Why won't my computer shut off?

[XFacta82]

I click shut down and nothing happens. Why??!!

 

[macbookairman]

check your dock. is there a black arrow (tiger) or a blue dot (leopard) under any of the dock icons other than finder? Its possible that an application is having trouble closing.
If you do see a black arrow or blue dot, try "command" + "Option" + "escape" to choose a program to force quit. Or you can click the apple menu in the top left and choose force quit. (Finder should show up in the force quit options. That shouldn't be what is keeping you from turning off, so you don't need to relaunch it.)

i've had this issue with mail. sometimes it just won't close when i turn off my mac, so i have to force quit it.

 

[Clyde099]

It's possessed

 

[lamina]

Listen to macbookairman

And if that doesn't work, shut it down, using whatever means necessary. Once it's shut down, press the power button and hold the Command, Option, P, and R buttons, all at the same time. You should hear a second startup boonnnngggggggggggggggg.

Hope this helps.

 

[r.j.s]

You can force it to turn off by holding the power button for about 5 seconds.

 

[XFacta82]

Listen to macbookairman

And if that doesn't work, shut it down, using whatever means necessary. Once it's shut down, press the power button and hold the Command, Option, P, and R buttons, all at the same time. You should hear a second startup boonnnngggggggggggggggg.

Hope this helps.

What will this do?

 

[chainprayer]

resets the pram i believe. i know i have a few programs (like keyboard maestro) that won't close on a shut down. i have to close them manually then do a shut down.

 

[ewilson6]

Also make sure Safari is not the last app opened before shutdown.

The latest version hangs on some Mac models running leopard.

A good practice is to shut down safari then open up another application and close it.

this will free up all the memory that Safari uses.

Now shut down computer like normal



==Eric

 

[mach42006]

I have been having a similar problem. I rarely shut my MBP off, but every couple weeks or so when I do–just encountered this a little over a month ago–it will not shut down because Mail is still running. I try quitting numerous ways. When I control+click it doesn't give me the option to force quit, just quit. And no matter how many times I click quit or press apple Q, and no matter how long I wait, Mail will not quit and I must resort to holding the power button down. It's not just when I try shutting down that it won't quit–if I try to quit Mail at any time I get the same result.

I'm in the process of verifying and repairing permissions right now, and I'll try resetting the pram as well and see if that works.

 

[i.shaun]

I check programs to see if they're not responding. If they fail to respond, close, or if the computer seems unresponsive (no finder, no dock animation, can't click anything, etc..) I just hold the power button.

It shuts off suddenly, and then I reboot it. Everything works out fine.


I actually set up keyboard maestro to "close all programs + shut down computer" by hitting CMD+Option+Control+Q

It's so simple whenever it works, but sometimes i get unresponsive programs.

 

[iAlexG]

I just had this problem and Force Quit worked thanks. I am new to mac and control+ Click then quit would not work so i didnt know what to do. My mac was hitting 140 degrees so I thought I would give a cool down by shutting down for a while but it just wouldn't because mail was open.

 

[miles01110]

I have been having a similar problem. I rarely shut my MBP off, but every couple weeks or so when I do–just encountered this a little over a month ago–it will not shut down because Mail is still running.

Resetting the PRAM in this case isn't going to help, since Mail has nothing to do with the PRAM. I've had this same problem, and it's very annoying. Pressing Command + Option + Escape brings up the Force Quit window- I can quit Mail from there if it's not working any other way.