You Must Hold Down the Power Button to Shut Down Windows NT 4.0 in a Dual-Boot Environment with Windows XP

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This article was previously published under Q283378

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SYMPTOMS

In a dual-boot environment with Windows XP and Windows NT 4.0, you cannot turn off the computer by pressing the power button once when you are prompted by Windows NT that it is safe to turn off the computer. To turn the power off, you have to hold down the power button for a minimum of 5 seconds for the computer to power off.

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CAUSE

This behavior occurs because Ntldr always checks to see if Advanced Power Management (APM) is present. By design, the basic input/output system (BIOS) of the computer fails the APM call if the computer is configured to use Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI).

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RESOLUTION

To shut down Windows NT 4.0 in a dual-boot environment with Windows XP, hold down the power button for 5 seconds or longer to completely turn the computer off.

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