Frozen on "shutting down" screen

  • Thread starter Thread starter Relle
  • Start date Start date
R

Relle

I left the computer on last night and today found it frozen on a blue screen
with the message "Windows is shutting down." Holding down the power button
doesn't do anything. Neither does the ctrl-alt-esc Force-Quit command I'm
used to using with frozen Macs. Can I "force" the machine to finish shutting
down, or force it to restart? I've used a PC at work before, but this is my
first PC/Windows machine at home, so I don't know anything about
troubleshooting. It's a second-hand IBM ThinkPad running some kind of Windows
XP.
 
Also: It has been frozen on this screen for at least an hour since I have
been home, and probably longer than that. Note also that I never told it to
shut down; it seems to have done that independently.

Thanks for any suggestions or insight.
 
Shortly after I posted this, I tried holding down the power button for
perhaps 30 seconds, and it shut down. I restarted, and the system seemed to
work fine.

Nonetheless, I would be grateful for any tips on force-quit or force-restart
commands for the PC, if anyone knows any to share.

Thank you.
 
Relle

Press the computer Reset button. This is far less likely to damage your
system than pressing the Power On / Off button. The Reset button is
usually a very small button in contrast to the Power button which is
usually much larger.
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/R/reset_button.html

However with an IBM Thinkpad the Reset button may not be as easy to find
as for a Desktop desribed above.
Thinkpad not powering off. After certain kind of crashes (run MS-Windows
for a while :-), Thinkpad will not power off even when holding its power
button. You have to turn it over, take a pencil, and press well-hidden
reset button (blue, I was told about it by IBM technician, I would not
find it otherwise). Pretty annoying. (I have now reproducible way to
make thinkpad crash like this ;-)
Source: http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~pavel/thinkpad.html


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Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
Thank you, Gerry! I might never have come across the reset button, and I'm
glad to know about it.
 
Relle

You're welcome.Relle wrote:


--



Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
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