Safe way to restart (re-boot) without the screen

[edong]

Occasionally ( which means many times), I will turn on the PC first then the monitor. I'm not sure if it is HDMI-related, but the monitor will show "no signal detected" and the PC continues to boot up (I think). So, I will press the reset button to have something on the screen. But Bill Gates will reprimand me for not shutting it down properly with the option to start in Safe Mode. To avoid this, I tried to work the mouse blindly by dragging to what I guess is bottom left corner (Start) then guess-click the Shut Down box. I am surprised I cannot make it work.

The PC and monitor are plugged into a power strip so I can shut down the PC and leave the monitor ON then switch off the power strip. Fool-proof? You don't know me. So, can you suggest something using a mouse or keyboard to shut the PC safely? I believe pressing Alt-Ctrl-Delete twice has the same efffect as the Reset at least in my experience.

I really believe in Bill Gates because one of my PCs' hard drive developed bad clusters when I forced the shut down almost always because Windows 98 will not shut it down everytime. Thanks.

XP Pro SP3.
Samsung monitor using HDMI
ATI all in wonder HD

[TBoneit]

If it is a desktop computer briefly pressing the power button will normally make the computer do a proper shutdown. This presumes that it has already booted up.

[jagabo]

Set the computer to hibernate when you press the power button. Hopefully the graphics card will initialize properly when it comes out of hibernation.

Exactly what combination of keystrokes is necessary to shutdown or reboot depends on which version of Windows you have, how it's configured, and what software you have installed. On my Win7 system I occasionally get a black screen on boot and the shutdown sequence (from the Windows login screen) is Tab, Tab, Tab, Enter. The next time you boot successfully work out the sequence before doing anything else.

[usually_quiet]

Does your keyboard have a Windows key? (The Windows logo is printed on it. There may also be a circle printed around the logo.) This works for XP Home, so hopefully it works for your version of XP too. This is from the desktop.

Shutdown = Press Windows Key (don't hold it down), then press U two times
Restart = Press Windows Key (don't hold it down), then type UR (don't shift)
Stand by = Press Windows Key (don't hold it down), then type US (don't shift)

[Edit]From the login screen, you have to work out the number of tabs to get to the shutdown button. Next, press the Enter key, followed by the letter keys U (Shutdown), R (Restart), or S (Stand by).

[jagabo]

Shutdown = Press Windows Key (don't hold it down), then press U two times
Restart = Press Windows Key (don't hold it down), then type UR (don't shift)
Stand by = Press Windows Key (don't hold it down), then type US (don't shift)

That doesn't work if there's a shortcut in the Start menu that starts with U.

[usually_quiet]

Shutdown = Press Windows Key (don't hold it down), then press U two times
Restart = Press Windows Key (don't hold it down), then type UR (don't shift)
Stand by = Press Windows Key (don't hold it down), then type US (don't shift)

That doesn't work if there's a shortcut in the Start menu that starts with U.

I never had a start menu item that began with U. I did shut down or restart with those key sequences most of the time.

[TJohns]

If Windows is logged on then try

press CTRL+ALT+DEL to bring up the attention window
press ALT-S (the SHUTDOWN button)
press R (for RESTART) then ENTER

[ranchhand]

IF you have a full Operating System disk of XP (not a system restore disk from the manufacturer) I suggest a repair reinstall of XP "over the top" which will overwrite critical system files and leave your programs and data untouched. Sounds like you have something buggered in the system and you will play with it until the cows come home and never find the problem. That goes especially if you have been forcing reboots in the middle of system loadup for a long time, which is what I am reading. I also recommend deleting your video card drivers and reinstalling them from your video card disc.

[jagabo]

On my system with the "no video" problem, it isn't a Windows problem. There's no video from the BIOS either.

[ranchhand]

Well, if a system repair won't do it, and deleting and reinstalling the card drivers won't do it, and even resetting the BIOS (which I think would not help) won't do it, then the only thing I could think of is to swap out the video card and see if things improve. The only other thing I can think of is to make sure the mobo integrated video is turned off in the BIOS (if the mainboard has integrated video, of course).

[edong]

Thanks, guys. I tried almost all of the suggestions. It's Tboneit's suggestion that is most promising and I think would work. His suggestion made me recall that in the power setting, I set it up to shut down when the power button is pressed.

Actually,when the PC is already running normally, I can turn off the monitor then turn on again without any problem.

This is a fairly new PC upgrading from a 9-year old dinosaur. I'm happy with this except that even a slight movement of the mouse, the hard drive will run berserk. It sounds it's always writing many things which I think it is not good for its health and in my experience, will cause dropping of frames when capturing. This may warrant another thread but if somebody has a solution that I haven't tried:

1. Turned off indexing
2. Used CCleaner, run Spybot S& D and AVG
3. Used MS tweak that basically turned off 'almost' all device drivers and running services
4. Defragged

I discount errant software because it happened almost right after OS installation. I hate to do a re-install of OS because of some free programs that will not be free anymore if I lose them. Next time, I will change the hard drive. My only consolation is I got lots of companies when I googled for a solution. They too cannot find a solution