I have noticed that when I shut down my computer with the on and off but on the cpu my computer does not boot up once I shut it down. I know that is not very good to the computer, how I found that out is because my computer was not responding so I had no choice but to shut it down in this manner. I havebeen staitng in previous forums that the computer kept rebooting after I shut it down. Would anyone know why it does not reboot by itself when using the button on the cpu. a
Any info would be greatly appreciated.

The On/Off button does just that. It wont re-boot your computer. There is usually a smaller 'reboot' button near to the main on/off switch. Have you got one of those? Sometimes they're very tiny

If you're running XP it doesn't matter about switching the computer off with the On Off button

i am running windows xp.Why is it okay to shut down the computer with the button on windws xp but it is not okay if you are running other windows.

Just to clarify: Are you saying that after XP becomes non-responsive you power off the computer by the on/off button on the computer?

As HappyBeaver points out some computers have a reset button as well as on/off.

Also there are BIOS settings for how your computer responds to a power off.

Depending on your BIOS you may have the option to restart or not.

All that being said if XP is responsive you should use the on/off/restart options from the START Menu.