I acted too quickly today and now I need help in restarting my computer. I hope this is the right section for posting this.

I have a Dell Inspirion laptop with Windows XP.

My computer wanted to do automatic updates and I clicked "restart later" because I didn't have time for the process (famous last words - smile).

I then clicked Start > Shut Down and the computer started going through the motions to shut down. It got to that last screen that said "windows is shutting down" and I hastily closed the laptop before it had completed that action.

Now I cannot restart the computer. I fear that this is because the system did not get to complete the shutdown process.

Is there some way to restart the computer now? Some little known trick for which I will be greatful to learn? Something I can try that doesn't include giving this one up for dead and buying a new one?

Thanks for anything you can share!

Recommended Answers

All 3 Replies

Remove the battery and hold the power button down for 10-15 seconds.
Replace the battery and try again.
If that fails, try booting from the CD and use the repair option.

Thanks for the suggestion! Someone else said I needed a new motherboard; so I hope your suggestion will do the trick. Due to being on the road, I can't try it out until Monday, otherwise I would let you know right now if that worked.

Any other ideas are also appreciated.

Thanks again!

It's not impossible you need a new board, but it's just too much of a coincidence that this happened the way it did.
I'll bet you get it running again.

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.