Originally Posted by
Random Electron
After selecting the shut down option, the screen defaults to the blank start up page with just the Ubuntu logo in the centre, and if I then hit the Escape key, it reverts to the Linux equivalent of DOS, and I can observe the shutdown sequence. I must hit the Enter key to move it through each action in the shut down sequence, but sometimes I have to wait a few minutes before it will accept the command.
Can you give an example of "each action"? If you're being asked to confirm things at that point, that's not normal, and it's never happened to me - so you need to tell us what you're being asked.
If the machine is taking a long time to do things, it usually means it's busy doing something. It probably would shut down by itself eventually, but I can't tell you what it's doing without you doing more "techie" things.