hi, i am new to ubuntu and loving it so far, but this problem has been bugging me for some time now making me question the stability of ubuntu. its that: i am using a dell inspiron 700m laptop. When i shut down, the power light does not go out so i hold down the power button until..., now when i restart 8 out of 10 times it gives me: x-server could not start... try restart in maintenance mode. sometimes it fix right away sometimes i have to be at it for a while. tried updating the dpkg manager also get errors. i would love a permanent solution. Anyone? please...

Might see if letting the machine shut down in an orderly fashion causes it to start back up in an orderly manner.

thanks john. but i leave leaving it to shut down several time for about half an hour and the power light was still there, on and the hard drive was still spinning.

Something wrong there.
What did you do to initiate the Shutdown?
If you can get into Terminal you dan type "shutdown now" and hit enter to see if it shuts down to a power off state.

One way to get to Terminal usually is to hit CTRL ALT and F1 all at the same time,
Note: CTRL ALT F7 will get you back out of the CLI

thanks. using the shutdown seams to work so far. the system comes up ok. i once went into the CLI (cntrl+alt+f1) and could not get out, cause i did'nt know how so i had to power off the system via pwr button, now i know. However, realise when i enable advance desktop effect i get the error when restarting and have to start in maintenance mode i wonder if its a problen with my graphics driver?