When i try to shut down my computer (before it even finishes playing the Shutting Down noise) it goes to a black screen where all you can see is the mouse pointer, Then freezes. Sometimes at the black screen the mouse pointer turns into a distorted block made of what looks like random blotches of white. On my notebook it goes back to the blue loading screen then shows my shutting down checks like its suppost to. The same thing kinda happens when i log out, but it will usualy make it back into the system.

Also when i start up it does weird stuff too. Before the KDE splash screen loads i get a bar at the top of my screen that is just a bunch of distorted colors.

Sounds like a bad APG graphics card or the ram for the graphics is going bad causing your computer to hang.

would that be whats cousing the whole computer to not shut down?

its possable that the graphics card is bad cause its an old voodoo 3. i had a nice card but it was PCI and when i switched boxes i didnt have an extra slot for it so i had to use the AGP card that was already in the box my friend gave me. shit. i dont have the money for one of those.

It could also be a old motherboard and it doesnt understand the apci shutdown command linux gives.