On three occasions so far, my new Dell has locked up so badly I had to pull the power cord to get it to shut off :-(

Bad move, a spark jumping across the plug terminals could cause problems with some of the internal components. If unable to shut it down hold the power buttom in for approx 5 seconds and it will shut down.

That I didn't know, thanks. I haven't been using WinXP for very long, so I'm new to not being able to use the power button to stop a locked up computer :-)

What model of Dell are you using?

Dimension 8400

I couldn't quite figure out how to get it to shut down since C-A-D didn't work and pushing the power button didn't do anything ;-p

hmmm

works on both my XP machines...a compaq...and a laptop toshiba

Should be a BIOS setup item for the power button press. The 5 second power button hold to over-ride and shutdown has been there since the early Windows OSs.

Yupp. And forget about the 5 seconds. Just hold the power button in until it turns off. I say this because while on the phone with people I tell them "hold the power button for 5 seconds" and they count to 5 in 2 seconds and say "see, it won't shut off". So, now I say "hold the button in until it turns off. Could take 10 seconds, so keep holding".

heh...I mean just pushing it in didn't do anything, I didn't know to hold it. Will hold it in until something happens next time

The oldie I had in college took about 15 secs.

Most of the ones I deal with at work take 15-20 seconds. (GX-150, GX-260, and GX-270 smallform models)

It's not Windows XP that controls the power, it's the BIOS & case. By my memory, it's basically since the ATX power supplies came into style that the power buttons went from a switch (it was a button, but with an ON/OFF state) to a plain button, where a push turns it on. Ever since then they've been this style the 5+ second press has done a full shutdown.