessary to install or tweek something, right-click a program or shortcut and use the RunAS to get admin rights.

[2] disable print/file sharing to stop remote access via the ports 138-139+445

 

[Telegraphman]

Thankyou again, both noted. Can you give me a little more info on the "RunAs" option? What needs to be entered in this field?

 

[DelJo63]

The login name of an Admin account on your system and its password