I Need Help....My Laptop Won't Shut Down

i hope somebody can help me.....my laptop is running on WinXP. lately i cant seem to shut down. when i click on 'turn off computer', the new window opens as usual. then when i click on 'shut down', it goes back to my desktop and nothing happens however many times i try. for the past few times i just press the power button to turn it off but im afraid that'll screw my hard disk....thanks.

umm..guys
it's ok..i found the problem.
thanks anyway!

Yeah, there's usually a small hole underneath that you can poke with a paper clip and it will reset your laptop

what was the problem that you found because i am using win2k and am facing same problem occasionally. It seems to be software related for sure.

must have been some software...i used system restore and its fine now