parallels not shutting down on mac

Don't know if it's worth posting on this site, but I've got no answer from the parallels forums, so here goes:

I run Parallels Desktop 9 with windows XP SP 3 for my work; but for some reason the VM won't shut down; I'll go to the start menu and click turn it off, but when it gets to the 'windows is shutting down' screen, it just stays there. I'll wait for a few minutes, but nothing happens. I either have to stop the machine, or 'reset' it; at which time, after it restarts, and I shut it off normally, it shuts down. Sometimes it'll shut off normally, but I can't tell or predict when that happens -- it just seems to be random. Does anyone have an idea about what's going on here? It's really frustrating. I wish I didn't have to use windows at all, but right now I do audio transcription for legal work, and the audio recordings are in .trm format, and the only play that uses them (called for the record) is only supported by windows. It stinks, because if I could find a four channel audio application that could play .trm files on OS X I'd definitely use it.

Normally, Windows will refuse to shut down if an app is still running in the background. Usually, a control - alt - delete will bring up the Windows Task Manager and you can manually shut the running app down and then proceed to close Windows. Have you tried that in order to see if anything is still running in Windows. Once Windows shuts down you can exit Parallels.

What you're describing is not qutting Parallels, but shutting down Windows. Trouble shooting methodology is going to be no different than with any Win XP issue of not shutting down. There are a myriad issues that can prevent Windows from shutting down.

Here is a page with a short list of causes - link. Go there - just do a quick scroll down the page, then come back...

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As you can see from that list - there is no - "This is what you do to fix it".

Personally, my first look would be at the software you are using in Windows and any additional hardware - for instance a foot pedal maybe - and getting everything updated to the latest versions.

The ctrl-alt-del option for checking noted by chscag above is a good way to check and see what process(es) may still be running to narrow down or find the culprit.

Have seen a single post where someone says they use All2mp3 to convert them to mp3 and using them in OS X. If they've been protected - probably won't work.