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    Why does my laptop wake from standby in the middle of the night?

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by Simic, May 17, 2008.

  1. Simic

    Simic Notebook Consultant

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    I usually leave my laptop (Vostro 1400 running XP) on a desk not far from my bed. Nearly every night lately (perhaps every night and I just don't always wake up) my laptop wakes up from sleep mode...I usually hear that Windows boot-up tone or sometimes it's the spinning of the hard-drive or disc drive if I've left a CD in that wakes me up.

    Does this suggest a serious virus or trojan? Could it be a BIOS issue? I know nobody can answer for sure, but I'm curious how people would got about addressing this. Welcoming all suggestions. I can't recall any other notably unusual probelms in my day-to-day use though there have been a few instances lately when programs (including Word) would not open and I had to restart the computer.
     
    Simic, May 17, 2008
    #1
  2. booboo12

    booboo12 Notebook Prophet

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    I know that my computer wakes up occasionally for things like checking email but it goes back to sleep...
     
    booboo12, May 17, 2008
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  3. Deathwinger

    Deathwinger Notebook Virtuoso

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    It's haunted. Perform an exorcism and you'll be fine.

    Probably a scheduled program, do you have windows update check around that time?
     
    Deathwinger, May 17, 2008
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  4. John Ratsey

    John Ratsey Moderately inquisitive Super Moderator

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    Have a look in the event log and see what is triggering the wakeup. It could be some software checking for an update. You can also go into the power management and make sure that no devices are allowed to wake up the computer.

    I use hibernate and not sleep for overnight - there's far less risk of these unwanted wake ups.

    John
     
    John Ratsey, May 17, 2008
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  5. Arki

    Arki Super Moderator

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    Could be your ethernet setting. Go into Device Manager and go the the advanced tab of your ethernet driver and disable wake on setting.

    Hopefully, that helps.
     
    Arki, May 17, 2008
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  6. coolguy

    coolguy Notebook Prophet

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    It's a ghost :confused:
     
    coolguy, May 17, 2008
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  7. ScuderiaConchiglia

    ScuderiaConchiglia NBR Vaio Team Curmudgeon

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    What time is your antivirus set to check for updates? What time is Windows Update set to check for updates?

    Gary
     
    ScuderiaConchiglia, May 17, 2008
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  8. Nocturnal310

    Nocturnal310 Notebook Virtuoso

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    after all the things mentioned above dont work then let us know..

    i had a similar problem on my XP laptop long back..fixed it.
     
    Nocturnal310, May 17, 2008
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  9. Icewalker

    Icewalker Notebook Consultant

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    Or, Wake-on-LAN could be enabled in BIOS. Go to BIOS and disable this setting if it's there. That did the trick for me once.
     
    Icewalker, May 18, 2008
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  10. Simic

    Simic Notebook Consultant

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    Thanks for all the suggestions everybody. I will look into it and post back results.
     
    Simic, May 18, 2008
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  11. Shyster1

    Shyster1 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    It could also be something like a connected USB device, depending on how many devices have been enabled to trigger a wake signal on the computer (worse yet, it may be being caused by a device that is not supposed to be sending a wake signal, but that has a buggy implementation that allows it to do so).

    The best advice right now is John Ratsey's - check the performance logs and, if they're not set up to log right now, set them up so that they log wake events.
     
    Shyster1, May 18, 2008
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  12. jisaac

    jisaac Notebook Deity

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    it is most probably a scheduled service, which are normally configured to run early in the morning. you should disable automatic updating and disable automatic defragmenting/ virus checks, as a previous poster said- the event log should tell you what
     
    jisaac, May 18, 2008
    #12