Vista Will Not Shutdown

[Tenpin]

I have XP and Vista running on a Dell XPS 700 in a dual boot configuration.
I cannot get Vista to power off. The display shuts down and I can hear the
hard drive stop after about 30 seconds but the power to the computer remains
on. I don't hve this problem with XP. Overall, Vista has been stable and a
good experience.

[Mamamegs]

How do you shut down the PC? It seems to me the PC goes to 'Stand-by'
(Sleep) instead of 'Shut down'.

[Otto Normalverbraucher]

Yes it goes to sleep by default.
You can change what pressing the power button does, closing the laptop
lid etc in the power settings in control panel.
....but to shut down, there is also a link from the arrow to the right of
the padlock in the start menu.

[Tenpin]

I click on Start Button and select shutdown.