Help! I can't turn off or restart my computer!

[gunsmith]

I tried to turn it off earlier, it wont...I tried restart...same problem.
I am afraid to just un plug it....any advice?

I am not that up on pc trouble shooting

[Cromlech]

Just unplug it at the mains supply, or by pressing the switch on the power supply (at the back of the case) to the off position.

It shouldn't do any damage. Do you have any important data that you haven't saved?

[LAK]

It won't shut down using the startup menu?

Or it won't switch off using the power switch on the computer?

Hello Cromlech.

[Cromlech]

Y HLO THAR MATEY!

Either way, I have had to switch off at the power supply many a time (I do a lot of system adjustment and overclocking) due to silly problems, and it has never hurt my little PC.

[gunsmith]

I ran Crap Cleaner and that seemed to work for speed, I looked and somehow the darn firewall wasn't on! fixed that.
I clicked on the "issues" button of C cleaner...seems like I got a whole lot of them, should I tell it to fix?

Also pictures (graphics?) are dissappearing too, like the high road banner, I'll get a black spot the same shape as the banner then it will reappear if I click it.

YES It will not restart or turn off in the normal startup menu

[Twycross]

Unless you have unsaved data you need to protect, I'd second Cromlech's suggestion to power down manually. I'm afraid I can't be much help on the CC thing.

[Cromlech]

I don't have any experience with crap cleaner, so I can't help you there, I am afraid to say.

[LAK]

I would manually power down. The power button on the tower - do not pull the plug except as a last resort.

Then let it sit for awhile - five minutes - and power up. One danger - if you've picked up a virus, starting up may consolidate it's control of your PC.

[gunsmith]

I turned off the power strip and waited 5, seems to have fixed it.


I wonder what the "issue" button on crap cleaner does?

[LAK]

Haven't used crap cleanser, so my advice has to end here on that one. I do know it is a good idea to have a registry backup, any important (to you) files and data backed up on verified clean (of defects and viruses) external drive, disks, jump drives etc in case your whole system crashes for good. We had a virus that wouldn't let a Norton recovery disk boot the system up and we retired that PC and everything on it not backed up elsewhere.

[Sylvilagus Aquaticus]

With Crap Cleaner, the 'Issues' clicky will go find, fix, delete old registry items, or otherwise un-hose problems in your Windows Registry.

Trust me, it'll work fine.

Regards,
Rabbit.

[lee n. field]

Try holding in the power button for 5 seconds.  If that doesn't make it shut down, go ahead and yank the power cord.  I end up having to do that quite often (on customer machines.  My personal boxen are very well behaved (they run Linux).  It most likely won't cause any problem.).

As to how to fix whatever's going on with your machine, I won't comment.

[gunsmith]

I guess my computer had issues!

the C Cleaner fixed it really good, it's fast again!

[Sindawe]

My personal boxen are very well behaved

Mine* are as well, even though they all run various flavors of that OS from The Dark Side. 

Pulling the plug should be the option of LAST RESORT, taken only when all other attempts have failed.  I've had to rebuild several installation due to the machine having its power pulled abruptly by buffoons.

Get youself a good real time malware protection program.  I like SpySweeper (http://www.webroot.com/land/freescan-3000.php?rc=4929&ac=5191047) even though the newest version had a conflict with the software firewall on my PC.  I also suggest downloading Process Explorer ( http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/ProcessExplorer.mspx ) and developing a mental picture of what normal operations look like. Proc.Exp will also kill most processes that Task Manager will not touch.

* Mine = Four personal machines (two server, two workstations) + a farm of 18 servers owned by my employer, that he pays me to manage and keep online 24x7x365  "Downtime for maintenance? Whats that?"

[Sylvilagus Aquaticus]

You're welcome.

Probably had something causing a memory leak or a memory dump. Crap Cleaner takes care of all the junk you've accumulated in your browser hisory file, all your cache files, etc. as well as giving you the option to ungum your registry.

It's kinda like giving it a big dose of a good purgative. I've got mine set up to clean things automatically on boot. I haven't had a problem with my Winderz box since setting up CC.

Regards,
Rabbit.

[gunsmith]

thanks SA and everyone else.