computer wakes from sleep state by itself, is this a problem?

[frozentundra123456]

I am having a strange problem with a fairly basic off the shelf Acer computer with an E4500 cpu and a 9600GT, 3gb ram, Vista home premium 32 bit.

If I put the computer into sleep mode, is goes into that mode properly. If I manually try to wake it, it works properly. However, if I leave the comp in sleep mode, it will eventually wake itself up. The computer will then stay in full on mode indefinitely.

Is this indicative of a problem, or does the machine sometimes automatically wake up to download updates or perform scheduled tasks such as media center tasks??

My main concern is that there is some sort of malware that is causing the computer to wake up and is taking control over it. I have run AdAware, Malware Bytes, Avira anitvirus and windows defender and do not detect any problems.

Hope someone has some ideas about what is going on.

 

[tvih]

I noticed that happening sometimes with my ITX system too. No idea why and doesn't happen every time. Though after putting the computer to sleep I usually turn off the power from the extension cable hub thingie too, so it can't really wake up.

 

[Majic 7]

I had this a few years ago on a HP XP machine when I switched from dial-up to Qwest DSL. I tried to find out what was going on but everyone I called directed me to someone else. Bought a gaming XP32 machine from ABS that still did it. It would wake in the middle of the night about once or twice a week and would stay on. It stopped doing it when I upgraded my DSL to the next supposedly faster offering. According to Qwest it couldn't possibly be anything connected with them. I was new to computers then and didn't have a clue where to look. Did have me worried while it was happening. Like the OP I ran everything I had to find malware.

 

[Schmide]

Is WOL (Wake On Lan) enabled in bios.

 

[seemingly random]

Ghost busters?

Do you have any animals that might bump the mouse?

Vista added a boatload of scheduled tasks. You might check the task manager.

 

[imported_hansen]

Yea i also noticed this happening with my computer,No idea why.May be when electricity fluctuates.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Originally posted by: Schmide
Is WOL (Wake On Lan) enabled in bios.

Did not know there was even such a setting. You are serious, right??
I have never really gone into the bios settings, I am afraid of messing something up.

In reply to random, no there are not any animals in the room with the computer when it is in sleep mode.

I do have Q-West 1.5 mbit DSL though.

 

[Majic 7]

Like I said it stopped when I went from 1.5 to 7 DSL. I had this problem through two machines, two apts on opposite sides of town. Seems like it might have something to do with it. Can't say for sure.

 

[Schmide]

Originally posted by: frozentundra123456
I have never really gone into the bios settings, I am afraid of messing something up.

It's pretty common.

You could put it to sleep and unplug the network cable, if it doesn't wake up. Look in your bios.

 

[seemingly random]

Originally posted by: Schmide

Originally posted by: frozentundra123456
I have never really gone into the bios settings, I am afraid of messing something up.

It's pretty common.

You could put it to sleep and unplug the network cable, if it doesn't wake up. Look in your bios.

I would start in the power down (not sleep) state and disconnect the lan cable - if real convinced that it's lan related, I'd uninstall the lan driver. Then power up see if it behaves the same.

My experience has been that it'll wake up at seemingly random times but then after a 'while', it'll go back to sleep. One of the good things about vista was the advances with sleep/wake up cycle. xp would go to sleep unpredictably and never wake up by a keystroke. vista always works. Curious how this functionality was "just not possible" on xp but magically works with vista and on the same h/w. I've gotten into the habit of trusting vista to shut off the monitor when I've configured it and turn back when I hit a key. One machine that is setup to never sleep but turn the monitor off fairly (10 min) seemed to always behave as I expected. Occasionally, I return 12 hours later and the monitor was still on. It turns out that, after paying attention more carefully, vista wakes up the monitor for random events and then puts it back to sleep after a while.

The event manager is pretty good - some say too verbose. There may be a record of what's happened.

 

[seemingly random]

Originally posted by: frozentundra123456

Originally posted by: Schmide
Is WOL (Wake On Lan) enabled in bios.

Did not know there was even such a setting. You are serious, right??
I have never really gone into the bios settings, I am afraid of messing something up.

In reply to random, no there are not any animals in the room with the computer when it is is sleep mode.

I do have Q-West 1.5 mbit DSL though.

If you're afraid of the bios, I assume this means it's never been upgraded. I'd get on this asap. You can use a usb key assuming it's a relatively new mb (pretty much all have this capability if manufactured less than three years ago), to do it. Don't be nervous, it's pretty much foolproof. Just don't power off the pc in the middle of an update. Check the mb manual. The mb forum here can be helpful with this. The way most people make the mb inoperable is with something like asus's update program that runs under windows. There are a few options about configuring all options to defaults, optimal mode, etc. Setting to defaults is your fail-safe. I check the mb site every month or so and always update if the latest version is new. Some will give warnings about 'unnecessary' upgrades. I've never updated to the detriment of the pc. It's always had no apparent effect or fixed something making things better.

It seems highly unlikely that dsl speed is even remotely related, but after a while one learns to never say never.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: seemingly random
Ghost busters?

A system I built years ago used to turn itself on. Not from sleep mode, but from fully powered off (but plugged in). It was over a 3 month period when the system was used in a particular house. It never exhibited that behavior before, nor after the stay at that house.

Here is the house, a duplex at the Roseburg, Oregon VA Hospital.

For the OP, perhaps see if it does the same thing in safe mode. Does power management even work in safe mode?

 

[jmagg]

Under device manager>Mice and other..>Power management, uncheck "allow this device to wake the computer"

also, from a command prompt

powercfg lastwake

this will show the device that brought the machine out of sleep.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Thanks for all the replies. Apparently it is not from the DSL, since I unplugged from the internet last night and it did do the same thing. I just remembered that I do have Media Center maintainence scheduled in the early AM. Maybe it is waking itself up to do this. Anyway, since it is happening to a lot of other people, I am not as concerned as I originally was.