Try holding the power button until the tablet restarts. That is the equivalent to a battery pull.
@Golfdriver - This is what I do whenever I want to shut down and restart, maybe once a week or so (other than that, I just let it sleep). Is this an OK practice or should I be doing the standard 2 step process (i.e. power down and then restart by pressing the power button)?
whave @safe mode' displayed on screen and cannot get rid of it. have tried battery pull, reboot and even complete reset of factory settings but it doesn't go away. any ideas? any ideas!!