laptop won't shut down - please don't tell me it's doomed!

[GoodGriefCharlieBrown]

Hi - I have a 3 year old Sony vaio laptop. No problems so far and nothing has been installed recently (apart from Norton updates) but about a week ago when I clicked on shut down there was no reaction - nothing froze, I could just carry on as if I hadn't clicked it. In the end I just shut the lid and let the battery run out.

It's doing this every time now - no issues when I am using it, it's just totally ignoring my clicks on shut down!

Any advice? (I have to go out for the day now, but will check back later - didn't want any posters to think I'm being rude!).

Thanks

You can force a shut down by pressing and holding the power button.

What about shutting down using ctrl alt del?

No suggestions about why it's doing this, but if you hold down the power button and keep it held down, it should turn off, that'll save you having to let the battery run down.

I'm don't use Windows so I'm no use aside from that, hopefully another poster will have more suggestions!

Thanks - I think I tried control alt and delete and it didn't react to that either. I'll try it again and if it doesn't work I'll force the shutdown.

Could you goggle " safe mode" to find out what keys to press and boot the laptop in that? It would be interesting so see if it would shut down when it was in safe mode.