XP shutdown problem
 

for some reason i cant seem to shutdown or restart my laptop anymore....whenever i select these options nothing happens...i am running windows xp home ed. if that helps....any ideas?

I would start with installing the latest drivers and microsoft updates.

does it come to a screen saying "it is now safe to turn off your computer"?

your machine is probably trying to end a process that is running in the background before it shuts down. that process doesn't want to be ended, or you might not be allowed to stop it (are you admininstrator on this machine?).

before you'll be able to shut down or restart from windows(instead of unplugging and removing the battery on the darn thing), you'll have to isolate the process that isnt ending and manually end it. Unfortunately, it is not really possible to give you a simple solution to your problem, but I suggest updating and running msconfig and disabling any unecessary startup programs.

You might have the Sasser worm.

It keeps you from doing anything, running anything.

Sometimes starting up in safe mode and then shutdown will fix this problem I've found

thx for all the advice guys....i am the administrator on the computer..and i dont think i have the worm because i can run everything else...but the thing about the end processes makes a lot of sense to me....i'll check and try to see what is still running...thx again

if you're running a dell, MessageApp might be the culprit. it's dell's support program.

just a thought.