# Why must my computer be told twice before it shuts down?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-must-my-computer-be-told-twice-before-it-shuts-down/53240>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 5, 2001, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-must-my-computer-be-told-twice-before-it-shuts-down/53240 "2001-02-05T19:54:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![stuyguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2001, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-must-my-computer-be-told-twice-before-it-shuts-down/53240/1 "2001-02-05T19:54:31Z")

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I’ve got a 1.5 year-old Dell desktop PC that runs Windows 2000. It used to be that when I wanted to shut it down I 1) went to the lower left corner of the screen, clicked the “start” button, 2) scrolled to “shut down…” , and 3) clicked the “shut down? okay” button on the menu.

But, as of a month or two ago, that stopped working; now the PC blinks once or twice _and stays on._ If I repeat the shut-down-sequence a _second_ time, it does, in fact, shut down.

I want my computer to obey the first time. What’s wrong and how can I fix it? Thanks all.

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**Author:** ![MrVisible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@MrVisible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrVisible)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2001, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-must-my-computer-be-told-twice-before-it-shuts-down/53240/2 "2001-02-05T23:39:55Z")

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I don’t have a cite for you, but I’ve heard of similar behavior caused by password-stealing or backdoor viruses.

My first suggestion would be to update your antivirus software definitions, and scan for viruses.

Let me know how that goes.