Insomniac Laptop?
June 27, 2010 8:47 PM Subscribe
My friend just got a new laptop, and every time she attempts to shut it down, within a few seconds it turns itself back on. Halp?
From the box:
Windows 7 Home Edition 32 bit
Dell Vostro v13
Intel Core 2 Duo U7300 1.30 ghz
2 gb RAM
The only things that have been downloaded are Pidgin and Firefox
If there's any more information that would be helpful please let me know.
From the box:
Windows 7 Home Edition 32 bit
Dell Vostro v13
Intel Core 2 Duo U7300 1.30 ghz
2 gb RAM
The only things that have been downloaded are Pidgin and Firefox
If there's any more information that would be helpful please let me know.
There are a lot of different ways to shut down windows. Which is she using?
The pulldown menu in the lower right corner of the start button popup? (Choices are "hibernate", "sleep", "shut down", plus also things like "log off"?
Or pressing the power button?
Or closing the lid?
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:03 PM on June 27, 2010 [1 favorite]
The pulldown menu in the lower right corner of the start button popup? (Choices are "hibernate", "sleep", "shut down", plus also things like "log off"?
Or pressing the power button?
Or closing the lid?
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:03 PM on June 27, 2010 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Loser: No usb devices connected at all, she followed the instructions given and nothing came up.
Chocolate Pickle: Start menu, power button after setting it to shut down, and then to sleep and hibernate for good measure, all of which resulted in momentary shut off and immediately turning back on. Closing it puts it to sleep for a similar length of time and then it wakes back up.
posted by EtzHadaat at 9:49 PM on June 27, 2010
Chocolate Pickle: Start menu, power button after setting it to shut down, and then to sleep and hibernate for good measure, all of which resulted in momentary shut off and immediately turning back on. Closing it puts it to sleep for a similar length of time and then it wakes back up.
posted by EtzHadaat at 9:49 PM on June 27, 2010
Start menu, power button after setting it to shut down, and then to sleep and hibernate for good measure, all of which resulted in momentary shut off and immediately turning back on.
The first part of this makes it sound like you're using Start -> Shut Down and then pressing the external power button on the laptop. Just to be clear you should only need to click the Start Button and then Shut Down and then just wait, without pressing any more buttons.
Also, have you tried only holding down the external power button for ~6 seconds?
Both of these steps from the user manual.
posted by carsonb at 10:23 PM on June 27, 2010 [1 favorite]
The first part of this makes it sound like you're using Start -> Shut Down and then pressing the external power button on the laptop. Just to be clear you should only need to click the Start Button and then Shut Down and then just wait, without pressing any more buttons.
Also, have you tried only holding down the external power button for ~6 seconds?
Both of these steps from the user manual.
posted by carsonb at 10:23 PM on June 27, 2010 [1 favorite]
Have you checked the power management / ACPI settings in the BIOS?
posted by wongcorgi at 10:37 PM on June 27, 2010
posted by wongcorgi at 10:37 PM on June 27, 2010
Loser - thank you x1000. Op hope it solves it for you also.
posted by clarkie666 at 11:03 PM on June 27, 2010
posted by clarkie666 at 11:03 PM on June 27, 2010
carsonb: "Also, have you tried only holding down the external power button for ~6 seconds? "
Maybe it's different but on every laptop I've used, doing this is the way to force a hard shutdown when it freezes, and thus Windows won't shut down properly and you'll be greeted with the "Windows didn't shut down properly" screen on your next boot.
Under Control Panel > Power Options in the sidebar there are options to change what the buttons and closing the lid do... shut down or sleep. Try changing them?
posted by IndigoRain at 12:24 AM on June 28, 2010
Maybe it's different but on every laptop I've used, doing this is the way to force a hard shutdown when it freezes, and thus Windows won't shut down properly and you'll be greeted with the "Windows didn't shut down properly" screen on your next boot.
Under Control Panel > Power Options in the sidebar there are options to change what the buttons and closing the lid do... shut down or sleep. Try changing them?
posted by IndigoRain at 12:24 AM on June 28, 2010
Holding the power button down isn't good; it can leave the disk dirty.
If you choose shut down with the menu and then briefly press the power button, that's not what you're supposed to do. It may be interpreting the power button as a "wake back up again" event.
Choosing one of the shut-down choices in the menu doesn't result in the computer shutting off immediately. It takes a while for it to clean things up so it can shut down safely. Just choose the menu, and then be patient.
Or hit the power button briefly without using that menu. But what you'll get from that depends on how things are set up. To see that, open the control panel and choose "Power Options". One of the choices on the left column is "Choose what the power button does". Check that out. On my system I've got it set for "hibernnate" for the power button both on battery and when plugged in.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 12:49 AM on June 28, 2010
If you choose shut down with the menu and then briefly press the power button, that's not what you're supposed to do. It may be interpreting the power button as a "wake back up again" event.
Choosing one of the shut-down choices in the menu doesn't result in the computer shutting off immediately. It takes a while for it to clean things up so it can shut down safely. Just choose the menu, and then be patient.
Or hit the power button briefly without using that menu. But what you'll get from that depends on how things are set up. To see that, open the control panel and choose "Power Options". One of the choices on the left column is "Choose what the power button does". Check that out. On my system I've got it set for "hibernnate" for the power button both on battery and when plugged in.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 12:49 AM on June 28, 2010
A different question: Does the machine have an ethernet cable plugged into it? On some systems, the ethernet interface can waken the computer and that's controlled by a setting in the BIOS.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 12:50 AM on June 28, 2010
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 12:50 AM on June 28, 2010
I had a similar issue with a desktop PC I recently built... After trying everything (a lot of which is mentioned here), someone suggested clearing the CMOS/BIOS, and that did the trick. Does you BIOS have a "Reset to Defaults" option? If so, trying that may help.
posted by benzo8 at 4:32 AM on June 28, 2010
posted by benzo8 at 4:32 AM on June 28, 2010
All these suggestions are good. It also could be a tricky power button.
posted by gjc at 5:41 AM on June 28, 2010
posted by gjc at 5:41 AM on June 28, 2010
I'd go into the BIOS and look for a reset option. If not, I know this should't be worth saying but call Dell. It's new so they should have no problem fixing it - no matter how inconvenient it is shipping it back and forth.
posted by glenno86 at 7:40 AM on June 28, 2010
posted by glenno86 at 7:40 AM on June 28, 2010
I had an iMac that refused to sleep. It turned out to be bad firmware in the keyboard. Don't rule out bad firmware in the integrated USB devices.
posted by chairface at 12:53 PM on June 28, 2010
posted by chairface at 12:53 PM on June 28, 2010
One of my old laptops did that when the internal wifi card started going bad.
posted by dws at 8:01 PM on June 28, 2010
posted by dws at 8:01 PM on June 28, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Loser at 9:03 PM on June 27, 2010 [1 favorite]