When I shutdown or restart ,just B4 the blue window saying win xp is shuts down , a error message apears for just a sec. and i don't have a chance to read it .
is there a way to find out what it says ?

Find the "My Computer" icon. With the right-hand mouse button, right-click it and choose "Manage" from the context menu that will appear.

Inside the management console, expand the Event Viewer. Look in the System log and the Application log for a red circle with an X around the time of shutdown and see if you can find more information that way.

Windows is probably having trouble terminating an application and it forces it to shutdown, or an application could be tossing up a message saying "I'm shutting down!". Never know.

To get a better idea, you can right-click the System or Application log in the left-hand column and choose "Clear all events" to start with a clean slate (it's not necessary to save them when prompted).

The management console is a great way to look at what's happening with your computer at any given time.

Thank ,Shifty after looking at it looks like it was something to do with my external backup hard drive ( that is always turned off ) :confused: . When I removed the short cut from the system tray ,I don't seem to have the error message anymore .