(1)Is there a better and quicker method to close the computer.
At the CDE v1.5 desk top.
Log Out
At log in screen I go to Options/Session/Failsafe Session
Put in user root & password (computer has only one user root on a P2P network)
A command window opens at #.
Here I have tried all these
Init 0
Init 5
Init 6
Shutdown -i 0 -r 10 -y
and the computer keeps rebooting.
At this on the computer screen
"The System is Down"
"Syncing file system...done"
"Type any Key to Continue"
I turn off the power to the computer.
Sure takes a long time.

(2)As root, you can issue the command 
shutdown -y -g 0 -i 0

from any prompt without having to close your CDE session.

Also see if the command

poweroff

works on your hardware.

(3)David. Thanks for your reply.
Tried both the methods you suggested but it only gets me back to the same spot
"The System is Down"
"Syncing file system...done"
"Type any Key to Continue"
where I have to manually turn off the computer at the power switch. If I hit any key it restarts.
Anyway, from the CDE desktop to HOSTS/Console and type in POWEROFF is certainly a lot quicker than my method.
Have 2 more of these old IPEX machines with W98se and NT4/sp6a and they obey the compute powers off okay.
Perhaps Solaris 9 x86 is too new for these old computers, circa 1996.

(4)Some intel hardware respects the poweroff command and others only take you to a halt state. The same could be said of the same hardware with linux or *BSD.