So Monday night I did the normal routine of closing down my laptop (into standby) and going to bed. I woke up in the morning and it was running (still closed) and I thought "well, maybe I shut it too slow last night that it didn't shut down." When I opened it up, the screen was black and I ended up shutting it down. The next night, I shut it and made sure it went off. When I woke up Tuesday morning, the same thing happened. Upon reopening it, it was the same as before. I turned it off the other nights until last night. Sure enough, I woke up this morning and it was on. However, I can leave it in standby mode during the day and it's fine. It seems like only at night it wants to turn on. A case of laptop insomnia?

I haven't tried it in standby yet with it being open (as opposed to closed). I might try that tonight. I also haven't tried it without going into standby. My laptop will be three-years-old this Christmas and it seems that any electronic device is "old" after six months. I currently don't have enough money to buy a new laptop so I want to KEEP this one going until May or June when I'll get a new one for college.

But, until then, this laptop needs to keep on truckin'. I'm an avid writer and all my files are stored on it. I would die if my laptop died. =[ Even time it freezes, my heart skips a beat. Every time I start it up, I hold my breath. Back in September I was having issues (which randomly went away). There were a few times where it wouldn't start back up or couldn't find the drive. But it's been fine up until Monday. =[

I don't know what the problem is. I've always done this at night. I don't have anything running at night, either. I'm thinking about staying up tonight and seeing around what time it goes on. If it goes on at an abnormal time, then there's an issue. But if it goes on around a specific hour (like 3 or 4) then maybe it's something updating. But I have never had this issue before and the fact that it freezes up alone scares me.

I'm running Windows XP and Service Pack 2, I believe. My laptop is a Dell Inspiron 6000. I have KASPERSKY Anti-Virus and Webroot Spy Sweeper installed. I've ran them before with nothing popping up (besides those pesky cookies). I also have 2GB (which I upgraded last Christmas ). I'm just hoping there will be a this Christmas. And my next birthday (in May). Any thoughts on why this could be happening? All insight is appreciated.

~NatashaHi

You probably don't have to baby sit the computer at night.
Windows XP has an event viewer which should SHOW what times the computer switches off and on, and MANY other useful things (like who logged on and when.)

If you only close the computer into standby mode :-
it is ready to wake up when a passing vehicle shakes the house and vibrates the keyboard ;
it may well wake up if the internet / modem gets a signal;
perhaps a schedule service may being doing something
(e.g. a anti-virus signature update, or perhaps something a hacker did to you.)

I suggest that you shut down completely at night.

Also, why not get an external Hard drive and backup your files -
It will give you peace of mind when the computer next freezes,
and all your documents will be instantly available if the P.C. breaks,
and they will all be ready for immediate transfer to your new P.C. when you get it.

Regards
Alan.
Hey, thanks Alan. Well, I don't think it has anything to do with any of the things you listed (unless it's a Hacker ). I say that because never before has it done such a thing. At my house we have wireless internet and it's never woken up because of the signal. I was actually at my Grandma's house last night where she doesn't have wireless and it still did the same thing. I considered something being scheduled but I haven't done anything in the past week that could have scheduled something.

I'm always afraid to shut it down at night because it might not turn back on. So I prefer standby because it uses less power (which my Mom wants) and yet it keeps my programs open so that at a moment's notice I can get on, surf the web, chat to friends, and write my story in about a minute.

I actually am updating my video driver now; I thought this might be the issue. I'll check back to let you know if that works.

~NatashaTry going into BIOS and look for something called "wake on LAN" or WOL and turn that off. To get into BIOS there is usually a button that you have to press before windows starts loading, usually its delete or one of the F keys. Right when you turn the computer on it should say "Press X to enter setup" or something similar, that's the button. Make sure you don't change any other settings or bad things might happen.

Also, do you have any pets? My cat sometimes turns my computer on by nudging the mouse or stepping on the keyboard during the night.Hi

I have ESET anti-virus protection that automatically gets virus signature updates on the hour.

I believe it can also patch itself if ESET makes an improvement to the code itself.

I do not know what anti-virus protection you have, but perhaps yours can update its signatures and also its code, in which case your anti-virus might have decided last week to schedule a midnight wake up to get signature updates when its servers have spare time !!!

Regards
Alan