After recently installing a bunch of Shuttle SK22G2 systems in a site with Windows Vista loaded, it became clear that there were some minor issues with the systems shutting down. (Hint: They didn’t)
There was an intermittent fault that made them hang on the last phase of shutting down. Frustratingly, there was no evidence to show that this has happened except for the blue LED on the front of the case, and the noise of the fan it the back. To get the machine going – it was either hold the power button in for a few seconds or hit the reset switch.
Vista has come a long way in error reporting from the Windows 9x days. In fact, combined with the internet there are very few unfixable problems of this nature. What really helps us here is the Problem Reports and Solutions utility. This keeps a track of any errors that may have happened, and gives you the details in a (relatively) easy to read format.
What it was telling me, is that the system was crashing with a blue screen. I tried a few solutions, including a far-reaching bluetooth issue.
In the end, the problem turned out to be caused by the ATI drivers. After a couple of weeks, the computers reported that updating the ATI drivers might help, and they did! Hurrah.