I have this same issue as well. As with the poster above me, I find that
when it happens, it's usually when a telnet session has timed out from
inactivity from a Cisco device. I work at an ISP and am regularly
connected to multiple Cisco 7200/2811 routers which will timeout your
session after 5-10m of inactivity. As the poster above me stated, this
doesn't always happen, but when it does to me, it's happened when the
telnet session has timed out.

I run the telnet command after opening the command prompt, rather than
running telnet.exe from the Run dialog. My machine also will not power
off except by cutting power as well. No process for it in Process
Explorer either. It just appears to be a UI anomaly. I would recommend
using SecureCRT or PuTTY to initiate telnet sessions, as I don't have
this issue with those applications. They also offer additional benefits
of being able to save addresses you connect to regularly, as well as
automate login credentials in the case of SecureCRT, if you feel secure
doing that sort of thing.

I work in tech support, so use cmd.exe for telnet, ping, tracert, ect...
I had this problem on my old laptop running Windows 2000 professional,
and now I have the same issue on my new laptop running Win XP.
This has got to be some type of bug in cmd.exe, and I can't believe
Microsoft hasn't heard of this issue before.
If you are looking for a replacement app to cmd.exe, try cygwin. It's
what I used on my 2000 machine, and am about to install it on my xp as
well.

"501021096" <501021096.3p3bsh@no.email.invalid> wrote in message
news:501021096.3p3bsh@no.email.invalid...
>
> I work in tech support, so use cmd.exe for telnet, ping, tracert, ect...
> I had this problem on my old laptop running Windows 2000 professional,
> and now I have the same issue on my new laptop running Win XP.
> This has got to be some type of bug in cmd.exe, and I can't believe
> Microsoft hasn't heard of this issue before.

If you think there is a bug in cmd.exe then you should post full details
here. You say "I can't believe Microsoft hasn't heard of this issue before"
and say "I can't believe there is a bug left in cmd.exe after all this
time". Let's get the all the details first, then pass judgement on the MS
engineers!

dcs182;914824 Wrote:
> I have this same issue as well. [...] As the poster above me stated,
> this doesn't always happen, but when it does to me, it's happened when
> the telnet session has timed out.

Its not telnet related. I just encountered the problem for the first
time and I wasn't doing anything remotely telnet-ish. I accidently typed
'cmd' in the "Start->Start Search" textbox instead of in the "Run"
textbox. I got up a cmd window with the title: -select CMD Shell -
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0\Bin\SetEnv.Cmd"- that
won't go away. I can't kill it. None of the exit methods work. I can't
type into the window. I can drop down the titlebar menu, select
(non-existant) text, and scroll the scrollbar. That's it.

It doesn't show up in the process tree anywhere that I can find. It is
consuming CPU resources. My computer is more sluggish than usual (and
this is a fast computer). I've also tried using "Process Explorer" which
is a little more revealing version of the task manager and it can't spot
the process either. It looks like its a ghost/zombie window.

I'd like to figure out how to get rid of it without rebooting if
possible but I'm not going to spend all night doing it. I guess I'll
just chalk it up to more Microsoft stupidity and reboot anyway.

Based on the Title/Path you noted you have a Software Developer
Kit installed. I would check your Add/Remove programs applet to
see if any Microsoft development tools are installed. (Visual C, dot
net ...or similar ). Apparently the SDK is hooking the Cmd command.
Without knowing what software is installed on your PC it's not easy
to explain why you have an SDK present.

"bratwiz" <bratwiz.3p8m49@no.email.invalid> wrote in message
news:bratwiz.3p8m49@no.email.invalid...
>
> dcs182;914824 Wrote:
>> I have this same issue as well. [...] As the poster above me stated,
>> this doesn't always happen, but when it does to me, it's happened when
>> the telnet session has timed out.
>
> Its not telnet related. I just encountered the problem for the first
> time and I wasn't doing anything remotely telnet-ish. I accidently typed
> 'cmd' in the "Start->Start Search" textbox instead of in the "Run"
> textbox. I got up a cmd window with the title: -select CMD Shell -
> "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0\Bin\SetEnv.Cmd"- that
> won't go away. I can't kill it. None of the exit methods work. I can't
> type into the window. I can drop down the titlebar menu, select
> (non-existant) text, and scroll the scrollbar. That's it.
>
> It doesn't show up in the process tree anywhere that I can find. It is
> consuming CPU resources. My computer is more sluggish than usual (and
> this is a fast computer). I've also tried using "Process Explorer" which
> is a little more revealing version of the task manager and it can't spot
> the process either. It looks like its a ghost/zombie window.
>
> I'd like to figure out how to get rid of it without rebooting if
> possible but I'm not going to spend all night doing it. I guess I'll
> just chalk it up to more Microsoft stupidity and reboot anyway.
>
>

