Restart/shutdown
 

Does anyone have a clue on why the computer shuts down when directed to restart?

Appreciate any help
:ugh:

Do you mean shuts down without then going on to restart, I.e. stops dead? Or are you asking a general question about the restart procedure with P.C's???:confused:

W2K? he pondered out loud in the total absence of enough info to hazard a guess at the problem, initially to get past the less-than-10-char posting limit but segueing into a general observation about the total absence of information in the original post...

Parapunter and Bushfiva, my apologies.
What I meant was this:

Sometimes you install a software that requires restart, or for some other reason you need to re-start the PC. You click on "start, turnoff computer" the three options come up (standby, turnoff, restart).
You click on restart and instead of initiating the process, the PC just shuts down; windows shuts down. You have to press the "on" switch again to turn the PC on.

I have tried several different options suggested by the help desk of Windows XP, but to no avail.

My PC is an old HP Pavillion a320 ME

Hope this is clear enough so you guys can give me some help
:O

It might be the way the start is selected in the bios settings, I had to go through the settings on my new one to find the setting to change to make it auto switch on when I turned the mains socket sw on in the mornings rather than switching in on at the mains and then having to press the on/off sw.

I was thinking along the same lines. Press the DEL key on bootup to access the BIOS & have a look in there. Be careful not to change any settings you don't fully understand. While it's easy to undo any BIOS changes, you could give yourself a headache if you're not careful.

Needing to press "Turn off" twice
 

In a similar vein, with my home PC using XP SP2 and the Classic program menu (to remove all doubt of what I decribe):

1. Start / Turn off computer / select "Turn off" icon
2. Lots of HDD activity happens for a few seconds, and then nothing more
3. Open Task Manager for a check that nothing is running (it isn't) and that the CPU is idle (it is at 0-1%)
4. Now repeat step 1
5. This time the PC immediately shuts down

Any pointers as to why the first attempt aborts itself and the second works fine? If I repeat steps 1&4 as fast as I can navigate the mouse shutdown still works immediately so I am confident nothing of consequence is still running.

TVM

XV, hit ctrl-alt-delete, then select the "processes" tab. It sounds like some process is running which prevents the proper shutdown on the first attempt.

As for why only on the first attempt, one word answer "Windows"

Nothing running (consuming CPU) in the Processes tab; this is what I meant when (along with the Applications tab) I checked Task Manager in step 3.

I have now sussed the cause though, thank you; my 1TB Seagate FreeAgent Pro eSATA drive. If it's powered up I need the aforementioned double turn off to get the PC to power down. If it isn't running*, then the PC powers down on the first turn off command.

*The eSATA drive doesn't display in the "Safely remove hardware" window (though the three internal SATA drives do!) so I tested my theory simply by pulling the eSATA cable out (eSATA is theoretically hot swappable anyway) to switch it off; the PC then shut down on the first "turn off" command. Pulling the power lead out of the eSATA drive had the same effect; one click PC shutdown.

Now I know the cause I will simply live with it as it's no great hardship.

Thanks to all of you
I will try the methods as soon as I have time