Computer refuses to shut down and then BSOD's on me if I let it run.

Huh, well, I was unable to find getoddmodel.exe or Leaderbit in my add/remove programs list. I don't really recognize or know what they are either. Ahem! After searching for just that phrase "getoddmodel.exe" I found it; it was a driver installed by the portable DVD burner I bought for those backup discs. Haha, as such, I kind of doubt it's the source of the issue, but I went ahead and deleted the folder. I uninstalled utorrent and daemon tools a long time ago; I have no idea why they would still be cropping up. I was able to find old .exe's from utorrent which I deleted and daemon tools program file folder, which I deleted. (I'm not sure why the folder would still be there after having uninstalled it, but whatever...)

I mean, I suppose I could uninstall firefox...but it has all those saved passwords, history, and bookmarks I use so much. My understanding was that firefox was a perfectly stable, widely-used internet browser. And this shut-down problem has been around a lot longer than I ever had that VPN. :/ If I were going to uninstall those, I figure I might as well do the clean install ... Am I correct in thinking that a clean install is essentially like a reformatting of the system? (That'd it'd be like the first day I installed Windows 7 and I'd lose all my personal data?) Kind of related to that, I tentatively plan to take advantage of the free Windows 10 upgrade coming out at the end of the month. Do you think it would be possible to do a "clean install" of that instead of doing a clean install of Windows 7 and then upgrading to a different OS?

So, am I right about the clean install being a reformatting of the system? It would fix/overwrite whatever registry tweaking I did in the far past, but it would also wipe my hard drives? So, in order to save my personal info (like the firefox settings), I would have to burn it all onto DVD's or, I guess, buy an external HDD to put everything on? The biggest reason I'm asking is because I have about 70 GB worth of music that I've been collecting for years, and I've really prioritized my digital collection over my physical one...

I'm just kinda surprised that in the year 2015, "just wiping it and starting fresh" is still the ultimate/last troubleshooting step.

No, even in 2015, we don't have a fix it key on the keyboard.

Haha, fair enough. That would be nice though, wouldn't it? Anyway, I guess part of me is afraid that it's really not an OS or software issue at all, which would be kind of annoying. I guess it'd at least be nice to confirm that's not the problem once and for all.

Um, how do I find out if my SSD has instructions for a secure erase? Like, check on the manufacturer's website or is that a utility hidden somewhere on the hard drive itself? Also, not to sound paranoid, but doing a clean install wouldn't mess up that weird OEM license I have, right? Right now, I'm trying to get my USB 3.0 ports to work (via a different thread) which is kind of a prerequisite to me getting everything backed up via an external hard drive. Thank you for the advice though; I've personally never had a hard drive fail, but I know it can be quite traumatic when it does happen.

Alrighty--I'll google, download, and run Seatools once I get back home. I did indeed install the drivers you recommended (although I should probably double-check that my mobo is rev. 1.1 and not 1.0). Unfortunately, I just recently found out that I forgot to plug my front panel USB 3.0 ports back into the motherboard after I RMA'ed it a while back. I'm guessing the drivers probably need to be reinstalled because of that. (But then again, that wouldn't explain why my back panel USB 3.0 ports (the ones built directly onto the mobo) are acting similarly squirrely.)

I definitely agree about wanting to have a stable, solid running setup before I start upgrading to a newer OS. I'm not chomping at the bit to install Windows 10 (and I'll actually be out of town the week that it's released anyway). Hopefully I can get this USB issue solved, then the backup going, and if my computer isn't magically acting right by the time I want to upgrade I can just do the clean install (because like you said, a lot of the programs and stuff would have to be reinstalled anyway). Sorry for being so reticent to your guys obviously more informed advice; I've just never had to do a clean install before and the process sounded a little intimidating. Thank you for posting those guides!

I have one more sort of related question in case I want to do more registry fiddling in the future (which, I know now, obviously, is a bad idea). It's more of a hypothetical question than a practical one: if I did a system restore/complete backup before the registry tweaking, would that system restore/complete backup save the default registry settings that I messed with? Meaning that if what I did "messed up" the computer again, I'd be able to restore it to how it was before I messed with the registry? And kind of related to that, I'm assuming by back up my stuff on an external hard drive, you just mean that I should copy all the files I want to keep to that external hard drive. Would there be an easier way to do it with like a system restore or the Windows backup utility, or would that possibly just preserve the problems we're trying to diagnose and eliminate?

Thanks for the tip a la backing stuff up! I went out and got an external HDD and a USB 3.0 flash drive for testing purposes. While I was out, I ran the Seatools for Windows program. All my drives passed all the tests, except that my little 40GB SSD failed both the short generic and long generic tests. What's the significance of that? Is there a possibility that drive could be causing the issue?

Also, I had another mysterious occurrence that I thought I'd relate just in case it could be significant. After attempting to shut down the PC, it said that it shut down..but all the lights and fans were still on/running. I pressed the power button again to make sure that I didn't accidentally put it in sleep, but nothing happened. I ended up just holding the power button down for a hard shutdown and it did in fact shutdown (i.e. the lights and fans shut down). Just thought I'd mention it.