'Pegasus [MVP Wrote:
> ;963150']"501021096" <501021096.3p3bsh@no.email.invalid> wrote in
> message
> news:501021096.3p3bsh@no.email.invalid...
> >
> > I work in tech support, so use cmd.exe for telnet, ping, tracert,
> ect...
> > I had this problem on my old laptop running Windows 2000
> professional,
> > and now I have the same issue on my new laptop running Win XP.
> > This has got to be some type of bug in cmd.exe, and I can't believe
> > Microsoft hasn't heard of this issue before.
>
> If you think there is a bug in cmd.exe then you should post full
> details
> here. You say "I can't believe Microsoft hasn't heard of this issue
> before"
> and say "I can't believe there is a bug left in cmd.exe after all this
>
> time". Let's get the all the details first, then pass judgement on the
> MS
> engineers!


I gave all the details. Cmd.exe will hang, in both 2000 prof. and xp
prof. No error code is given. They just hang and become unresponcive.
The window will not close and the pc will not shut down without a hard
reboot.

I only speculate that it must be a bug in cmd.exe because it happens in
both 2000 prof and xp prof, but I'm not a MS expert. Does this help?
Is this the 1st you heard of this issue?

"501021096" <501021096.3pa8rp@no.email.invalid> wrote in message
news:501021096.3pa8rp@no.email.invalid...
>
> 'Pegasus [MVP Wrote:
>> ;963150']"501021096" <501021096.3p3bsh@no.email.invalid> wrote in
>> message
>> news:501021096.3p3bsh@no.email.invalid...
>> >
>> > I work in tech support, so use cmd.exe for telnet, ping, tracert,
>> ect...
>> > I had this problem on my old laptop running Windows 2000
>> professional,
>> > and now I have the same issue on my new laptop running Win XP.
>> > This has got to be some type of bug in cmd.exe, and I can't believe
>> > Microsoft hasn't heard of this issue before.
>>
>> If you think there is a bug in cmd.exe then you should post full
>> details
>> here. You say "I can't believe Microsoft hasn't heard of this issue
>> before"
>> and say "I can't believe there is a bug left in cmd.exe after all this
>>
>> time". Let's get the all the details first, then pass judgement on the
>> MS
>> engineers!
>
>
> I gave all the details. Cmd.exe will hang, in both 2000 prof. and xp
> prof. No error code is given. They just hang and become unresponcive.
> The window will not close and the pc will not shut down without a hard
> reboot.
>
> I only speculate that it must be a bug in cmd.exe because it happens in
> both 2000 prof and xp prof, but I'm not a MS expert. Does this help?
> Is this the 1st you heard of this issue?

I have opened cmd.exe on hundreds of Win2000/XP machines for many years and
it never hung. If it hangs on your machines then there could be one of two
reasons:
a) You do it in a certain way that you have failed to describe so far.
b) Your Windows installations are damaged.

Note: If this was a generic problem with cmd.exe then it must be repeatable
on other machines when following your step-by-step recipe (which we haven't
seen so far). If it is not repeatable the it is caused by a problem on your
own machines, e.g. malware or virus infection.

