# Computer not turning off
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-not-turning-off/334834
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 9, 2005, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-not-turning-off/334834 "2005-12-09T05:11:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2005, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-not-turning-off/334834/1 "2005-12-09T05:11:16Z")
I tried to shut off my computer earlier tonight. Clicked on the start menu, clicked on Shut Down, set the drop down menu to Shut Down (Windows Home XP) and clicked OK. And it proceeded to reboot.
I thought I had put the drop down to the wrong thing, so I tried it again. And it again rebooted. So I hit the power button and it rebooted again.
I looked in the BIOS, I have ran Adaware, Spybot S&D, Spyware Blaster, and Norton AV. I couldn’t find anything and nothing showed up in any of the scans.
In my Control Panel, the Power Options are set so that my power button is supposed to shut off the system. I do have this line in my boot.ini file.
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=“Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition” /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
Any idea what is causing this?
---
### Author:  [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2005, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-not-turning-off/334834/2 "2005-12-09T07:22:20Z")
Not sure, but let’s try to narrow it down:
1. Go to Start/Control Panel/System/Advanced/Startup and Recovery/Settings
Is automatically restarted selected? If so, deselect it, save the setting and try shutting down again.
1. Boot up into Safe Mode and see if you can shut down from Safe Mode.
2. Hold the power button down for 5-10 seconds while in Windows. Does the PC shut off?
The boot.ini entry is perfectly normal. /NoExecute=OptIn has to do with Data Execution Prevention:
[http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;875352](http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;875352)
---
### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2005, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-not-turning-off/334834/3 "2005-12-09T08:10:44Z")
I had a Win98 machine that wouldn’t power down for a while - though it didn’t reboot. You might try hitting Ctl-Alt-Delete and manually closing running programs to see if closing one removes the problem.
---
### Author:  [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2005, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-not-turning-off/334834/4 "2005-12-09T10:49:29Z")
None of those worked xash. When I use the power button it just reboots, and if I hold it down, it just continues to try and reboot. When I take my finger off, it goes ahead and finishes starting up. I am going to have to just pull the plug if I can’t figure it out, I have some hardware coming in today I want to install.
Lok
---
### Author:  [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2005, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-not-turning-off/334834/5 "2005-12-09T11:16:42Z")
Try here: [http://www.theeldergeek.com/shutdown\_issues\_in\_xp.htm](http://www.theeldergeek.com/shutdown_issues_in_xp.htm)
and here: [http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/russel\_02may13.mspx](http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/russel_02may13.mspx)
---
### Author:  [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2005, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-not-turning-off/334834/6 "2005-12-09T15:25:38Z")
Looks like it will take a while to go through those 2 pages. Thanks for the links.
Lok
---
### Author:  [@Myglaren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myglaren)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2005, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-not-turning-off/334834/7 "2005-12-09T19:01:26Z")
> [@Lok](#):
>
> None of those worked xash. When I use the power button it just reboots, and if I hold it down, it just continues to try and reboot. When I take my finger off, it goes ahead and finishes starting up. I am going to have to just pull the plug if I can’t figure it out, I have some hardware coming in today I want to install.
>
> Lok
As it starts to reboot, release and then press the power button again.
I have a machine here that Windows can’t shut down, but Linux can 😕
---
### Author:  [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2005, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-not-turning-off/334834/8 "2005-12-10T06:39:01Z")
I started on the first link, updating my BIOS and then I got the Net1.1 update. Now it seems to be working okay. Thanks for the help.
Lok