Frozen on "shutting down" screen

[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.

 

[Relle]

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.

 

[Relle]

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.

 

[Gerry]

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
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Relle]

Thank you, Gerry! I might never have come across the reset button, and I'm
glad to know about it.

 

[Gerry]

Relle

You're welcome.Relle wrote:


--



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