When you select "logout", you should go to the login screen.
When at login screen, options,including "shut down","turn off computer" or something similar will be at the bottom of the screen.
If you don't see them and you are in the US, make sure you are not running in PAL mode and your resolution is 1024 X 768 or less.
(On some US monitors , the bottom of the window will be off the screen in PAL mode or at resolutions higher than 1024 X 768 .)

When I click on logoff I am brought back to a command "dos-type" line screen. Should the options be there? Im in the UK by the way running at a 800x600 resolution.

OK , sounds like you're using a text login screen.
I'm using SUSE now so give me a day or so to set
up Mandrake and I'll get back to you. Meanwhile, if
my memory serves, Mandrake is one that will shut down
with the command " halt ". (without the qoutes)
I love Mandrake but I don't use cli much. It's
really good for digital photography and has easily
found and set up every scanner and camera I've tried
with it,

Thanks for the help man. I'll try out this halt command later when I get the chance.
 
Although I have somehow encountered another problem lately. (possibly due to not shutting down properly)I can only start x gui if I login as the root user. When I try and login with a user account I have created called "james" I have problems. I use the startx command and it then says that the /home/james dir is read-only or something along those lines. I can't remember the exact words it says. I tried making a new account but I had teh same problem. Help me.

I managed to reproduce your problem by corrupting,
ie. deleting a few characters, in the logon programs.
 
Did you download and burn your install disks ?
If so, you may have corrupted files.You will
need to DL and burn the disks again.Also, be
sure you burn the disks at a low speed, no
faster than 8x.You may try reinstalling first,
though.
 
You will probably get more help if you give a
description of your system.Brand,model,motherboard,
CPU,HD,cd drives,etc.
What runs perfect as is on my machine may need some
tweaking on yours.
Describe your hardware as best you can and someone with
similar hardware can be more help.

That could be my problem. I burned the discs at 48x speed. Ill burn them again a 8x and hopefully that will work. Btw the halt command worked for me although my pc didnt actually turn off completely it went right to actually saying power off on my screen then the pc made a noise that it makes where usually it turns off then just stayed at a screen. Anyway I'll reinstall and see what happens. Also does anyone know where I can download disc4 of the mandrake linux 10.1. It has the gnome gui on it and I tried to install it and it asked for disc 4 but I only have 3. :S

You don't get disk 4 unless you are a Mandrake Club member.
 
To get an idea of how to burn Linux iso images correctly, see my article here.

Ahh right. Thanks for the guide.

Newbie. I have just escaped from XP because I swapped my motherboard and now my completely genuine XP disk etc cannot be reactivated.
 
I have the same problem shutting down, surely this cannot be caused by a corrupted install disk, because it would randomly cause problems, not just to one area as everything else works perfectly. I am very impressed with Mandrake 10.1, having down loaded the DVD version. Everything is included. Its great! Like installing any OS there's wrinkles to be learned. I saw this problem mentioned in another forum, where it was suggested that the boot loader, configured at install, needed to be amended. In another it was laid out that certain distros simply wouldnt shut down. Its a pity if things like this cannot be sorted out without having to re-install. I'm prepared for hitting problems. I did when I first started with installs of w98 etc. You have to expect set backs. Its a learning curve. Surely there must be a solution other than pressing the off button, not that I'm too lazy to press a button. My new system is Asrock 775v88 with a 3Ghz pentium 4 LGA prescott. 1gb ram. Seagate 80gb Sata HDD. Geforce 6600.

This is a problem with XP in general. Add any major piece of hardware that the OS or Office detects, and the assumption is that you are trying to use it on another system, Hence, you have a license only for one PC and Windows complains.
 
With Linux, many problems with general functioning after an installation can be traced back to a faulty DVD or CD burn, as just one package that does not install correctly can cause one issue. ISO images need to be burned at a slow speed to prevent this to assure a valid proper burn of the iso.
 
If Linux does not start right to the desktop GUI, but defaults to a console, then the problem is often hardware related, Mostl often it is a video conflict within X. Commonly the video card driver is not configured or recognized properly.
 
Shutdown problems are often bios related. If your motherboard uses (or does not use) APM or ACPI power management. You see this a lot with laptops. In this case, You need to know what the motherboard uses and make an adjustment to the grub file to switch off ACPI, or force APM. Then the system will shut down cleanly.
 
One workaround that often works is to turn off Plug-n_Play OS in the bios. Linux likes to handle things independent of the bios defaults.