BleepingComputer.com: Computer is waking up by itself

Hey everyone!

So for a while now, my laptop seems to like turning itself on by itself. This seems to happen while the laptop is in sleep mode (whether external power or battery); recently it has seemed to do it while in hibernation too.

I've disabled the Wake-On-Lan and 'Automatically resume from sleep if battery low' options in the BIOS, as well as in Device Manager -> (my ethernet card) -> Power Management -> untick 'Allow this device to bring computer out of standby'. I've also tried unplugging the ethernet cable, to no avail.

I've looked in the event log and it doesn't really give me too much to work with; here's some that I found while taking a look at the viewer:

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A few minutes earlier before the above event,

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Although, as mentioned I've disabled WOL already so not sure why that's still coming up (if that's at fault)

If anybody could point me in the right direction on how to go about resolving this problem / the next steps that'd be great. The computer is a laptop running the pre-installed Windows Vista x64.

Thanks!

Is this the first time this has happened? Do you have any other method of connecting to the net? What software was running at the time of hibernation?

Thanks for the reply

cryptodan, on Sep 22 2010, 06:43 AM, said:

No, this has been happening for quite a while. I didn't really get around to trying to resolve it until now.

cryptodan, on Sep 22 2010, 06:43 AM, said:

Yes, I can also use WiFi.

cryptodan, on Sep 22 2010, 06:43 AM, said:

Let's see...the system icon tray shows Windows Live Messenger, Skype, Avast, MagicISO, LogMeIn, Toshiba eco Utility (should be disabled though), 'V.92 Modem On Hold', Health Monitor.

Thanks

Open command prompt and run following command:
powercfg -lastwake
This will list what last woke the computer

Broni, on Sep 22 2010, 09:20 PM, said:

I have manually turned on my computer since the last time it turned on by itself , so unfortunately can't give the exact details on what it said. I did run that command before though when I was trying to see what was wrong; I think it said something about 'RTC' .

funnytim, on Sep 23 2010, 04:00 AM, said:

Skype and LogMeIn can potentially be used to wake up your PC after it goes into sleep mode.

DO you need LogMeIn running on a lap top? Do you actively use it to receive help? Is it a work related tool?

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I need to see exact message.

cryptodan, on Sep 23 2010, 02:29 AM, said:

Well, I guess I don't absolutely need it. I just use it for times when I need to retrieve something from my computer (when I leave it on, of course). I've also recently used it to remotely turn off my computer when I realize it turned on by itself while I'm away (notified through MSN).

I have disabled the Wake-on-LAN feature in Logmein though, but evidently that didn't really help.

Broni, on Sep 23 2010, 03:50 PM, said:

I've been shutting it down completely recently whenever I need to turn it off, but I'll run the command & let you know what it says whenever the problem occurs again.

Did you:

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yet?

Broni, on Sep 29 2010, 06:51 PM, said:

Yup, but it hasn't woken up by itself yet (doing complete shutdowns recently).

This is what I get when I run it now (last startup was manual, by me)

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I guess, you need to wait for new occurrence.

Broni, on Sep 30 2010, 03:32 PM, said:

Alright, here's what it says after turning on by itself again

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Thanks.

Couple of things to try...
- go to BIOS and see, if you have "Wake On Lan" enabled; if so, disable it
- try to put laptop to sleep with ethernet cable unplugged
- check Task Scheduler

Just another thought.

Are you using the built-in touch pad or by chance an external mouse. Have seen monitors return to the Desk top and PCs return to a working state from from what ever surface the mouse was lying on get the slightest vibration.

Hi,

-I have already disabled Wake on Lan in the bios,
-Though this time the cable was plugged in, the problem has previously occured with the Ethernet cable unplugged ( and on battery power too)
-I will check the task scheduler when I get back to my computer; I don't think there is anything there though.

Thanks again.


Edit: I do use a external mouse; however I unplug it when I turn off my laptop. Thanks for the thought

This post has been edited by funnytim: 05 October 2010 - 08:03 PM