I have an IBM thinkpad (series i) and have a problem with shutdown. I
have windows Me.50% of the time I am forced to use the power button to
switch off and later when I restart something called discscan starts up
and informs me that it has detected an improper shutdown.It then
spends some time checking the hard disc. I am totally new to computing
and have been told this is bad for a computer.What can I do?
David Currie

I think this is what you should do:
When you want to shut down your os and laptop, as it being MsMe and
relatively ineffiecient(and a laptop with most probably not much
memmory)your system resources are all used. To free some press;
ctrl+Alt+del all at the same time, then shut down some programs until
you you have enough free resources (click on one of the list of
programs and click end task and maybe wait a while for confirmation of
there shut down) to allow you to shut down your system.

You could try the formentioned way to end some of the user processes.
But i think maybe you are wanting to make your laptop function
properlly. If you have never ran any kind of software on your computer
to maintain it, i think the time would be now. First off what i would
do is go to majorgeeks.com and locate a program by codeforge called
tweakall now. Now what this program does is it will let you choose
what you want to run when your computer starts up. If you want
something a little better you can go to iolo.com and purchase a
program called system mechanic. It is a step up and it does have a
registry cleaner which you should want to have if you add and remove
programs alot. You might also want to try a program called adaware if
you are using this computer on the internet becuse the ad/spy ware can
and will cause problems for your computer. If you try this let me
know. As there are other soulutions to your problem. but more indepth.

I almost forgot after you try some of the mentioned programs, try and
run the system tools on your computer at least defrag.

Improper shutdown usually occurs in computers (mostly win98 and winME)
when some process or other cannot terminate. It is also common for
shutdown to be stopped by temp files. The computer cannot power off or
reach the end shutdown state unless all it's business is done. This
problem is very common and will return from time to time even after a
fix. Empty your temp directory completely. Turn off all processes you
can get your hands on (antivirus, directcd, etc) before shutdown and
that should do it. It's really not harmful though. The You didn't
shutdown properly error and scandisk on boot is just Microsoft's way
of being anal. Just ignore it.

I don't like adding software to my PC that I don't need, particularly
to perform maintenance tasks. Clean up the hard drive according to
www.theofficeexperts.com/cleanyourpc.htm and then Start-->Run and type
msconfig and hit enter. Go to the Startup tab. Uncheck anything in
there that you don't need. For me that means everything goes except
virus scanning software, or software required to connect to the web.
Restart your PC. If you find something doesn't work properly now, you
may need to go back into that startup tab and check it again. You may
find some things in there are listed and checked twice--you only need
them once. Load Power Profile is the one that lets your PC go to
sleep/auto shutoff. So if you remove it (and I would, at least
temporarily until your problem is solved), your PC won't auto shutoff.

Yes typing in mscofig does work. But if you are unsure of what you can
and cannot delete from the start then using this command won't help
you. Becuse the program will let you only choose the programs that
your system dosen't need while typins mscofig will let you stop
whatever you want. And stopping a process that you may need isnt the
way most would want to go. You will be set into a spiral of cheaking
what you can stop and rebooting untill you figure it all out.

Windows Me is based on Windows 98, and certain Windows 98
installations will lock up upon shutdown.  To start with, I would go
to windowsupdate.microsoft.com, and install all of the Critical
Updates, if there are any.  There are a couple that claim to fix
shutdown problems.

Its not that bad, really, I've done it thousands of times on dozens of
laptops, and nothing bad has ever happened.  Just avoid doing it.  But
if it happens, well it happens.