'Pegasus [MVP Wrote:
> ;965889']"501021096" <501021096.3pa8rp@no.email.invalid> wrote in
> message
> news:501021096.3pa8rp@no.email.invalid...
> >
> > 'Pegasus [MVP Wrote:
> >> ;963150']"501021096" <501021096.3p3bsh@no.email.invalid> wrote in
> >> message
> >> news:501021096.3p3bsh@no.email.invalid...
> >> >
> >> > I work in tech support, so use cmd.exe for telnet, ping, tracert,
> >> ect...
> >> > I had this problem on my old laptop running Windows 2000
> >> professional,
> >> > and now I have the same issue on my new laptop running Win XP.
> >> > This has got to be some type of bug in cmd.exe, and I can't
> believe
> >> > Microsoft hasn't heard of this issue before.
> >>
> >> If you think there is a bug in cmd.exe then you should post full
> >> details
> >> here. You say "I can't believe Microsoft hasn't heard of this issue
> >> before"
> >> and say "I can't believe there is a bug left in cmd.exe after all
> this
> >>
> >> time". Let's get the all the details first, then pass judgement on
> the
> >> MS
> >> engineers!
> >
> >
> > I gave all the details. Cmd.exe will hang, in both 2000 prof. and
> xp
> > prof. No error code is given. They just hang and become
> unresponcive.
> > The window will not close and the pc will not shut down without a
> hard
> > reboot.
> >
> > I only speculate that it must be a bug in cmd.exe because it happens
> in
> > both 2000 prof and xp prof, but I'm not a MS expert. Does this
> help?
> > Is this the 1st you heard of this issue?
>
> I have opened cmd.exe on hundreds of Win2000/XP machines for many years
> and
> it never hung. If it hangs on your machines then there could be one of
> two
> reasons:
> a) You do it in a certain way that you have failed to describe so far.
> b) Your Windows installations are damaged.
>
> Note: If this was a generic problem with cmd.exe then it must be
> repeatable
> on other machines when following your step-by-step recipe (which we
> haven't
> seen so far). If it is not repeatable the it is caused by a problem on
> your
> own machines, e.g. malware or virus infection.

I don't see how it could be the way I use it. I will open the app via
a shortcut from the start menu. Use it for ping, tracert, nslookup,
telnet, ect.., and when I try to close it, it hangs.
Both PC's I've mentioned have been provided by my work, and supposed to
be very stable images. Also, I am not the 1st and only person to have
this issue. Read back to previous entries.
Also, the problem doesn't happen every time I use cmd.exe, so it is
very hard to duplicate. So far, I have had this new laptop 3 weeks, and
it has only happened 2 times. I will usually open 5 - 15 cmd.exe
windows every night.

501021096 wrote:
> 'Pegasus [MVP Wrote:
>> ;965889']"501021096" <501021096.3pa8rp@no.email.invalid> wrote in
>> message
>> news:501021096.3pa8rp@no.email.invalid...
>>>
>>> 'Pegasus [MVP Wrote:
>>>> ;963150']"501021096" <501021096.3p3bsh@no.email.invalid> wrote in
>>>> message
>>>> news:501021096.3p3bsh@no.email.invalid...
>>>>>
>>>>> I work in tech support, so use cmd.exe for telnet, ping, tracert,
>>>>> ect... I had this problem on my old laptop running Windows 2000
>>>>> professional, and now I have the same issue on my new laptop
>>>>> running Win XP. This has got to be some type of bug in cmd.exe,
>>>>> and I can't believe Microsoft hasn't heard of this issue before.
>>>>
>>>> If you think there is a bug in cmd.exe then you should post full
>>>> details
>>>> here. You say "I can't believe Microsoft hasn't heard of this issue
>>>> before"
>>>> and say "I can't believe there is a bug left in cmd.exe after all
>>>> this
>>>>
>>>> time". Let's get the all the details first, then pass judgement on
>>>> the MS
>>>> engineers!
>>>
>>>
>>> I gave all the details. Cmd.exe will hang, in both 2000 prof. and
>>> xp prof. No error code is given. They just hang and become
>>> unresponcive. The window will not close and the pc will not shut
>>> down without a hard reboot.
>>>
>>> I only speculate that it must be a bug in cmd.exe because it
>>> happens in both 2000 prof and xp prof, but I'm not a MS expert.
>>> Does this help? Is this the 1st you heard of this issue?
>>
>> I have opened cmd.exe on hundreds of Win2000/XP machines for many
>> years and
>> it never hung. If it hangs on your machines then there could be one
>> of two
>> reasons:
>> a) You do it in a certain way that you have failed to describe so
>> far. b) Your Windows installations are damaged.
>>
>> Note: If this was a generic problem with cmd.exe then it must be
>> repeatable
>> on other machines when following your step-by-step recipe (which we
>> haven't
>> seen so far). If it is not repeatable the it is caused by a problem
>> on your
>> own machines, e.g. malware or virus infection.
>
> I don't see how it could be the way I use it. I will open the app via
> a shortcut from the start menu. Use it for ping, tracert, nslookup,
> telnet, ect.., and when I try to close it, it hangs.
> Both PC's I've mentioned have been provided by my work, and supposed
> to be very stable images. Also, I am not the 1st and only person to
> have this issue. Read back to previous entries.
> Also, the problem doesn't happen every time I use cmd.exe, so it is
> very hard to duplicate. So far, I have had this new laptop 3 weeks,
> and it has only happened 2 times. I will usually open 5 - 15 cmd.exe
> windows every night.

