How to Restart/Shut Down Dell XPS 15 9520 Safely When Programs Frozen?

[paulyron]

I was using my dell xps 15 9520 with windows 11 pro earlier without any issue.  Then suddenly I noticed I couldn't play any youtube video to load.  There was no issue earlier though when doing that.  Also there is suddenly no sound.  When I click on desktop icons... either the program doesn't open up or it opens up and it is frozen the entire time.  Is this the regular glitch that many people get a lot with windows?  Thing is last time I had this issue where I then went to start menu and shut down... it didn't shut down for a very long time.  I think it stayed on that black screen for a long time.  Then I hold the power button to force shut down and it didn't even shut down.  It took a long time for it to suddenly shut down.  Then when power on laptop, there was no issue.

 

 

 

My concern now is do I click start and shut down laptop?  Or restart?  All my peripherals are connected to it such as in the usb-c port, a dell 2 in 1 adapter with a hdmi to hdmi cable to a monitor and sabrent port hub, the usb-c to displayport to another monitor in the thunderbolt 4 port.  And the last thunderbolt4 port has a laptop charger connected.

 

 

 

Can someone tell me how do I safely shut down or restart my laptop here if I am positive it will not shut down properly?  Also if it matters, I always ignored the dell update message on bottom right corner where it says there are dell updates to do.  I only do the windows updates though.  But could that be the reason or not?  Don't think that is good idea to do that now since my computer is at this state?  When I click on windows updates, it shows everything is up to date.  So ignore dell update right since well that program isn't even necessary?  How do i safely restart my laptop or shut it down?  Main concern is it won't turn off which I am positive will happen.  Then do I just wait till it turns off?  Do i hold the power button to power it off?  Make sure I don't unplug the power button?  The thing is I am positive it won't shut down or restart like normal because this similar thing happened last time.  I remember I tried holding the power button to force shut down after it didn't shut down or restart and even closed the lid and all that... but after a while it shut down but it too a long time.  Then I powered it on and it worked.  Can someone tell me what I should do here?

[paulyron]

I want to know after I shut down or restart it... how long do I wait until I do something if it doesn't shut down or restart as it should?  I am positive that it won't shut down or restart smoothly and I will see that message of shutting down but it won't shut down.  Or do I type something in command prompt to try to restart it another way?

 

 

I am not going to shut down or restart my laptop overnight because I am afraid something will go wrong here as it will not be a smooth shut down or restart.  Can someone please give advice here?  

[Eigenvektor]

18 minutes ago, paulyron said:

Is this the regular glitch that many people get a lot with windows?

No, it's not.

 

The behavior sounds like Windows might be running out of RAM. If it happens again, try opening task manager, see if there's some program using all of your RAM. That would indicate this program has a bug and you might want to either uninstall it, or update it, if a newer version fixes the issue.

 

If Windows no longer shuts down the regular way, there's no real alternative to a hard shutdown. You typically do this by keeping the power button pressed for 20+ seconds. If you can still shut down normally and it just takes a long time, you can also try that.

[paulyron]

I have 32gb ram.  The most amount of ram I ever saw it use was 18gb ram but earlier today it was 15gb ram.  Thing was I also was playing a bunch of youtube videos in the background so this could have caused this?  Imagine playing youtube video song... then having several other ones opened but you paused the other few etc.

 

 

Then a bit suddenly youtube video doesn't work... no sound at all... you can't open any programs from the desktop etc.

 

 

So what do you suggest I do right now to shut down or restart?  My concern is if i click start menu and shut down... i can click start menu... then it doesn't shut down for many minutes... how long do i wait before i do something?  If i do something, what do i do?  Do i hold the power button for 20+ seconds?  You don't suggest i hold the power button now for 20 seconds to shut down right?  Again i am very positive if i restart or shut down... it isn't going to restart or shut down immediately and you would see whatever screen it is on for minutes and then im not sure if i should wait longer or do what... 

