Preserved Topic: Can this be called "broken"?

I can't turn my computer off.

I turn it off, and half an hour later it turns itself back on. It's as though it purposely wants to annoy me out of spite or something. I can't figure out what's wrong. The power button doesn't seem to be stuck down or anything. I'm a little worried about it being on all the time in this hot weather, and it's also sort of frustrating when it wakes me up by turning itself on at night.

So, I assume this isn't a *software* issue... if the computer's off, how could software be running to turn it on?

What's even more annoying is that this is a laptop, so I can't just cut its power supply overnight, since it has a battery.

So... has anyone heard of this before? It's just really weird.

(You know, we recently had to get a new TV because our old one couldn't turn off. We'd turn it off, and the little channel LED display would turn off, and the sound would go silent, but the picture wouldn't disappear unless we unplugged it. Why can't we have *normal* can't-turn-it-on problems??)

[This message has been edited by Slime (edited 07-03-2002).]

Isn't that what happened to the television on "Poltergeist" shortly before the little girl was sucked into it?

How comforting.

Maninacan Cell #471
kewl
Mad Scientists

it turns itself back on?
holy cow, sorry slime but i've never heard of this before!!!!

maybe a bios bug? i think you can configure the power button, so maybe there is some sort of auto-switch enabled?


CELL 557

GET OUT OF THE HOUSE!!!





.:[ Never resist a perfect moment ]:.

I seem to remember Shii having gremlins messing with her computer quite some time ago. Maybe those little buggers have set up a new home in your computer?

"They're heeeere!"

Cell Number: 494

Don't by chance have 'scheduled tasks' running in the background... nah cudn't be that simple...try a hammer!

check to see if pc is plugged into main
if not then goto bitdamaged post


~We're not here for long, we're here for fun~

I know it amy be annoying...but pull the bloody battery out of it when you want it to stay off.

Koan 63, written on the wall of cell number 250:
Those who Believe
Can
Those who Try
Do
Those who Love
Live

I read somewhere about some laptops that actually power on when your battery power is low. things to make you go hmm......



.:[ Never resist a perfect moment ]:.

have you checked in your power profile for anything related to a hibernation scheme? I turn that crap off altogether on laptops first thing cuz it does strange things like that that I can't figure out.

Turning itself on later though? That's pretty odd. Yeah, if hibernation isn't it, pull the battery after shutting down til you figger it out, if it still comes on, be afraid.

Jason

Have you tried dropping it from the height of 1 metric centimetre on to a hard surface like a table? It might work - I suspect JKMabry might be on the money.

___________________
Emps

FAQs: Emperor

Yep, my first guest would be something along the lines of hibernation. My second guess would be demonic possession.

I can think of two (non-supernatural) things that may cause this: Wake on LAN and Wake on Modem. Both can be set in the BIOS. Be sure they're set to off if you don't want the PC to start every time another PC in the house tries to access it or the modem detects a ring.

There might be other "Wake on" items in there too. I think mine can be set to wake on USB and some other stuff.

Hope this helps!

<edit>
Oh. Didn't see that this was a laptop. I'm sure you've already done this, but it can't hurt to double-check to be certain it's not going to sleep or hibernating when you hit the power button. Personally, I hate programmable power buttons, (I want off to be off not kinda-sorta-off-but-not-totally-off), but they're all that way now.

Norton Anti-Virus scheduler used to wake up my roommate's ThinkPad in the middle of the night to live update. Drove him nuts because he didn't have anything set up in the Windows scheduler and he never thought about other applications having their own schedulers.

If all else fails, unplug it AND take out the battery.
</edit>

"the most incredible feats are often accomplished by
those who have had the most incredible challenges"

[This message has been edited by brucew (edited 07-04-2002).]

Hmm, OK, thanks everyone. I'll look into those things you mentioned, and give my pastor a call if it turns out to be demonic possesion.

Have you timed how long it takes to turn itself on ? If tis always the same, then its something really weird like the "low-battery turn off" working in reverse. Otherwise if its totally random I'd say its dodgy button or loose something.

Hi Slime!

My wife and I had a similiar problem with our Mac when we first got it. Macintosh found out it was related to the power card when we sent it in to their tech department. Rather than make us wait while they fixed it, they shipped us a new identical computer for free.

Is your computer still under warranty?

Check for any energy saver or hibernation/wake up programs as well.

could it be a WakeOn LAN setup you are running?
i tried that sometime ago to start up my computer from anywhere via the IP.

Mayhaps it be the power outlets/set up in your house? Seeing as how you've had a simular problem with a TV before... just wondering...

njuice42 Cell # 551
icq 957255

um... maybe you sleepwalk and turn to power on by mistake?


Code - CGI - links - DHTML - Javascript - Perl - programming - Magic - http://www.twistedport.com
ICQ: 67751342

Hmm... Slime has been quite on this for a while. I think the demons in his computer have finally gotten to him...

Well, see, it doesn't really matter anymore, since I'm playing Warcraft III 24/7 anyway.

Trying to get better at multiplayer. I keep losing... not horribly, but after a few battles my opponent tends to gain the upper hand. It's difficult.

Isn't that the whole point...so it's challenging?


Koan 63, written on the wall of cell number 250:
Those who Believe
Can
Those who Try
Do
Those who Love
Live

Well, yes, of course, but the point is that there are others better than me =)

if you can't fix it just plug everything into a power bar and turn the power bar off. You may also want to check for viruses.