That definitely sounds like a cockpit problem. Something unobtrusive is
being set up somehow that invites the apparently random problem of going
into a loop or into outer space. I'd be posting and looking for others
thoughts on it too if it were me, but that really doesn't sound like a
"bug".
Until you can find a way to reliably repeat the symptoms (in which
case the fix might become obvious) so others can get a look at it too,
there isn't likely to be a lot you can do. Personally I have never even
heard of such a problem on a fully functioning, malware-free machine.
It does occur to me that the inability to close it could either be an
interaction with some app that most others don't have, something more or
less unique to your machines, or:
More than one cmd session is running, and the one you see cannot
close until the other one finished up and releases it. Do you have
sessions calling other session? If so, that could be a likely culprit.
Does Event Viewer show anything?
How about firewall logs? Especially if this has anything to do with a
LAN of any kind.
Do you know if the cpu is being sent to a slow mode? Worth checking;
perhaps it wants an hour or so before it can close out everything that
needs to close.
Is a preceding session leaving an env variable that isn't cleared &
thus it can't close?
Lots and lots of possibilities until it can be duplicated by someone
else. I'd say just start plugging away at them one at a time until
something showed up.

I haven't bothered with "howto" because I suspect you know those things
already and it's make for a very long post, probably error-prone since I
haven't taken on a proper load of caffiene yet<g>. If not, post back;
many will be happy to suggest how-to for the various things.

HTH,

Twayne

Count me in as someone else who has this same thing happen. Multiple
builds of XP based workstations, on different hardware, and all fully
protected by AV/anti-malware.

As well, I am an IT professional (dating from pre-GUI days) and
constantly hop in and out of command prompt windows.

I see this happen maybe once every two to three months, and yes,
typically it's after having been telnetted to a network device that
severed the connection. However the "lock up" doesn't occur the moment
of the disconnection. I might proceed and execute various other
commands. I'm staring at one window right now where the cisco router
dropped the connection, and I proceeded to run some other native NT
command-line ping and trace routes.

It seems like the command prompt window remains "normal" until you
actually try to close it with the "X". Using the "exit" command seems
to avoid the problem. However the occurrence of this is so sporadic
that I actually can't specifically recall if it's ever happened to me
when using "exit".

The "locked up" command prompt window isn't actually fully "locked up".
I can scroll back through the buffer, the cursor continues to flash at
the appropriate spot, when you click within the "body" the title
properly switches to show "Select" (as if I were going to cut/paste
using quickedit), I can "quickedit" and cut data from the window and
paste it into another app, I can right click on the titlebar and get the
context menu. Everything EXCEPT "close" and "properties" continues to
work on said context menu.

Frankly, I thought I was a bit crazy until I found this thread!

I'd love to try testing it in Safe Mode... would anyone else like to
take my job while I sit here for the next 2 months waiting for it to
happen?

-B

First off, this problem occurs 1/2 of the time that I do this.

I've been having this problem consistently because I have been using
the command prompt to configure my wireless. When I am running programs,
I require the internet to be very smooth, but with Vista's system, my
wireless will search for possible networks every 60 seconds which will
make my latency spike for 3 seconds EVERY minute. It is very annoying so
I have to open my command prompt in administrator mode.

I run this command: netsh wlan set autoconfig enabled=no
interface="Wireless Network Connection"

This command disables the search that it does so my internet stays
stable.

After I do this, I can not close the command prompt at all! It just
hangs. I try to hit the "X" and even go to task manager to kill it, but
nothing works. Then my computer will not shut down until I manually hold
the power button.

This is very annoying since I put my computer to sleep, and when I
reboot it, I have to run the command again, but to turn the search ON.
So every time I want my internet to work correctly, I need to open TWO
more command prompts that NEVER close. At the end of the day I have
about 8 of these windows open permanently until I manually power off my
computer.

It is very annoying but hopefully my situation can help some people
work out a solution.

