Can't shut off computer-it keeps restarting

My husband has an older Sony laptop running Windows XP that he has been using to become computer literate on. It has developed a mind of it's own and will no longer shut down. It does not matter if I click shutdown or hard boot it restarts each time. Can someone point me in the right direction to fix it?

 

Check the system BIOS settings. There may be a setting that says something like "Power Button: Restart" and the different settings would be Restart, On/Off, Stand By, and so on. You'd obviously want to set it to On/Off. If you don't see this exact setting, keep looking around for anything related to power on/off. If you're unsure of what it might do, post a description of the settings here, and we'll try to help you figure it out. Also, check your Windows power settings (Start > Control Panel > Power Options > Advanced) and look for the action assigned to the power button. Make sure it's set to "Shut down". Other than that, visit the Sony web site download section for your particular model and look for a possible patch, or fix, or update, or maybe a BIOS update that addresses your problem.

 

I checked all those settings already, and checked the bios, it is a very simple bios with no options that I can see for wake on lan or wake at a preset time. The computer was working fine and has been for a year or so, I found it on the other day and can't shut it off since. Nothing has been changed recently except I gave it a static IP address and set the DNS settings to use Open DNS.

 

I don't know about your laptop but just recently I had a pc that would start automatically when I plugged it in, if I pressed the shutdown button it would turn off and then restart imediately. It turned out that all I had to do was remove the memory sticks, clean the contacts a little and put them back in. In my case it was a dirty connection, a bad stick of memory could cause the same problem and no amount of cleaning will fix bad memory.

 

Hello, I used PC Wizard 2008 to benchmark the laptop and the Global performance for Cache and Memory are both 0. I assume this means the memory has failed. I have attached a screenshot, the other scores are low too, is the system worth putting in new memory? And how can I safely turn it off if it keeps restarting? If I just unplug it and the battery goes down it will just go to standby, how long before it goes dead totally?

 

Not sure how safe it is but while it is plugged in, remove the battery so it is only operating on power. Try to shut down, ctrl + alt+ del to end most processes after everything is closed in windows then pull the plug.

 

Don't buy new memory for it until you have a chance to remove the old memory and clean the contacts. For some god awful reason the older the memory the more expensive it is (carpet bagger syndrom / theiving corporations). In my case firmly wiping the gold contacts with some rough paper (grocery bag or post card like paper from the mail) did the trick. If the contacts are really dull you may have to use some very fine sand paper but use it sparingly and drag it inside the notebooks contact too on each side, then blow out with canned air to get any grit out.

 

my cousin's comp was experiencing the same symptoms as you are. he would shut down the computer and it would restart. his computer was heavily infected with spyware and viruses. we began the cleaning process and after a day or two he noticed that his computer would finally shut down (like normal). i'm not saying that's the case, but might be worth looking into. also, you can try to clean the contacts with an eraser. g/l - sos