Something is trying to turn on my TV at night

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

For about the last three weeks, my TV has powered up at about 5 or 6 in the morning - not every night, but most nights.

I eliminated the obvious; there definitely is not a remote control jammed down the side of a cushion - we only have three remote controlled devices and all handsets are accounted for.

I checked the TV settings and although there are time-related options in there (sleep timer and auto-off), they’re disabled. In case there was some kind of hidden setting weirdness, I also did a factory reset on the TV.

I checked the peripheral devices (esp those attached via HDMI) and none of them are set to be able to send a power-on signal.

Finally (and this is the really significant bit), I installed an additional power-management device on the TV - this thing has an IR sensor that you train with the TV remote, so switching on the TV then requires two presses of the button - one to activate the device (and supply mains power to the TV) and a second press to wake the TV.

Now, this additional device has enabled me to determine that it does seem to be a rogue power-on IR signal, because this morning, while I was sitting reading, I heard a faint click and looked, to find that the power management device had been activated - and this happened a second time some minutes later.

So… something seems to be sending a power-on signal, but it’s not one of our own remotes (and really, there aren’t any others hidden away or lost).

It seems unlikely to be a stray signal from a neighbour, as this only ever happens at night when all the curtains and blinds are closed (but not in the evening when it’s dark outside, but the curtains are open)

My prime suspect at the moment is my broadband modem-router - this thing has some blue LEDs on it that flash like crazy, very brightly - now, the light from these is at the wrong end of the visible spectrum really, to be triggering an IR remote receiver (not to mention that they’d have to flash just right to mimic a power-on signal), but maybe there’s some fluorescent something that is re-emitting the light at a longer wavelength, or maybe the remote sensor on the TV isn’t as fussy as it ought to be, or something.

Or maybe it’s something else. For now, I’ve put black tape over the blue LEDs on the router - we’ll see what happens next…

2

So it only happens at night, but sometimes twice in the morning? :slight_smile:

While you say that nothing connected to the TV can turn it on, have you tried disconnecting the other appliances for a few nights? Have you taken all the batteries out of all controllers for a few nights?

Could it be sensors from your alarm system? A laptop? Phone? Mouse?

3

Unplug the TV, cut off the cord, burn it, UPS the ashes to somewhere in China, and stop paying your power bill.

If the TV still turns on, you’ve found the cause: Poltergeist.

4

Through a digital camera you should be able to see the IR light emitted by the remote. I wonder if pointing one at whatever you suspect might be turning on the TV could help narrow things down. Also, I’d try covering up the sensor on the TV or box just to be 100% sure that’s what’s triggering what you’re seeing.

ETA: Looks like they typically add IR filters to digital cameras nowadays, so that might only work if you’ve got an older one laying around.

5

Is your house near a road where lights shining through a window could do this? Even that seems unlikely. I’ve had the TV switch off from reflected sunlight, but it seems unlikely some car headlights could do the same thing. If it’s a digital TV and you are connected to cable it’s entirely possible the signal to switch on your TV is coming through the cable.

6

My laptop turns on my Phillips TV. Took a while to figure it out.

7

So THAT’S what this extra, seemingly useless switch on my wall is for!
Thanks for clearing that up. :smiley:

8

It normally happens around 5AM (and we are woken by it). This morning it happened just after 6AM, while I was awake, sitting reading. Dark outside, curtains closed in both cases.

9

I tried that this morning - the camera on my smartphone can see the IR emission from the TV remotes, but I couldn’t find any sources in the room this morning, however, whatever it is may only be occurring very briefly - or if it really is the blue LEDs on the router, or something like that, the visible output will wash out anything I could perceive using the digital camera.

10

Can you try putting some kind of physical barrier in front of the power-manager thingy, when you’re done for the night? As in, a piece of paper or something, to interrupt the line-of-sight to its receiver, so stray flashes can’t activate it.

11

Somewhere near you there’s a cat with a laser, getting revenge.

12

I once had a similar problem at an apartment, except it was my stereo turning on in the middle of the night and extremely loud gibberish pouring out of it (yes, it was freaky!).

The culprit turned out to be truck drivers with illegally overpowered CB radios, as far as I could determine. Somehow the powerful AM modulated signal turned the unit on and my cheap speakers couldn’t handle the volume and distorted the sound.

I seem to recall you’re in England, so I’m not sure if lorry drivers there use CB radios. Maybe a new neighbor is a HAM radio operator?

13

Would a garage door opener have the same kind of signal? Could a neighbor be coming home in the wee hours and opening your TV along with their garage door?

14

Don’t forget to consider it might be a random malfunction of the TV. I had an old TV not long ago that would change channels spontaneously. To test, I emptied the remote of batteries and I live in an area where it is highly unlikely for anyone to (repeatedly) walk by with a gadget, and nowhere near the road. It was something in the internal circuitry of the TV that just went haywire.

15

“They’re hee-eere.”

16

The addition of the power management device has eliminated that - previously, the TV was coming on, now only the first stage of the power manager is coming on - both of these things respond to the same input - the power-up signal from the TV remote (or something else like it).

17

So it’s impossible for an internal error to trigger the result?

18

Yes - unless the external power management widget receives a power-on signal from the remote, the TV is completely isolated from the supply (the device is actually intended to turn off devices fully, as an alternative to having them on standby - it’s one of these)

19

My wife and I were staying in an older hotel (though recently remodeled into a funky “boutique” hotel) in downtown Chicago for our anniversary, a few years ago. In the middle of the night, she was awakened, on two separate occasions, by the flatscreen TV powering on, then shutting back off before fully turning on. She became convinced that the room was haunted. :slight_smile:

20

You say the remotes are “accounted for.”
Are any in the same room as the TV?
If so, remove them and see if the problem persists.