Just a thought, but try booting up in "safe Mode", then shutting down. If that works, it's definatly driver related. If not, I would check APM and your BIOS rev. (Especially if you have a VIA chipset).
Good luck...happy holidays to you and yours..
Totally unrelated question ,just thought I'd take advantage of a tech thread.
I have a Compaq(yeah I know)I want to do a clean install but I believe
compaq has the BIOS on a 2mb partition of the hard drive,
can I do it or do I have to use the restore disc.