This is the second computer on which I have had this problem! It is very annoying. I've never seen W7 do this on any other machine, only my work machines with PGP Whole Drive Encryption. When I click on "shut down", it goes to a light blue MS screen (not blue screen of death) and locks up completely. It has no further response. Hard drive shows activity. Hours of time do not change anything. It must be forced to shut down, then restarted with warning that it shut down last time abnormally. It is very consistent but not 100% of time. On my older slower machine, I found that when I put the pointer over "shut down" icon, if I waited 8 seconds, then clicked icon, it would often shut down normally. On this newer much faster laptop, it doesn't help to do this. Our IT Department said they've heard of this but have no idea how to fix it. Any ideas out there? This is a 4-mo old Dell top of line machine, SSHD, fastest Haswell CPU when I ordered it, blazing fast for dictation, very accurate, but won't shut down normally.
I need a solution