way to get a response is to reboot using the IR remote code. As a result I'd say avoid the Shutdown function, just use the Black screensaver and remember that the HDD spins down after twenty minutes anyway, as specified in the rc.local file that runs a hdparm command before launching XBMC. Shutting down doesn't seem to equate to any power saving or heat reduction, anyway - in fact for my money the box is actually hotter after shutting down and being left all night than just letting it go into standby via blanking the screen and spinning down the HDD. @zekepliskin That makes sense as the shutdown function is using HAL to execute a halt via "shutdown -h". @survery_sez Your log doesnt show anything out of the ordinary. Xbmc is not being shutdown. You can see what a real shutdown is like if you "Exit" from Xbmc. There's messages about the services being turned off, etc. It's just hung or frozen. If you can ssh in while its in this state, you can try to use xbmc-send commands to see if it responds. For instance, try this to see if it goes to the settings screen. Send it twice as the first invoke will probably just awaken the screensaver. xbmc-send --action="activatewindow(settings)" If that works, you can do a proper graceful shutdown and restart of Xbmc with