Laptop will not shut down unless manually held power button

Squashing the power button down and holding it, forcing it to shutdown?

What were you running on it just before shutting down?

So - how long before you decide it's TOO LONG?

It's a request.

No matter what the operating system, but perhaps more importantly because it's Vista, your Updates will be coming in thick and fast.

These Updates are downloaded in the background while you are online using the machine. However they are NOT installed until you proceed to shutdown.

So when you squash the power button, you are not just speeding up the shutdown process - you are also wrecking any chance of updating the system. These updates will start again as soon as you start-up, eventually crippling your system.

By the way, what do you mean "[i]new condition[/i]"?

It does its job really well, i did it on my Vista machine and with no problems (so far, touch wood)

Reduce the wait time for services to be killed.
As mentioned above, Windows will wait for the services to shutdown and kill themselves after notifying the running services to shut down. If not, Windows will wait for the timeout and start killing the still running services. You can reduce the wait time for Windows to kill the persistent services.
Navigate to the following registry branch:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control
On the right pane, double click on ?WaitToKillServiceTimeout? or right click on it and choose modify. Change the default value of WaitToKillServiceTimeout of 20000 to lesser value, such as 5000 or even 1000, depending on your preference.
When the value of WaitToKillServiceTimeout expires, the system notifies the user that the service has not stopped, and prompt the user with option to force the service task to stop or continue to wait.
Reduce the wait time for user processes and applications to be killed
As with services, Windows will also wait for a while, depending on WaitToKillAppTimeout setting, before starting to shut down and kill open applications and user processes when the user want to shutdown, restart or log off. The wait time or time out can be reduced to speed up the shutdown process.
Navigate to the following registry branch:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
On the right pane, double click on WaitToKillAppTimeout (or right click on the registry key and select Modify), and enter a new value which is less than the default value of 20000. The value can be 1000 or 5000 or any other numeric value, depending on your preference. When the WaitToKillAppTimeout registry entry timeout or expires, the End Task dialog box appears, stating that the process did not respond, and allowing user to End the task.
On the right pane also, double click on HungAppTimeout (or right click on the registry key and select Modify) and change the value to less numerical value than 5000 (default value), e.g. 1000. HungAppTimeout specifies how long the system waits for user processes to end after the user clicks the End Task command button in Task Manager or after the user has selected to restart or shutdown the system.
Then navigate to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop\ registry branch, and do the same as above to change and modify the value of WaitToKillAppTimeout and HungAppTimeout registry keys.
Automatically end, terminate and kill user processes or tasks on shutdown or logoff
Even if you have set the HungAppTimeout registry entry to a very low value, what happen is that when HungAppTimeout time out due to a hung applications or unable to terminate tasks or not responding to the end task request, it will prompt user with a End Task dialog box to ask if user wish to end the process. By changing to the value of registry key AutoEndTasks to 1, we can ask Windows to end all processes that timeout when shut down or log out from Windows automatically, without asking for user input or interaction. Default value of the key is 0, which mean no user processes will end automatically.
AutoEndTasks is located at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop registry branch.

Please post back if you have any more problems or questions.

Peconet Tietokoneet's recommendations are pearls of wisdom that should be archived for reference. I have only one additional suggestion:

Disable unnecessary Windows services. You may not need to perform any Registry edit if you do some radical pruning. TR has an excellent post on this subject:

http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tr/downloads/home/windows_xp_services_that_can_be_disabled.pdf

To access Windows services:

Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services

Sort the services by auto/disable/manual by clicking the header of that column. Any service set to [i]automatic[/i] that has not started may be safely reconfigured to [i]manual[/i].

Be cautious when you disable [i]automatic[/i] services that have started. The TR bulletin linked above will help you make a decision, but you must use good judgement based upon your own computing needs.

To further determine the [i]worthiness[/i] of a service, check out

http://www.processlibrary.com/

Before performing radical surgery on your services, create a restore point in System Restore. If you liquidate an essential service, you can then quickly restore the computer to a working configuration.

Another useful resource is the following link previously posted at TR:

http://www.connectedinternet.co.uk/2007/02/06/the-complete-guide-to-optimising-windows-xp/

Finally, you can prevent Windows from clearing the paging file at shutdown. This tweak will further speed shutdown:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\
Control\SessionManagement

Look for the subkey ClearPageFileAtShutdown, and change the data value to 0.

I recommend that you [i]export[/i] the Registry to a USB flash storage device or an external hard drive before doing any Registry editing. That way, if disaster strikes, you can [i]import[/i] your archived backup and recover a working configuration.

To locate the Registry editor:

C:\Windows\System32\regedt32.exe

Create a shortcut to your [i]Programs[/i] folder for convenience.

Have fun.

Rick/Portland, OR

It may strike you as a bit childish, but we do like to read words such as yours. And yes, you can give us some [i]points[/i] as you call them by checking the [i]helpful[/i] box below the participant's response.

When you check that box, the responder gets an additional [i]thumbs up[/i] on his/her scorecard. Now that you're a member of TR, you might enjoy participating and assisting others. We certainly enjoy assisting folks such as yourself.

Rick/Portland, OR

Look for errors in the event logs at the time you are trying to shutdown.

To view the event log: Start, Run and type in eventvwr

Remove all USB devices apart from keyboard and mouse.

< add this >
Also dont leave the notebook on your bed while it is running you are restricting air flow and possibly causing it to overheat.

Hi,

Reason for shut down issues can be modifications made in the CMOS/BIOS settings. If your Toshiba Satellite laptop fails to shut down, you need to first check whether any changes have been made to the CMOS/BIOS settings. Some system files are required for the startup and shutdown process in your Toshiba Satellite . The CMOS/BIOS settings can change when your Toshiba Satellite starts up.

Get more information to fix toshiba laptop will not shut down problem :

http://supportfortoshiba.iyogi.com/a500/wont-shut-off-13.html

Hope this information helps you.