Macbook refuses to shut down, restart or log out! :(

Hi,
Ive been having the troubles of not being able to turn off, restart or log out my Macbook after not shutting it down for a while ( like 1 or 2 weeks just kept putting it to sleep when it is not in use ). When I tried to shut down or restart it, the top bar and everything else went off leaving ma dock behind, it then just froze and kept saying that it cant shut down due to some random application have failed to quit! (e.g most usually firefox and Finder) eventhough i have already quit all my applications!
Does anybody know what the problem is? Is this usual if you dont shut down your macbook for a couple of weeks? Please advice!
Thank you very much,

Hi
Holding down the power button for about 10 seconds will force the macbook to turn off. This is only recommended as an emergency measure.
When you restart, I recommend you download either Onyx or Leopard Cache Cleaner and use it to step through the various maintenance activities it offers, including deleting all stored cache files.
You should perform this maintenance once a month or so (although you don't need to routinely clear out the cache files).
Bob

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