When I try to shut down from the Start button nothing happens. I searched the Internet for answers and downloaded a little program with and icon that has pic of a tree that does the job but it would be nice to resolve the original method. Anything I can do or try to sort it please?1 person needs an answerI do too

When I try to shut down from the Start button nothing happens. I searched the Internet for answers and downloaded a little program with and icon that has pic of a tree that does the job but it would be nice to resolve the original method. Anything I can do or try to sort it please?Please add a little more detail.You click the Start button ... and what happens?Do you see the "Turn off computer" button? If so, when you click that, do you get a window with several choices (Stand By, Turn Off, Restart)? If so, what happens when you click "Turn Off"? What happens when you click "Restart"?What happens if you click Start > Run and type the following in the Run box, followed by clicking OK: shutdown -r -t 01 [note: there is a space after the t and before the zero]

Hi LemP. Sorry for the lack of detail but when writing my question I am assuming you know things that I can see and of course that is impossible. When I click the Start button I get the same as I have always done and that is the Turn off Computer option and after that the Standby, Turn Off and Restart. The Standby and Restart Work fine but when clicking on the Shutdown button I get a blink as though something is about to happen but then nothing. I look at the processor light in case it is working on memorising something or some other function but that light is dark. I did some research in general on the net about this and found several people had the same problem and I downloaded and little program from where I can't remember but it starts with %windir%\system32\shutdown.exe -s -t 00 and it works fine. I would rather have Windonws do it for me though. I will have to get back to you on the Run experiment in case I lose what I am wrting to you now. I will post this and then try the Run. Thanks

Hi LemP. Tried the Run and I got the black box about 6"x2" for a second then got another box about 2"x2" and it was on long enough to read that it said This System is shutting down but it lied to me. Nothing happened.

Ran it again and this time it did shut down, well it restarted. However when it booted up nothing worked. I got the hour glass over every icon I tried to load. Nothing was happening in the processor so after about 5 minutes I had to manually turn it off and on again. This time it has booted up OK. Hope this gives you some insight as to what is happening?Thanks

Hi LemP. Sorry for the lack of detail but when writing my question I am assuming you know things that I can see and of course that is impossible. When I click the Start button I get the same as I have always done and that is the Turn off Computer option and after that the Standby, Turn Off and Restart. The Standby and Restart Work fine but when clicking on the Shutdown button I get a blink as though something is about to happen but then nothing. I look at the processor light in case it is working on memorising something or some other function but that light is dark. I did some research in general on the net about this and found several people had the same problem and I downloaded and little program from where I can't remember but it starts with %windir%\system32\shutdown.exe -s -t 00 and it works fine. I would rather have Windonws do it for me though. I will have to get back to you on the Run experiment in case I lose what I am wrting to you now. I will post this and then try the Run. ThanksHi LemP. Tried the Run and I got the black box about 6"x2" for a second then got another box about 2"x2" and it was on long enough to read that it said This System is shutting down but it lied to me. Nothing happened.Ran it again and this time it did shut down, well it restarted. However when it booted up nothing worked. I got the hour glass over every icon I tried to load. Nothing was happening in the processor so after about 5 minutes I had to manually turn it off and on again. This time it has booted up OK. Hope this gives you some insight as to what is happening?Thanksshutdown.exe, which is what I suggested you use and what you downloaded, is actually a tool built-in as part of Windows XP. It's not a third-party program.The difference is that the -r (that I suggested) results in a restart while the -s (that was in the program that you downloaded) results in a shutdown.At this point, I'm not sure why (a) nothing happened the first time you ran shutdown or (b) why things stalled after the restart the second time you tried it. One thing to check is whether there is a problem with a device driver or system service. Open Device Manager (right-click My Computer > Properties > Hardware > Device Manager) and see if there are any warning symbols showing (question marks or exclamation points). If so, please identify the devices in your response.At one point, there was a problem with XP hanging while showing the "Saving your settings" message, but you didn't mention that you were seeing that message. In any event, that bug was supposedly fixed in Service Pack 1. What Service Pack do you have installed?Here's another possible solution -- but it's unlikely to work for you: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q314101Use the System Configuration tool (Start > Run >msconfig.exe > OK) to determine if the shut down problem is caused by a conflict with some application or service that normally is running. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310560/ Start with "Diagnostic Startup." If you can successfully shutdown the computer after it has started in Diagnostic Startup mode, narrow things down using "Selective Startup." You can pretty safely leave the boxes checked next to "Process System.ini" and "Process Win.ini" because these are legacy files and are rarely used unless you have some really old software running.I suggest starting by disabling the "Startup items." If after disabling all the Startup items and rebooting you can shut down without a problem, you know that one of the Startup items is the cause. You'll have to find it by trial and error. The fastest way is to check half the items, reboot, and test; if things work OK, the problem item is in the other half. Lather, rinse, repeat.If disabling all the Startup items doesn't fix things, go to the Services tab, click the box to Hide Microsoft services and then the Disable All button. If rebooting in this configuration works, narrow down the culprit in the same fashion as described for Startup items. If this doesn't help, you can UNcheck the Hide Microsoft services box and disable all of those as well.If none of the above helps, I'm sorry, but I'm out of ideas.

Hi LemP thanks for this. For some reason I did not get a warning of your reply and I am glad that I decided to have a look in case there was progress.First things first as they come in your suggestions. In device manager the only question mark is again the Other Devices Ethernet Controller which for some reason gave up the ghost a year ago. Instead of replacing it I got a wireless link.I get no message saving your settings. The only indication that it has seen my instruction to shot down is a blink on the task bar as though something is going to happen but nothing does.I have opened the msconfig and of course now any attempt now to shut down that is successful will lose this that i am typing as I go along so I will follow your advice from here and see what happens. Thanks