Power button shutdown question

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Vripper · #1 Post by **Vripper** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 2:42 pm

Does anyone know exactly what the difference is when you shutdown by holding the power button down?

When I hold the button down for about five seconds, it seems to shutdown automatically.

When I hold it down for about three seconds, it takes longer to shutdown.

Is one more harmful than the other? Otherwise, it's just more convenient to have it shutdown more quickly.

Thanks,

Vripper

dsigma6 · #2 Post by **dsigma6** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 3:22 pm

one is letting windows shut down the OS safely, the other is just cutting the power off. shut it down correctly.

claudeo · #3 Post by **claudeo** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 1:38 am

You always want to do what is called an orderly shutdown, unless there is a real problem. An orderly shutdown may take a while. Holding down the power button until the computer shuts down is an emergency shutdown, not an orderly shutdown, and the consequences may be unpredictable. The ThinkPads have this orderly shutdown feature when you hold the power button for about 3 seconds, but woe to you if hold it down longer!

Vripper · #4 Post by **Vripper** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 11:43 pm

Once again the forum members give a spot-on answer!

Much thanks!

#5 Post by **GomJabbar** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 12:20 am

claudeo wrote:The ThinkPads have this orderly shutdown feature when you hold the power button for about 3 seconds, but woe to you if hold it down longer!

Well I have held it down for longer and remained unscathed to date. A few times my ThinkPad would become extremely sluggish - even to shutdown. After about 30 seconds I lose my patience and hold the power button down until it shuts off. On reboot it seems fine, although I have seen checkdisk do a quick scan during the boot-up process.

Recommendation: do as I say, not as I do. Don't hold the power button for over 3 seconds to perform a shut-down, except in emergencies. It is not a good idea, and can result in corrupted files.

#6 Post by **rkawakami** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 1:00 am

Most of the time my Gateway tower running Windows 98 does not like being shut down using the Start button. On occasion, it will "hang" at the "Windows is shutting down" screen. The only thing that will make it turn off is holding the power button for about 5 seconds. However, 99.9% of the time that I log out of Windows (Start/Log Off) and then CTRL-ALT-DEL to bring up the Task Manager window and then choose the Shut Down option, the system shuts down properly. (I just tried this... okay, 99.0% of the time; the system hung

. It's possible that this time was caused by Norton AV not kindly stepping out of the way; a window popped up saying it was not responding). A 600E, also running Windows 98, has only hung a couple of times during shutdown. Again, holding the power button for a few seconds is the only way to turn of the systems. In either case, during the next power-up, Scandisk runs through its steps because it sees that the OS was not properly terminated. My Gateway laptop running WinXP has also had problems during shutdown. I'm not sure if it only happens when using the power button or an OS-commanded power-off since I use both methods. As far as I can remember, NONE of my T23s or 600X systems running Win2K or WinXP have ever balked at being turned off. Maybe it's because I always use the OS shutdown sequence (ALT-F4 or the Start button) instead of the power button on the Thinkpads...

#7 Post by **GomJabbar** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 5:54 am

rkawakami wrote:As far as I can remember, NONE of my T23s or 600X systems running Win2K or WinXP have ever balked at being turned off. Maybe it's because I always use the OS shutdown sequence (ALT-F4 or the Start button) instead of the power button on the Thinkpads...

I have had a handful of times when my T42 (XP Pro) or 600E (W2K) completely froze, and the only way to shut it down was to use the hard shutdown. On the T42 I held the power button down until it shut off. On the 600E I unplugged the AC adapter and removed the battery (I don't know if the holding power button down will work on the 600E or not - I hadn't heard of it at the time). The times I was speaking of in my previous post, the ThinkPad was not completely frozen, but extremely sluggish. I just lost my patience. It probably would have shut down eventually - if I had just waited.

FTR, I always go to the Start button to shut-down my computers unless I am having a problem.

Power button shutdown question

Power button shutdown question

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