Studio 15 booting itsself -wth!?

Yesterday I hibernated my laptop and went into town. When I came back 5/6 hours later, it was booted up and sitting on the desktop.
I was really puzzled, but I figure maybe I didn't hibernate properly (although I'm sure I did).
Last night I hibernated again before going to bed. When I woke up this morning, I was greeted by my desktop, sitting there on my desk!

WTH is going on!?
It's booting and logging in itsself!
If someone steals the machine, all they need to do is leave it a few hours to have full access to all my files.

Some power option screenshots:

 

Well, in that second screenshot, it says 'no password required', so in the relevant modes, you should change 'require password' to yes. That should stop it logging on.

Also have a look at Scheduled Tasks and the Event Manager to see what caused the boot up. Some Tasks have the option of booting up the PC if it is in sleep or hibernate mode. I noticed you have a fair few apps in your system tray - have a look at their settings (esp. backup/antivirus scans/defrag/cleaners/indexing). What happens if you Shut Down instead of hibernating?

Also, if you are connected to a network, I believe (somewhere) there is an option of 'waking on network activity'. Have a look for that as well.

BTW how did you get the nice looking dell dock?

 

Yeah, I saw the password thing and I'll get 'round to changing it... sometime
I'll give a look at the others too.

The dock is Object Dock, not the preloaded Dell one.
http://img143.imageshack.us/my.php?image=92103628ly6.jpg
^ Pic with stacks docklet activated

EDIT: And I don't have that many icons in the sys tray:
Time, Volume, Power, Fingerprint reader, Avast, Windows Sidebar, Bluetooth, ThreatFire, SAS, Dell Quickset.

EDIT2: I have no idea what I should be looking for in any of those, should I just post screenshots?
It's really annoying me

 

I don't know, have you checked the BIOS? Perhaps somebody pranked you and turned on automatic boot at given times? Also I would turn off 'wake on LAN' and prevent USB devices to boot the machine.

 

Well, I think it might have something to do with inserting/removing the power cord and/or closing the lid before fully shutting down. I've been hassle free again today & yesterday.

 

It almost happened again this morning. I was lying in bed and suddenly the power button glowed.
I ran across & opened the lid to see what was happening. When I opened the lid, the CPU activity & EJECT lights were on, it ticked for a while and then went off again. WHAT IS HAPPENING!!!

 

Perhaps this is a stupid thing to say (other ppl in here who know more can tell us), but could this be a virus?
Do you have an antivirus software installed?

 

Avast!, Super Anti Spyware and ThreatFire

 

okay.. auto startup. this brings new meaning to possessed laptop...

check if your computer is set to go to sleep when you close the lid, and you when shut down your not closing the lid before it shuts down..

also i know its a stupid question, but how are you shuting down. are you using the button on the start menu, or are you opening the menu in the start menu and then selecting shutdown. because the button in the start menu can be configured!

 

It's configured to hibernate, which is what I'm doing.
I think it has sth to do with either removing/inserting the power cord and/or closing the lid before it's finished shutting down.
I'm gonna change it so closing the lid does nothing, and pressing the power button sleeps and see what happens

 

Check the bios to ensure you haven't set it to wake on lan, power etc. etc. Chances are that you have simply left one of those settings on and so the bios is waking the laptop when something occurs.

The hibernate functions you are using in the OS are there to complement the bios settings so check both.

 

I experienced this too, it started like at 3am in the morning (very rude), and I shut it then down.
I hasn't happened again, but it's quite interesting what this laptop does, besides of the fan problem, that I've got... I'm calling Dell today, because it might be possible, that they have to replace my board.

 

My computer was configured to automatically turn on and install Windows updates at 3 am each morning. I've turned it off now and hope that solves the problem.

 

I suppose the last resort will be to get an exorcist and get yourself some religion

 

I am having the same problem. Laptop turns automatically on @ random times. I'm running Windows7 and I set windows updates to manual. When this happens the mute & volume up leds are flashing while the volume down is constantly on, and yes, it doesn't turn off automatically until it eats up all the baterry (down to 0% which is very frustrating). I can't speak to service department since I bought the laptop outside US. I'm waiting for an answer from the local dell service, but without any hope to getting this solved until an BIOS update from Dell.

 

That's a pretty weird issue, if you don't have "Wake on LAN, Wake on USB" settings enabled in the BIOS. See if you can disable them.

My power management is the default Windows 7 settings, and I close the lid to "Sleep". I'm not getting any "self-booting" issues on my Studio 17. It only comes on when I open the lid, never before.

Try this: Set your power button to "Hibernate" and your lid to "Sleep". When you're done using the laptop, just close the lid. See if you get a "self-boot" with it like that.

Man, is it just me, or is there a million and one issues with the Studio 15? So glad I bought a 17

 

I had the same problem with a Sony notebook. I had no idea how a notebook could turn itself on out of hibernation. I thought there was something wrong hardware wise with the machine. Turns outs for some reason a failed update in windows update was making the machine turn itself on. I fixed the update that had failed that would make the notebook turn it self on in the middle of the night. Once that update was manually patched the problem is gone and has never occured again. GL