I’m a bit clueless when it comes to technology so please bear with me.
For the past couple of months I’ve noticed that sometimes, after turning my computer off, after a while there will be a red light blinking at the power light. It makes me think there is some sort of activity going on in the off mode, maybe automatic updates from Windows? One day I turned on my computer to find that a new version of internet explorer (version 11) was installed, apparently automatically. It didn’t work, I had to restore to the previous day just to search.
I have Norton Internet Security, I do regular scans and had an representative do a scan several weeks ago.
Basically, I turn my computer off for a period of time, I come back and find the red light blinking where my green ‘ON’ button indicates. What’s up?
Are you sure you’re actually turning it off? How are you doing it (are you pressing the power button or going to the start menu and selecting “shut down”)? This behavior sounds a lot like your computer is going into sleep or hibernate mode, not actually turning off.
Try pulling out the power plug at the back of the computer after you turn it off. then put it back and see if the red light is still on. I think the last poster had a valid point
Right: there are a number of different kinds of “off” these days. Tell us a bit more about what your computer is – it sounds like it’s a desktop model.
My laptop has lights that operate when it’s off, showing whether the battery is charging. If your computer has no battery (that is, if it can’t run when it’s unplugged), then that isn’t the answer.
I’ve had occasion recently to have to unplug my desktop. I was surprised to see a green LED glowing in the back after I had turned off then unplugged the computer. I figure it’s to indicate, for some reason, the capacitors in the power supply that filter the rippling DC out of the rectifier into clean DC are still holding a charge. After a minute or two, the LED goes out.
If you’re connected using a network cable, the light will still light even with the power off. There is power in the network cable – not enough to run the computer, but enough to blink the light and start it if you’re set up to wake on LAN (useful in corporate environments).
Usually, the light shows where the cable is plugged in, but some computers blink the power light. This is routine and not indicative of a problem.
I’m definitely shutting down from the start menu. This is a laptop. The light that’s blinking is the button that I press to turn it on (I don’t turn it off that way though). There are other lights that remain on (battery charging, wifi connection) but this is definately the on/off button. The laptop is about a year and a half old and this just started happening in the last month or so.
I always close all documents/applications before shutting down. I haven’t lost anything. Often when I turn it on, but not always I get a message saying that updates are being installed, please wait then it shut’s down by itself and I have to turn it on again.
Could you try leaving something open, and doing your normal shutdown procedure, and letting us know if it came back when you turned the machine back on?
I’m using Windows 7 Home Premium. When I shut down I go to the start menu and select shut down - if I hover my mouse over it says ‘Closes all programs, shuts down windows, then turns off your computer’. There’s an expandable menu with choices like sleep/hibernate/restart/switch user/lock. I tried leaving internet explorer on last time like Digital suggested. There was no blinking red light and when I turned the computer back on explorer was closed.
It’s possible that if you have automatic updates enabled, that when Windows has pending updates, rather than actually shutting down it super secretly goes into some sort of limbo not-really-shut-down-but-not-really-sleeping state. I doubt it, but if Windows did do that I wouldn’t be shocked or anything.
I think you were putting into sleep mode. By paying attention to the button and looking at its menu you have reset it so that it now shuts you down properly.
I think you are mistaken RealityChuck. On a regular network without Power over Ethernet the network port, including the link light, is still powered by the host computer and not from the network cable.
Power over Ethernet on the other hand is designed to provide modest power to devices such as phones but usually isn’t used for ports going to computers due to the added cost and the fact that it can’t provide enough power for most computers.
I think I may have stumbled upon the problem. It seems Windows has been constantly trying to install version 11 automatically since early November (so that’s what was going on with the blinking light - updating). Since the search function in version 11 didn’t work for me I would uninstall it but Windows would try again, and again. Today, I finally decided to knuckle down, install try to troubleshoot the search problem (the index would display as a 1/2" column, tiny font, on the left side of my screen). I have no idea what exactly I did to solve the problem, I sort of navigated through lot’s of screens - it’s all a blur now.
I can’t say definitely that this was the problem (too early to tell) but it seems reasonable.
I know Win 7 gets upset when a new version of IE comes out. The last and first time I deliberately used it on my last 4 computers was to download Firefox or Chrome. But a happy computer is a happy computer so I go ahead and let IE update. Doesn’t mean I have to use it.