My Pc Won't Shut Down.

[naka]

When I try to shut down my PC, about 90% of the time it does not !

Just sits there saying that it is about to.

Windows XP SP2.

Any Ideas ?

Naka.

[DragonQuest]

unplug wire, take out battery.

[peter991]

I thought I was the only one ever to have that problem. It happened last night. I decided to turn it off after spending a few hours online. I have a Compaq laptop, running Windows XP. did the usual Start -> Turn off computer -> Turn Off and it seemed to hang. So I tried holding down the Alt-Ctrl-Del buttons at the same time ... without result. Last result - tried holding down the on/off power button. Still nothing. All that was left then was to disconnect the mains power lead and wait for the battery to go flat.

That took about 7 minutes (because the battery is in need of replacement). Now comes the REAL problem. I was going to start another thread on this - but I will see how I go here.

When I powered up again, I got the Log in screen with Username Peter and asking for my password. I have had this laptop for a number of years and have never put in a password. I tried to log in with a blank password - not allowed. I tried to log in as Administrator - with a blank password - same response - denied. My only option was to log in as Guest - withoput a password.

I can see my files and folders - but can't do anything else. I have phoned around and spoken to a number of people - who said it's a problem with Windows XP.

Somebody suggested starting the computer in Safe Mode and logging in as Administrator - tried that - but again it wants a password.

Any suggestions??

Peter

[peter991]

I have also thought about opening the back of the laptop and removing the CMOS battery - but it's wired into the motherboard.

Peter

[elkangorito]

Doing things to the CMOS battery won't help you.

I reckon you might have a virus or similar.

[Simmo]

Holding down the power button for 4 seconds didn't turn it off?. That seems to indicate a hardware problem as that's a BIOS level function - not operating system.

[sabajja]

Sometimes you need to hold in the power button for a looong time

for it to shut off.

regarding the login problem,

Go to http://ubcd4win.com/ and download the bootCD maker program.

(You need your XP install CD).

Create the bootCD on another computer and boot from it.

Use the tools on it to reset the administrator password.

[elkangorito]

Holding down the power button for 4 seconds didn't turn it off?. That seems to indicate a hardware problem as that's a BIOS level function - not operating system.

Actually Simmo, I think you're spot on here.

[cdnvic]

This happens alot when you have a computer with a different OS installed than it originaly shipped with. For instance, Dell will ship with a version of Windows that is specific for Dell hardware and if you put a different one on it the hardware sometimes gets a bit out of joint. No big deal, it's not likely hurting anything, and someone who knows their way around a BIOS may be able to tweak it for you so it does work.

[gharknes]

Peter, this has nothing to do with bios, it is simply windows XP, you may think you never had a password but my guess is you did at one time and have never had to use it because the logon was set to automatic, the problem now is that windows was shut down improperly and is now looking for your password, another possiblity is that youir password was set to expire after a certain time period, this condition will also prompt you for a password in order to allow you to enter a new one, as for window not shutting down properly, there can be many reasons for this, I suggest you do a search on google, again nothing to do with bios as your system was able to shut down before, don't rule out some malicious software either.