Just got in from work to find the desktop computer still on – looks like MrsMC was on the university website before she went out this morning.

We are on Windows 8 for our sins.

Just tried to close down the computer – settings, Power, Shutdown – nothing happened, just carried on humming away.

Turned it off at the box, the blue “on” light turned to the “orange” sleep light, no input to the screen, pressed the “on button again and it popped straight up to the usual Windows 8 screen, no start up routine as normal.

Can anyone explain to this computer-phobe wtf is happening and howtf I stop it?

(Will be back after the school run btw)

It’s the FBI.

Don;t worry they’ll lose interest and pick on someone else once they’ve copied all the data off your hard drive.

Has it asked you if you want to play a game yet?

howtf I stop it

Pull the plug out from the wall?

looks like MrsMC was on the university website before she went out this morning.

So she won’t pay for the damage she’s done to your car, now this – she’s broken your computer 😐

Have you tried turning it off and on again? Oh, hang on…

Have you tried turning it off and on again?

Edit: Bollox!

Sounds like it is just sleeping (and may have got itself a little confused).

Press and hold the power button until it turns off properly.

Mebbies it’s learning something from that Uni website your Wife was looking at.. I’d leave it alone until it’s finished studying 😆

GrahamS – Member

Press and hold the power button until it turns off properly.

^^^ This. 🙂

Kick it in the face

What GrahamS said. Press and hold the power button.

Either that or by “turning it off at the box” you’re describing the monitor. (-:

Doesn’t holding down the button cause possible hard drive failure?

Thank you gentlemen, I was obviously not pressing the button in the most effective way to get the desired result.

Probably not for the first time….. 😳

bikebouy – Member
Mebbies it’s learning something from that Uni website your Wife was looking at.. I’d leave it alone until it’s finished studying become self-aware

Jeez, if the computer starts spouting Maslow as well…..

Do you get this when you start it up…

[/url] image by CountZero1, on Flickr[/img]

Any computer thread that CountZero joins gets a bit too early William Gibson for my liking…

I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.

Doesn’t holding down the button cause possible hard drive failure?

Not exactly.

It’s not ideal, because the system could be in the middle of writing something to disk and then the data would become corrupted, but this is not that likely these days with modern filesystems – and if it’s crashed it’s probably not doing much of anything. Also in the old days the drive head would come to rest on the platter if you just cut power, but again they self-park these days so it’s not a problem.

But the bottom line is – sometimes you have no choice.

My TV will not turn off anymore either (I have to get off my fat backside and switch off at the wall socket now) – its a conspiracy I tells ya.

Pull the plug out from the wall?

This is called a Hard Reset, as it sounds more technical and sophisticated and thus you can charge more for this service item.

I’m quite happy to pop round and reprogram it with a very large axe…

as above ^

Anecdotally,

Circa the mid 90s, I took a support call from a chap who was complaining that his computer wouldn’t turn off. This was in the days before the proliferation of the soft-power ATX form factor; power was controlled by a proper mechanical switch which made / broke the 240V supply. Beyond “faulty switch” the only think I could think that would cause this was user error; he’s pressing the wrong button or something.

In the course of diagnosing what was going on, he happened to mention in passing that his new computer was also supplied with a cable missing. And then the whole tale unravelled.

AT-style power supplies commonly came with a socket for the ubiquitous “kettle lead” connector that we all know and love, along with a female outlet so that you could piggy-back the monitor power off the same PSU rather than running it directly from the mains. Switch off your PC, and it isolates the power output to the monitor as well.

We’d evidently sent out a PC with a regular mains cable for the computer, and an identical mains lead for the monitor, just like you’d typically get today. Our hero had seen the two sockets on the computer and gone “hmm, that’s odd.” So he’d tried to get a cable to fit the unused outlet. To his astonishment, they were really difficult to source.

Ever resourceful, in the end he’d had a cable custom made, with a 13A UK mains plug on one end, and a male C14 inlet socket on the other. He’d plugged in both power leads; the regular female one into the PC’s Power In, and his bastard cable into its Power Out, both connecting back to the mains supply. And, rejoice, it all worked! Except he couldn’t switch his PC off because, y’know, it was supplying 240V to the power OUTLET which was on the other side of the isolating switch. 😯

At which point, he then rang support.

Of course, it was a monumentally dangerous thing to do. The cable would’ve had exposed pins, there’s nothing to stop him plugging it into the mains and sticking some appendage in the other end with hilarious disastrous results. God only knows who he’d got to make up such a thing.

People.

This is called a Hard Reset, as it sounds more technical and sophisticated and thus you can charge more for this service item.

Pssh, we don’t “hard reset” things any more. We “power cycle” them these days.

wwaswas – Member
Any computer thread that CountZero joins gets a bit too early William Gibson for my liking…

Tee hee! 😆