How to Reboot a Windows XP Dell Laptop

You might not be smiling if you are having to reboot your Windows laptop.

A Dell laptop PC can be rebooted in several ways. One method involves the use of keystrokes and works the same on all computers running Windows XP; other methods are unique to Windows XP. Rebooting simply means restarting your computer. A “cold reboot” requires you to completely power off the computer; a “warm reboot” means that you merely restart the machine. Manually rebooting may be necessary after you’ve installed software or if your computer freezes.

Things You'll Need

• Laptop with Windows XP

Instructions

1. Click the “Start” button in the lower left corner of your computer desktop. Click “Shut Down.” Choose “Restart” and click “OK.” To cold reboot the computer, choose “Shut Down,” let the machine shut down completely, wait one minute and then press the power button to restart the laptop.

2. Press the “Ctrl,” “Alt” and “Delete” keys at the same time as an alternative to the preceding step. Do this twice to “warm reboot” your laptop computer.

3. Press the “Ctrl,” “Alt” and “Esc” keys at the same time. Your laptop should restart.

4. Press and hold the power button until the laptop shuts down completely. This is a fourth way to reboot your Dell laptop. Once the device shuts down, wait two minutes and then press the power button to restart the laptop.

Tips & Warnings

• If your laptop is frozen, try pressing “Ctrl,” “Alt” and “Delete” first, and if that does not work, you can resort to pressing the power button.

• Rebooting the laptop is a good way to reset the operating system and clear out problems that may be causing slow performance or lockups.

• If all else fails, you may have to remove the battery from your laptop to shut it down. Make sure you try the other steps first.

References

• Dell: How to Restore or Reinstall Microsoft Windows on a Dell Computer
• Safe Mode Boot Options in Windows XP