Toshiba Satellite laptop won't shut down or restart

[vickyscot]

My laptop seems to have had a complete meltdown, when I try to use even a simple programme like MS Word and load one document, it freezes and is 'not responding'. Also I am connected to wifi yet in Outlook it won't send any messages. I have tried using the Task Manager but when I click control ALT DEL nothing happens. I then try shutting down and nothing happens. I have now been waiting around 30 mins for it to restart but nothing is happening (blue windows screen, says restarting and little circle moving round). OS is Windows 8.1. Have had laptop for 4.5 years but was working perfectly yesterday.....any advice on course of action would be much appreciated.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

Keep power-on button pressed until laptop switches off.

Now start it up, let Windows do a disk check following the the improper shutdown, then Windows should load.

 

[vickyscot]

Thanks for replying - I've powered it off several times and it just starts again as normal. Windows does load but then when I try to do anything it's totally unresponsive......perhaps I will try using command keys to start it up in safe mode.