[Eigenvektor]

1 minute ago, paulyron said:

Then a bit suddenly youtube video doesn't work... no sound at all... you can't open any programs from the desktop etc.

That sounds like a memory leak or a virus. So I'd definitely check if RAM usage in this case is abnormaly high and run a malware scan for good measure.

 

1 minute ago, paulyron said:

So what do you suggest I do right now to shut down or restart?

If it doesn't shut down this way I suggest you force a shutdown by holding the power button.

[paulyron]

4 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

That sounds like a memory leak or a virus. So I'd definitely check if RAM usage in this case is abnormaly high and run a malware scan for good measure.

 

If it doesn't shut down this way I suggest you force a shutdown by holding the power button.

I decided to go to task manager and look for windows explorer and right click and restart it.  Should I have not done this?  Now my laptop screen and 2 monitors show a white background.  I do have task manager taskbar opened.  Now I can't even click the start menu to shut down or restart.

 

 

Is there a way for me to still safely shut down or restart my laptop after I did this with windows explorer

[paulyron]

As usual for me when things get bad, things get worst.  Now I can't attempt to shut down or restart the laptop the normal way.  Is there any way for me to start menu and shut down or restart or I have to hold the power button to force shut down it?

[paulyron]

1 hour ago, Eigenvektor said:

That sounds like a memory leak or a virus. So I'd definitely check if RAM usage in this case is abnormaly high and run a malware scan for good measure.

 

If it doesn't shut down this way I suggest you force a shutdown by holding the power button.

Do you suggest I force shut down based on my last few responses?  Someone else mentioned I could go to task manager and click on run new task and do below.  But should i not do this because I have a white screen and better to just force shut down by holding power button for x seconds?  If so how many seconds?

 

Run New Task in Task Manager .. type SHUTDOWN /S and click OK 

 

 

 

[Eigenvektor]

1 hour ago, paulyron said:

I decided to go to task manager and look for windows explorer and right click and restart it.  Should I have not done this?  Now my laptop screen and 2 monitors show a white background.  I do have task manager taskbar opened.  Now I can't even click the start menu to shut down or restart.

From your description Windows clearly is in an abnormal state where it can no longer start or stop anything. Restarting Explorer resulting in a white screen is simply another symptom of that. It very much sounds like Windows has run out of resources to work with.

 

1 hour ago, paulyron said:

Is there a way for me to still safely shut down or restart my laptop after I did this with windows explorer

Use the force, Luke

 

5 minutes ago, paulyron said:

Run New Task in Task Manager .. type SHUTDOWN /S and click OK

You can try but that does exactly the same as pressing Start > Shutdown. Since you can't even restart Explorer I would not expect too much. Force shutdown by holding the power button is the most sensible option at this point.

[paulyron]

So when I went to hold the power button for just a bit, I saw main monitor has the shut down drop down like a drop down menu in the middle of the screen... anyone had this before?  I then clicked on shut down.  It seemed to shut down really fast.  I then closed the lid of laptop.I then unplugged the laptop charger and for some reason... the sabrent 4 port hub blue lights still display there.  Normally the lights turn off immediately after you unplug the laptop charger.  I had noticed when i unplugged keyboard from the sabrent 4 port hub, there was no sound at all like the system didn't recognize it.  So I removed the dell 2 in 1 adapter which contained the sabrent 4 port hub.  Then i unplugged my external monitor cables.  

 

 

Now when I went to open the lid, the laptop did not power on.  I then pressed the power button and it didn't power on.  I then waited a very long time and when I opened the lid of the laptop, it finally powered on.  Now is this a big concern or not?  Is this normal when your computer have an issue and you either need to restart or shut it down and something like this happens.

 

 

At the moment, the laptop is fine but this will most likely happen again.  What is the reason for the laptop not powering on?  I waited a bit before opening the lid and it didn't power on at all.  Then I waited longer and then when opened the lid of laptop, it powered on.