Software upgrade shuts computer off immediately

When attempting to use Software Upgrade some errors were encountered to the effect that a package failed. One of these advised ruing the command "apt-get install -f" which I did. Software Upgrade seemed, for a while, to be in the deadly embrace. In that, when invoked it appeared to start over searching for applicable upgrades and then reproducing the same list. Eventually, choosing "Installation" resulted in having the computer tued off. I say tued off rather than shutdown because it happens very fast. Much faster than shutdown would take. Now the computer is in a state where any attempt to start the the Software Upgrade tus the computer off.

The version of Ubuntu is 14.04.4 LTS
The computer is a Dell Laptop (Latitude D810)

Is there some way to recover which doesn't involve the need to use the Software Updater?