I open command prompt in administrator mode since this process requires
it. Then I type the command I showed above and it will be open forever.

Thanks. I hope someone can figure something out.

On Aug 12, 8:58*pm, ezmacbowl <ezmacbowl.3wu...@no.email.invalid>
wrote:
> First off, this problem occurs 1/2 of the time that I do this.
>
> I've been having this problem consistently because I have been using
> the command prompt to configure my wireless. When I am running programs,
> I require the internet to be very smooth, but with Vista's system, my
> wireless will search for possible networks every 60 seconds which will
> make my latency spike for 3 seconds EVERY minute. It is very annoying so
> I have to open my command prompt in administrator mode.
>
> I run this command: netsh wlan set autoconfig enabled=no
> interface="Wireless Network Connection"
>
> This command disables the search that it does so my internet stays
> stable.
>
> After I do this, I can not close the command prompt at all! It just
> hangs. I try to hit the "X" and even go to task manager to kill it, but
> nothing works. Then my computer will not shut down until I manually hold
> the power button.
>
> This is very annoying since I put my computer to sleep, and when I
> reboot it, I have to run the command again, but to turn the search ON.
> So every time I want my internet to work correctly, I need to open TWO
> more command prompts that NEVER close. At the end of the day I have
> about 8 of these windows open permanently until I manually power off my
> computer.
>
> It is very annoying but hopefully my situation can help some people
> work out a solution.
>
> I open command prompt in administrator mode since this process requires
> it. Then I type the command I showed above and it will be open forever.
>
> Thanks. I hope someone can figure something out.

Of course this is an XP forum and the cmd.exe not closing issue is
researchable. It seems many of your symptoms have been reported
before.

Are you saying that in order to prevent your OS from searching for
wireless connections every 60 seconds you open a command window and
run:

netsh wlan set autoconfig enabled=no

How do you know your system is searching every 60 seconds?

I am not running Vista, but if I had to stop and open a command window
and run some netsh command, I would not like it. I would rather
figure out where this 60 second search thing is and fix/disable it
until I wanted it to run.

My wireless XP systems do not have this "feature" that I know of
(maybe I just never noticed it). Is it a Vista thing?

When your command window does not close, is the result the same for
EXIT and clicking X?

Is cmd.exe still running in Task Manager after you try to close it?

Is there a patten where you can say if you open a windows and run a/
some commands it always hangs? Can you say it never hangs when other
commands are run?

Have you tried using command.exe for a while? I know they are not the
same, but things like ping, netsh, etc. will still run there. Then
maybe you can determine if it is only with cmd.exe or both.

I read where one person ran sfc /scannow but did not say if it fixed
the problem or not. There is no harm in running sfc /scannow if you
are prepared, so if someone suggests it later (likely), you can say
you already did it.

Download, install, update and do a full scan with these free malware
detection programs:

Malwarebytes (MBAM): http://malwarebytes.org/
SUPERAntiSpyware: (SAS): http://www.superantispyware.com/

They can be uninstalled later if desired and you can say you ran them
already too.

I can't duplicate the issue at will, but here is what I know and it
seems to be in line with other people who have posted.

CMD prompt hangs (for me) only after a disconnected telnet session from
a Cisco device (telnetting a Cisco device is 99% of my cmd prompt
usage).
process is not listed in taskmanager
window can be "maximized", "minimized", resized, moved.
I can't get into the properties of the stuck cmd prompt.
I can open and close other cmd prompts without problems (but I have had
other prompts lock up if timed out from a telnet session)
I've issued a "shutdown -f" from a run box and everything starts to
shutdown, then the mouse pointer turns to an hourglass and rapidly
flashes (once per second).
My cmd prompt settings have been modified (quick edit mode, screen
buffer size, window size)
ending "explorer" process and then starting it back up in taskmanger
run box brings "explorer" back with the bad cmd window.
After the telnet session has timed out, I've hit enter a couple of
times and it will still lock up when I type exit
It has hung on a newly built XP station with all of the Microsoft
updates (first day). I originally rebuilt my station after it started
frequently happening (SP1 I believe). It has happened on SP2 and SP3.

On a side note, whenever I time out from a telnet session, I've started
telnetting into another device, exiting out, and haven't had it lock up.
So I'm convinced (for me at least) that it only occurs after a timed
out telnet session. Unfortunately, I sometimes get "X" happy and start
clicking those, so I still will get the hung session.