I have a Hewlett Packard Pavilion XE783 desktop with ME operating system and I am having trouble shutting down. I go start, shut down, and it will act like it is shutting down and then it will reboot back up. If I turn the power off when it is booting back up, it will turn off and the next time I power the computer on, it will come up without any improper shutdown error or scan disk. Now it seems to be doing this about 90% of the time. Can anyone tell me what to check for to see if something has been lost in the software or whatever. I only have shutdown and restart on my drop down list now.

control panel, display, power management...

The very best advice I could give is get rid of Windows ME. This was a bad operating system from the start with a whole bunch of "issues." Try looking on the HP and/or Microsoft websites for "Shutdown Fix." Win 98 had a number of shutdown problems, and I know there were fixes issued for them. You might also try reinstalling the operating system (make sure you save your data off to another drive first!). You might also check for IRQ Steering settings (this was a solution in 98; I don't have an ME machine here to check it on). Start|Settings|Control Panel|System|PCI Bus. Select the "IRQ Steering Tab." Uncheck the box marked "Use IRQ Steering." If none of this works, post again or e-mail and we'll try to help some more.

Rover is absolutely right.
I've dealt with enough ME systems to know that they are terrible. Win98SE is far superior. That system should do very well with Windows XPPro provided you have enough RAM. A clean install is always best for that as well.

I had windows ME on one of my PC's here in the office and I can tell you first hand (GET RIDE OF IT)I went through the same thing you are going through. It will keep coming up with weird problems that will drive you nuts. My office is now on XP Pro and I'm am very happy that I did it.

Not much since in kicking a dead horse, but since I was here, I thought I would chime in. Get rid of the ME(must eliminate)operating system. XP home or pro is what you want. Make sure you do a clean install of XP. Backup all your data. Boot from the XP CD. When it shows your active partition of ME, delete it. Then choose new install of XP by creating a new partion. Use the NTFS format for it.

[This message has been edited by Z-man (edited June 22, 2003).]

WHEN CHOSING START, SHUTDOWN, OBSERVE THAT "SHUTDOWN" NOT RESTART IS THE OPTION IN THE DROPDOWN BOX.

How funny....I have a HP with "ME" as well..does the same thing..even when powering it off when it restarts-no "improper shutdown" disk scan either. LOL! ...This is just a backup computer for me I use once every two months...so I just leave it be..tried everything to correct it..no luck either. someday I'll get around to putting 98SE or XP on it...see what happens then.