My laptop will not shut down.

Well sometimes it will. See the problem is, 90% of the time when I hit "Shut Down" it behaves as if I hit "Restart". The same happens when I hit "Sleep". At first I thought it had decided to install updates when I wasn't looking, but I know for sure this is not the case.

This could be related to a problem I was having earlier. I decided to restore my computer to factory settings, and afterwards whenever I hit "Sleep" BAM instant unexpected shutdown. I didn't enjoy being prompted to start in Safe Mode every time I told my laptop to take a nap, so I checked my updates. Since my laptop is back to how it was three years ago, it doesn't have any of the important updates Microsoft released since then. I installed Windows Service Pack 2 and the problem was resolved.


My laptop has very very poor ventilation, so it heats up quickly. I'd like to solve this problem as quickly as possible so I can at least let it Sleep. Google turns up nothing but "maybe updates".

smurf Windows updates. Because of Windows XP Service Pack 3, I can't try the Open Beta for FFXIV. When I try to download the service pack update and restart, it'll continously boot in an endless loop (which according to the research I've done is a very widespread problem caused by differences in processors). I think I'll end up trying to swap out my video card on my laptop to play even though it makes me nervous opening up my computer like that. :mad:

I'd say compatibility between updates and hardware is the problem but I'm no computer wiz. xD

The only thing that's different on my computer now compared to when this wasn't happening is the FFXIV beta and a Windows update that fixed a FFXIV related problem for some people :(

EDIT:

It shuts down fine in safe mode. For now I just let it restart, boot it in safe mode, and then shut down. It's still pretty annoying, but it'll have to do until I figure this out.