I don't like to shut down my computer very often, but do like to put it to sleep when I go to sleep. These things use a lot of power even when idling. So, once again, I like to put it to sleep to save power but don't really feel like going through the startup process or reopening large projects every time I leave the house or go to bed. Sooo, I press the sleep button on the keyboard and my computer goes into sleep mode. Buuuut, about 3-15 minutes later it wakes back up on its own and sits here idling. It does this without bumping the mouse, pushing anything on the keyboard, or on the remote. I have no idea why and would like it to stop. Do you guys have any suggestions of settings or ideas as to what might be waking it back up? Help would be much appreciated.

LOL no not unless you have a spirit in the house playing with your computer..

I don't put my computer on sleep,especially when I'm sleeping at night.Y can't u just shout it down when u are sleeping?

Because I often stay up late at night working on very large projects with multiple or complex programs open. I quick-save the information before I go to sleep, but don't wanna go through the process of saving, organizing, and shutting it all down, then retrieving it all in the morning. It'd be nicer to pull my mouse off the charger and have my computer start back up with everything still open and ready to work. Not trying to be a d!ck or argue or anything; it's just a big process to save all the information and shut down multiple programs or computers when working on these things. Much easier to just quick-save and push a couple sleep buttons.

Give us some more info please. What brand and model of computer, what OS (which version of windows or OSX) and is it current on updates?

In XP you can just go to the Start button at the bottom, click on Control Panel, Power Options, should have sleep there...I have hibernate which might be the same thing.

Yes, that is what I can do....but I always turn mine completely off, even the power source, when I am done with my computer.

If you are working on big projects, I would assume that you would have the current updates, but in the case of XP, if you don't have at least SP1, sleep mode is not available, and using the function from your keyboard, would only hibernate it for about 10-30 minutes.
There is also the possibility that if any of your projects are connected to the internet for resources or updates, the BIOS might have the LAN set to wake up the computer in that event.
However, the above question is legitimate, we do need at least some basic info on your OS and system to be able to give you proper advice.

OK, program updates, good theory, but wouldn't there be some sort of updating notification window or something?

It does have a sleep option under the start menu, but not hibernate. I'm about to go bed now and I'll try putting it down that way tonight instead of the sleep button on the keyboard. Will letcha know what happens tomorrow.

System Info:

- HP Media Center m8300f
- Windows Vista Home Premium 32 bit w/ Service Pack 1...and I believe current on all other updates
- AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 6000+ 3.0 GHz
- 3.0 GB RAM
- 640 GB Hard Drive
- some kind of NVidia 512 MB video card...forgot exactly what kind...it's aftermarket.

um....anything else you need? I'll be happy to provide it.

...or other specifications can be found here:

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/ca/en/ho/WF06b/12132708-12133156-12133158-12133158-12133158-81574412-81574610.html

Everything is stock except for the video card upgrade.

Thanks.


quick update: sleep mode from the start menu did not work.

Put your mouse under the sleep mode in the "Turn Off, Restart, Sleep" screen and press shift at the same time the sleep mode will turned into Hibernate option.

Like a previous person said if your connected to the internet directly any programs trying or just checking for updates can re awake your PC and also if your BIOS under the Power Options you may have them set up to wake up for all the different option (Wake Up LAN, Keyboard, Mouse and +)

Puters are suppose to go to sleep??? Dang bad enough I got to chase 2 boys into bed at night now I gotta start puttin my puter to sleep 2???

Alrighty.

So....

I never found the shift feature you mentioned in the start menu.

But...

I did look under the Power Options in the start menu. I didn't see anything to change what may wake up the computer.

However...

I did find an option to change exactly what the sleep button does and switched that from sleep to hibernate.

I haven't tested it quite yet and I'm not exactly sure what the difference is between sleep and hibernate. Is hibernation still going to keep my programs open and allow for quick startup when I get ready to go again? Any other differences I might wanna know about?

OK, I read up on the difference between sleep and hibernation after searching for the help menu for a while. Suprizingly, the information I wanted was actually there, and even more suprizingly, easy to find. So the only difference I found was where the computer saves the information before it goes into sleep/hibernation.

And after reading this and trying switching the modes, it STILL made no difference in whether or not my computer stays in low power state. It STILL wakes back up after less than 2 minutes.

Earlier we questioned the automatic program/software/whatever updating. Sounded like a good theory. But surely my computer is not waking back up to update itself or another program EVERY TIME within two minutes of putting it into low power mode.

Any other suggestions? Menus I can look up? Settings I can change? Whatever?

One of your devices might be doing this.

Here is what you do.

right click on "my computer" select properties, then hardware settings. now check all the hardware (especially hard drives and optical drives and so on, on their properties, whether or not it would say "allow this device to be turned off to save power". Make sure that is selected.


Other:

It could be a software doing this. You can try to manually disconnect from the web before putting it into the sleep mode, do this by right clicking on the connections in the control panel and select disable. Later on just enable it by double clicking on it.

some process. downloading updates, background archiving, virus checker, disk cleanup utility - could be some obnoxious adware or worse...something like that. check all your bios settings and automated processes looking for stuff that might be running itself whenever the machine idles...clean up and check with multiple tools, i say just shut it down and fire it back up later.

Try this:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/fix-sleep-mode-randomly-waking-up-issue-in-windows-vista/

Problem solved. You rock, Lori! And when you rock, you rock hard. I love you.

Just proving once again that I’m the smart one and you just need to sit back and be sexy.

I love you as well.