Strange events in the middle of the night

[andrewducker]

Last night we were awoken by my laptop suddenly turning itself on.  I had placed it by the side of the bed in standby before we went to sleep, and was a bit disturbed to see it turn on.  So I just opened the case and closed it again, causing it to go back into standby.

This morning I was somewhat surprised to see a "Windows rebooted itself to install updates" message waiting for me when I turned it on.

Would Windows actually wake up from standby to install updates, and reboot itself?  You'd think that it would at least wait for the next time I brought it out of standby before installing the updates...

Comments

[cangetmad.livejournal.com]

So even in standby it's communing with the mothership? That's a bit creepy.

[red-phil.livejournal.com]

wake on LAN activity set?

[bracknellexile.livejournal.com]

Depends what "standby" by closing the lid is I guess. If it's just screen off, disks spun down and CPU on reduced power then I guess Windows is still "running".

Probably not the same as Start | Shutdown | Standby.

Mine will still wake up even in the latter state if the battery's low, just enough to put itself into hibernate.

[andrewducker]

Naah, it's set to go into proper standby when the lid is closed.

Looks like it automatically turned itself on at 3am - which is when MS defaults to installing updates. I've now changed it to 7pm.

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

If you are serious that it was on "proper standby" ...

"Maintains your sessions, keeping the computer running on lower power with data still in memory" (start menu, shut down, standby)

unlike "Hibernate" or "Shutdown"

So it was always on.

Notice how I don't point and laugh (I got home from work with my shouldbag roasting hot ... laptop on standby was still blowing hot air out of the vent but into the backpack slot and slowly cooking itself, and my back!)

[andrewducker]

Yes, it was "on", but it wasn't in an active state, and I've never seen a Windows machine move itself out of standby mode back to "active" mode unless it was doing so to hibernate itself. I didn't realise it was something they did.

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

I guess it depends on your definition of "active" ... tasks are still running, network connections are being maintained, and I guess the timed checking by Windows Update still kicked in, found an update and applied it ... I always have mine set to "prompt" so that it doesn't reboot the machine without asking (unless it is an urgent one which I think overrides that ... not sure)

No, I don't think I realised it did it either.

[andrewducker]

In ACPI S3 (which is what standby is) the CPU has no power and all devices are turned off. RAM is being kept refreshed, but everything else is off.

http://www.lifsoft.com/power/faq.htm

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

Thanks I didn't know that.

Is the timer interrupt external to the CPU then?

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/learnmore/russel_02march25.mspx
"In Standby mode, your computer might appear to be turned off but it could automatically restart"

And from your S3 page
"Once the system goes to sleep, it will "wake up" when the mouse is moved,any key is pressed on the keyboard or the power button is pressed. Auto Power-on & Shut-down can wake up the computer from stand-by or hibernation state at specified time and to do something automatically."

So if Windows Update sets a timer for when to check for updates, that could wake the machine, as could accidentally moving a USB mouse.

[andrewducker]

Yeah - looks like that's handled by the BIOS - it can wake up the CPU and get things restarted if it thinks there's a good reason (like the mouse being waggled, keyboard being pressed, etc.)

I suspect, therefore, that Windows sets a timer for 3am, runs its job then, and then goes back to sleep after a bit.

Note to Self: Do not leave laptop lying in bedroom unless you want to be awoken at 3am! Or, as I've actually done, change the install time to 8pm :->

[captainlucy.livejournal.com]

Skynet is waking up...

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

Back when I lived under a runway, my laptop used to turn itself on when jets passed overhead. I have a vague theory about radio signals. I also have a vague theory about Skynet.

[broin.livejournal.com]

If you turned it on and jets passed overhead, I'd be especially worried,