HP DV6500t Powers on by itself, Haunted??

Hi all,

I have a 5 month old DV6500t and I swear it is possessed. It turns on by itself all the time. The only way to stop it from happening is to disconnect the battery and the AC adapter when not in use. This is a real pain since I use the laptop at school. If I have it off in my backpack and leave it there over night and try to use it the next day at school, the battery is almost dead and the laptop is on. At first, I thought I wasn't shutting it down all the way before shutting the lid and that was causing it to stay on. So I made sure that it was off before closing the lid and putting it back in my backpack. Mysteriously it turns back on causing the battery to drain.

I really think there is a ghost or something turning it on. There are limited settings in the BIOS for turning off the WiFi which I thought may be causing the issue. I have the Intel 4965AGN WiFi card and Bluetooth. I have tried turning off the WiFi switch in the front and it makes no difference. I have tried disabling all of the networking in windows device manager and made sure all of the auto on settings for the nic and WiFi are disabled. This happens with the battery in only, with the AC adapter only (no battery), and with both while just charging the battery. I have the 9 cell battery if that makes a difference. Also I have the fingerprint reader, webcam, and the BIOS is the newest available F.33. In the BIOS boot options, I have boot from network disabled.

I really think it is haunted. I do not know what else to try. I wish there were more advanced settings in the BIOS to turn off things, but there isn’t. Can anyone help me? I contacted HP support and they are absolutely useless. They wanted me to send in the laptop for a refurb. It is practically brand new and it has been an ongoing problem since day 1. I even called them about the problem a week after I received it. Unfortunately the turnaround time was not good since they wouldn’t ship me a different laptop without first receiving mine back. I needed it for school and purchased it at the beginning of the semester.

Thanks!!!

 

Really Sensitive power switch maybe? or your Quick launch buttons are broken that its making it turn on when you press the Quickplay or DVD button

 

The power button seems fine and no other buttons are pressed. The lid is closed either in my backpack or on my desk at home and the quicklaunch buttons aren't being pressed.

Thanks, but thats not the problem...

 

that is strange, i say!
hope you figure it out, though
that would certainly be inconvenient, to put it one way.

 

check the BIOS for auto wake on a certain time

also, check your automatic windows updates and task scheduler if you are running windows vista...(I think...i've heard that vista can wake itself up?)

 

I believe he disabled wake up on LAN through BIOS

 

this happened to 2 but once. i turned off my computer for once(lol). and i lefted my room and when i came back in i was looked at the lights in the front and i noticed it turned on. my battery was not in there and it was just plugged in so i though it could be the quickplay buttons or my computer is also haunted (lol)

edit: at the time i did a fresh install of home premuim x64 and the q button would not load up quickplay

 

Chatting with HP support right now...

Auto on is off and wake on LAN is also off...

 

tell us the results as soon as u get them

 

Do the startups occur at random times during the day or do they all happen at roughly the same time after the computer is turned off?

 

Start up is totally random. I always know when it happens because the power lights on the front light up. But there is no pattern to the powering on...

 

everything in the BIOS and in device manager that has an auto on setting or wake setting is disabled and it still happens.

 

Windows Update can power on PC, as well. Once, it somehow modified the setting on my laptop by itself, and turned on at 3AM for two night in a row - I noticed that because I had insomnia at that time - bu that really scared me. Oh well, another reason to hate Vista.

 

Well I just finished my chat session and the only thing they told me to do is:

So I am going to try it now and see what happens...

 

12 minutes and it started up by itself again... GRRRR! Gonna chat again.

 

Just save everything and clean install. Something you should do anyways.

 

Been there, done that... twice!

 

Maybe you should call Ghostbusters...

Since theres no other explanation...

or let the monkeys in HP figure this out

 

try remove all power (battery and ac) and then hold down the power button for about 30 sec, and then plug it back in again, and see if it still happens

 

What will that do? I have had the battery and AC disconnected over night. If you are suggesting to do it and hold the power button in to get rid of any remaining power, then I have done that when I reinstalled everything twice. I have also manually reset to factory defaults in BIOS. Nothing seems to work.

I just finished a chat with HP tech and they were of no help as expected. They want me to send the laptop in for repair. This is going to kill me since I need to use the laptop daily. They said that I will receive the same unit back. If I do not, then I will have to call and complain if they try to ship me a refurb. The laptop is in mint condition and is not that old.

 

Doing the 30second thing just resets your CMOS settings

 

Thats what I assumed... Thanks. I am going to send it in and cross my fingers.

 

quickly get a priest to perform an exorcism, its the only way.

