Unable to Shutdown

Picked up a G4 PB last Nov. Been great, but having a little problem.

I am unable to shutdown through the OS. When I hit the power button nothing happens, no menu asking to shutdown or sleep. When I select shutdown from the apple menu nothing happens. Even after a software update and selecting shutdown from there nothing happens.

I can shutdown by holding down the power button, but I am under the assumption that it is not the best thing for my beloved machine.

Anyone have any ideas?

What happens when you open up ther terminal window and execute the following command.

sudo shutdown

It asks for my password and after putting that in I get this.

"usage: shutdown [-] [-h | -p | -r | -k] [-o [-n]] time [warning-message ...]"

Sorry forgot to give you the options.

sudo shutdown -h now

Thanks for that command line, it got it to shutdown. Still a little new to the terminal, but do know a lil bit.

Any ideas on what may have caused this inability to shutdown threw the GUI?

The next thing I would do is to use the disk utility application and repair permissions.

We now know that the shutdown command is not corrupted.

Have tried that already, a couple of times since this started. (Can you repair permissions too much? I don't think so, but thought I should ask.)

I have no clue, what is going on. If you have AppleCare, I would call Apple and see what they suggest. If you don't then I would make a back up of the system. Then do a clean install.

Hopefully someone else will come along, with a suggestion.

Maybe the actual NIB file is broken, thus making the actual GUI button useless...

I have yet to purchase Applecare, but I still have 4 months.

I need to take it to an apple store anyway to get a key replaced. Let me say I am very nervous when my wife uses this machine now.

After I get a reason/solution from Apple I will post it if anyone is still interested.

Thanks for all the help so far (especially from rman). This is a great community and have learned a ton in the few months I have been coming.

you also have the option of using the short cut keys to shut down your Mac.

command, control and option/alt three fingers on your left hand and with your right hit the eject button. voila. nifty system shutdown

you dont want to be screwing around with permissions. But depends what folders you are giving permissions to. not 100% sure but I think most folders are set to a symbolic value of 744. Wow it's amazing how much I forgot unix.