My wife has Compaq Presario laptop with Windows XP Home Edition. The other
day she turned the screensaver off so she could run a slide show. When she
was done she reenabled the screen saver. Since then she's been having
problems, as described below, turning the computer off.

The problem is (I've had the same problem on her computer and have selected
"cancel" where she selected "End Now" and had the same inability to turn the
system off.):


______________Her description of the problem_________________

Start | turn off computer | turn off computer

Get Message OnScreen Display Window
Ending Program please wait
Get Message On Screen Display Window
Not responding - End Now or Cancel
select End Now


Nothing happens

Repeat cycle

Then
Ctl Alt Del
Ctl Alt Del

Start | turn off computer | turn off computer



Or some variation (doing more or less the same thing) - ultimately shuts
down

Just click "end now" repeatedly, it'll shut down. Still should investigate what is causing the problem, though.