diff --git a/CONTRIBUTORS b/CONTRIBUTORS
index 8578cd4a..9ec58b5f 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTORS
+++ b/CONTRIBUTORS
@@ -546,6 +546,7 @@ Helmut Auer <vdr@helmutauer.de>
  for suggesting to increase the default value for 'Min. user inactivity' to 300 minutes
  for suggesting to add cChannel::LinkChannels() and cChannel::RefChannel()
  for suggesting to give a message when an instant recording is started
+ fpr suggesting to retry a shutdown after a while
 
 Jeremy Hall <jhall@UU.NET>
  for fixing an incomplete initialization of the filter parameters in eit.c
diff --git a/HISTORY b/HISTORY
index 85db4b80..2cb40b53 100644
--- a/HISTORY
+++ b/HISTORY
@@ -4266,3 +4266,5 @@ Video Disk Recorder Revision History
   always taken into account.
 - Now initializing the channels' schedule pointers when reading the epg.data file,
   so that the first WhatsOn menu will come up faster.
+- If a shutdown is requested, but the shutdown script doesn't actually halt the
+  system, it is now tried again after 5 minutes (suggested by Helmut Auer).
diff --git a/vdr.c b/vdr.c
index 3b35f194..3913f625 100644
--- a/vdr.c
+++ b/vdr.c
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
  *
  * The project's page is at http://www.cadsoft.de/vdr
  *
- * $Id: vdr.c 1.245 2006/01/28 14:38:30 kls Exp $
+ * $Id: vdr.c 1.246 2006/01/29 14:35:31 kls Exp $
  */
 
 #include <getopt.h>
@@ -71,6 +71,7 @@
                               // in order to react on a possible new CAM menu as soon as possible
 #define DEVICEREADYTIMEOUT 30 // seconds to wait until all devices are ready
 #define MENUTIMEOUT       120 // seconds of user inactivity after which an OSD display is closed
+#define SHUTDOWNRETRY     300 // seconds before trying again to shut down
 
 #define EXIT(v) { ExitCode = (v); goto Exit; }
 
@@ -1087,7 +1088,7 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[])
                        if (signal(SIGALRM, Watchdog) == SIG_IGN)
                           signal(SIGALRM, SIG_IGN);
                        }
-                    LastActivity = time(NULL); // don't try again too soon
+                    LastActivity = time(NULL) - Setup.MinUserInactivity * 60 + SHUTDOWNRETRY; // try again later
                     UserShutdown = false;
                     continue; // skip the rest of the housekeeping for now
                     }