On Saturday 19 September 2009, meino.cramer@gmx.de wrote:
> > cleaner shutdown.  This is taken from a email that was sent to me during
> > that horrible xorg-server and hal upgrade.
> >
> > > Hold down Atl, hold down SysRq, press each of the keys in turn. The
> > > usual full sequence is R-E-I-S-U-B Reboot Even If System Utterly
> > > Broken By ${DEITY} - this tagline picker is spooky at times :-O
> > > -- Neil Bothwick
> >
> > I tried this once when I was unable to get my keyboard to respond to
> > anything else.  I made it through the first three or four and was
> > returned to a console with a working keyboard.  Since you are shutting
> > down, you may want to go through them all to be safe.  I think the last
> > one does a reboot.
> >
> > Hope that helps.
> >
> > Dale
> >
> > :-) :-)
>
> Hi Dale,
>
> thanks a lot for your help!!!  :)
>
> This will help to bring donw the machine in an more
> cleaner way as simply pressing the power switch ;-)
>
> But:
> How can I figure out, what hangs the shutdown process itsself?

Last time I came across a problem like this I had forgotten to select the 
right chipset under Graphics support/AGP Support/ in the kernel.  So I 
suggest you revisit your kernel and xorg drivers setups for your card.
-- 
Regards,
Mick