Computer waking up when telephone picked up?

Question

Got a very strange question from one of my relatives today (I seem to get someone's broken computer every other day!!), and this one really stumped me.

If her computer is in "Sleep" mode and she picks up the phone her computer wakes up and she is shown the login prompt as though she had deliberately roused her computer.

Im not really sure if this is potentially a security issue or a hardware issue around her modem. Any ideas?

The computer connects to the net via a dial up modem

Thanks for the help everyone, Im supposed to be going around there in a few days so will try and implement some of these solutions whilst there. Apparently the problem only started happening recently; I think it would be a good idea to run some spyware checking at the same time to make sure that some program hasnt changed these settings. More likely its something the user did unwittingly but it pays to be careful.

Answer 1

There is a power option choice called something like "Wakeup on Serial Port Activity. When you check that it causes that to occur. Go to Start, Control Panel, Power Options and uncheck that box to make the problem go away.

Answer 2

Hello,
You seem to have Modem's IRQ set as wake-up in APMS (advanced power management system).

Right Click on my computer->Click properties. Then Goto Hardware-->Device Manager. In the next window choose select menu item View->resources by type and expand the Interrupt Request section...

Now locate your modem name/model on the right pane and note down corresponding number.

Now restart computer and get into the CMOS (BIOS setup) of your computer. To goto bios, press the del key when the computer is starting up just after the initial "beep".

Once inside, you'll have to find Adavance Power Management (or something similar). Then change the setting accordingly. Different BIOS have different menu configurations and I cannot restart my computer here as I'm typing, otherwise would have given exact meny for "Award Bios".

Basically you have to remove(disable) the setting for MODEM, LAN and COM port from the APMS settings, something like "Enable wake up on Lan". Specifically ensure that the number you noted earlier is not mentioned anywhere in the BIOS APM settings.

Hope this helps a bit.

Warm regards,
Inderjeet

Answer 3

Make sure auto-answer is disabled on the modem. I suspect what happens is the modem wakes up when the phone rings, and starts counting rings. The modem then wakes up the laptop in order to receive the incoming call.

Answer 4

What the other two say is correct.
I knew such a feature existed, but as I can only connect via wireless as we have a router, I sadly cannot use it (pines) oh how i want to have it ! lol

I feel your pain. I also get broken computers on a regular basis.