 

I can see a BIOS update in the future or the QL buttons will be removed???
I had called my case manager about something not even related to the QL Buttons or the machine turning on by itself.
For some strange reason he asked me what I thought about the QL buttons. Did I get the security update for the buttons?"
I asked, "What does that have to do with my problem?" He said, "Nothing, that he was just talking while he was looking up my problem."

Very strange. Makes me think they are doing some sort of secret survey. I wonder if anyone else was asked for their comments about the QL buttons recently.

Maybe they are thinking of removing them.

 

So do you have the same problem with the laptop turning on by itself? Did you figure out what the cause was?

 

As I posted I called my case manager about something else not related to the computer turning on.

But alot of people have had a problem. When they close the Lid the computer turns on by itself. Or if dust starts to build up on Qicklaunch keys or dirt or something blows over the "Q" ot "DVD" keys it turns on.

I was very surprised that the Case manager asked me about the QL keys.(Out of the Blue)
Almost like he got a bunch of calls about the QL buttons turning on the computer or ghost in the machine. Again it was very strange that he even brought this up.

Good luck.

IMOP. HP needs to put an option in the BIOS to prevent these keys from turning on the computer. Since they no longer provide a Quickplay standalone version with Vista.

If you call HPIT and they tell you they never heard of this problem. They lie and ask for a "WARM Transfer" to speak to a case manger. Don't take no for an answer. I doubt they will have a fix. But at least your name will be added to the list.

 

Well they escalated my problem, what ever that means. I ask if I receive the laptop back and still have the problem, what will they do then. They said the problem will be fixed...

So you think the problem lies in the quick launch buttons? I am running vista so I can't use quick play without turning on the laptop. The BIOS is so bare, i can't believe it. There are no settings to change anything... I even updated the BIOS hoping for more options, but that was a pipe dream...

Thanks for the help.

 

I'm far from an expert. But from reading many posts here and other places on the web about ghost in the machine issues.

Yes, I think It's the QL button thing, Bad on/off switch or bad network card that wants to do a WOL for some reason.

 

My dv9700t won't stay in standby sometimes. This can't be an isolated problem. They told me to do the Device manager --->acpi reinstall thing but it didn't work. I disabled wake on lan on my network devices but I haven't really tested it out that much yet.

 

Well my laptop was just dropped back off to me... There was a slip of paper in the box that detailed what was done. It has a check next to could not duplicate failure. It also stated that they upgraded the firmware... Which they did do since it was updated to F.33 from the website and now has F.45 which isn't even listed on the site. Go figure. I am going to shut it down and let it sit for a while and see what happens. I read somewhere, maybe in this post that the media center remote may be turning on the laptop. Well to confirm, it does. But it starts the laptop in Windows Media Center not regular windows, which is the case in my situation. Besides, it has powered on by itself while I was at school with it sealed in my backpack... My college does have several hotspots for wifi, in fact, I think all the classrooms have it. I'll post back in a bit if it turns on magically again. I wish there were more options in the bios, particularly a way to shut of the remote sensor and wifi catcher.

'til then...

 

Keep us updated, dscrap!

 

I have had the laptop off since yesterday, and it has not turned on... Things are looking good. I currently have it sitting on my desk and I have no IR or RF remotes in this room so I would know if it turned on it wasn't a remote.

I definitely know that a windows media center remote will turn the laptop on, even its own remote in the pci slot turns it on. I am wondering if some of the remotes or wireless networking at my school turns it on as well. Each classroom has wireless and each also has a projector connected to a computer in the front of the class. The professor uses a little remote/pointer to change power point slides and do other things while walking around. I am wondering if that makes the laptop turn on. I'll just have to take it out in class and leave it off to see.

As for now, it seems to be okay. Again, I wish the bios would have more features...

 

Ok, so strangely, my computer crapped up and was reporting that it was missing the windows/system folder so I had to reinstall XP. This time, everything is working fine, including the webcam and the fingerprint reader which were spotty before. I think the problem was that I was using TuneUp Utilities to "clean" my registry and it probably screwed something up. I'm steering clear of that program now, heh.

 

Well its been 4 days and the laptop has not turned on by itself... I guess the new bios fixed the problem.

 

Ok. I skimmed through this thread but didn't read each post(its like a paragraph long). What's the solution? Mine turns on automatically too. When my AC power is plugged in and I shut it down, it starts back up.

 

i think it may be that while the lid is closed the screen touches the buttons. Because on my laptop after having it in my backpack for long periods of time theres an imprint of the outline of the keyboard on the screen.

 

Nope, i have my lid open...so that can't be it.

 

hmm...that's really creepy then.

 

It seriously is...also quite annoying.

 

All I can suggest is updating the BIOS... I sent mine in and thats all they say that was done to it. The problem seemed to have stopped after getting it back. As I did mention in other posts, a windows media center remote will turn on the laptop...

 

Was your AC power plugged in?