My friend was in a hurry the other day, and pulled the plug on her laptop while it was still shutting down. Even though it switches over to battery, I just don’t think that’s a good idea. (I figure that there must be some kind of “power blip” or something that might cause problems.) Any expert opinions out there?
You are incorrect and your friend is correct. If the battery is fully operational it makes no difference at all re surges or blips pertaining to safety. The only reason I might not do it is that it might (remote possibility) interfere with the shutdown sequence if the notebook is monitoring the power state, however, I’d be willing to bet that both the OS and hardware have taken this possibility into account and that the chances of it doing anything harmful are very slim.
I dunno about power cords being a problem –you’d think any laptop worth beans would just switch over to battery power, assuming there was enough left to shut down.
But I do know that it’s a terrible idea to close the lide on a PowerBook G4 while it’s shutting down. Closed lid means “go to sleep” – so the shutdown will stop, only to finish next time you want to start up. In fact sometimes the PB will just sulk, black-screened, while you punch and/or hold various keys, rattling feebly as if to hiss, “I told you not to do that again.” And then, begrudgingly, start up.
It’s a feature! 
The lid, I meant.
I’ve never closed the lide. In fact I may not even have one.
Thanks for enlightening me! You know, I’d always rather know the truth than be right!
Just to support your side blondebear, it is slightly better to not unplug as the laptop is shutting down.
For a Windows based Laptop, unplugging almost always sets off either the Windows Power savings routine or the manufacturer’s add-on power routine.
Having stray routines occurring as the OP Sys is trying to close down can occasionally cause minor glitches. A small occurrence and not worth worrying to much about.
I have seen undocking a laptop as it is shutting down completely screw up Win98 machines. Thankfully the hardware profiling seems to be far better handled by 2000 and XP.
Jim
Heh. Undocking the laptop in the middle of shutdown was the only way to get my last one (Dell XP) to save the desktop settings (e.g., primary/secondary monitors, resolution, etc.). I’d never have tried it but my tech guy came in and told me to. It was really dumb.
Well, I never pull the plug during shutdown on my laptop, but not for fear of hurting the machine, but because it slows down an already glacial process. When the machine goes on battery power, the processor speed is cut way back, and I can’t find any power setting to alter that (Dell Latitude D600). Another smaller concern is that, IME, the more you use the battery, the greater the chance that it will fail on you when you really, really need it.
Ah, but it you never fully drain and recharge the battery, it will eventually lose its capability to hold a charge and will go flat in 5 mins when you need it*. HAHA! They got you either way.
*Fact mentioned was true in the days when I first learned how to wrangle a laptop. Battery technology has significantly changed in the years since then, and I may now be talking nonsense.