Inspiron 16 7610 powers on automatically

First off, make sure you go into start, and click "Shut Down" before you put your laptop in a bag. Your problem is S0 Sleep. I have the same laptop, same problem. Instead of staying asleep like a good little laptop, the GPU activates, the fans keep turning, it gets red hot (especially if you put it in a bag or something), and then some fail-safe activates and a diagnostic runs because it detects something's not right. If you close your laptop lid, and then put your ear up to the back vent, you can probably hear fans going or some kind of activity going on in the laptop. This wasn't actually Dell's design at work, this is Microsoft. S0 Sleep just puts your laptop in a low power mode, but keeps your PC connected to the internet and various USB devices. You have a choice here: Enable Hibernate (S4 Standby) which will fully turn your computer off, but keep everything backed up, so when you open your laptop again, it will boot up like you're turning it on, and then all your apps that you had running will be running just like you left them. The more convenient option is to re-enable S3, which is your old-fashioned sleep, which works just fine for this laptop. When you open your laptop, you may have to wait 3-4 seconds for it to wake up, but this is "Disconnected Standby" and will fully shut your laptop down. S3 is my recommendation.

Re-enable S3 sleep:

• Click Start and type "Create a Restore Point." Click "Configure, and turn on system protection. Click "Create" and create a restore point. This is just in case something goes wrong, you can reverse this process.
• Click Start and type "registry editor." Copy and Paste this path into the box at the top and then press Enter:
  Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power
• Right Click the right pane and select New --> DWORD (32-bit) value. Name it PlatformAoAcOverride and make sure it is set to 0. Then close Regedit and reboot the computer.
• Once the computer restarts, go into start and type cmd.
• Type powercfg /a
  Ensure that it says under "The following sleep states are available on this system" that Standby (S3) is listed. before going any further.
• Type "registry editor" into Start Menu again.
• Copy and paste the following path and press enter:
  Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings
• Here you will find a bunch of registry strings with hexadecimal names. Navigate to the one that says 94ac6d29-73ce-41a6-809f-6363ba21b47e (you can use Edit/Find to search for it). Change the DWORD that's called "Attributes" from 1 to 2. (1 means it's hidden from your power settings, 2 means it's listed). If there is not "Attributes" value, then create one and set it to 2.
• Repeat the above process with:
  0853a681-27c8-4100-a2fd-82013e970683
  48e6b7a6-50f5-4782-a5d4-53bb8f07e226
  d4e98f31-5ffe-4ce1-be31-1b38b384c009
  ee12f906-d277-404b-b6da-e5fa1a576df5
  68afb2d9-ee95-47a8-8f50-4115088073b1
  f15576e8-98b7-4186-b944-eafa664402d9
• Close registry editor and reboot.
• When you start back up, click Start, type "Edit Power Plan," and click "change advanced power settings."
• Change the following settings:
  • Disconnected Standby Mode - change both AC/DC to Aggressive
  • Network Connectivity Mode - change both to Disable
  • USB Selective Suspend -  change both to "Disable"
  • USB 3 Link Power Management - change DC to "Maximum Power Savings"
  • USB Link Power Management - change DC to "Maximum Power Savings"
• Reboot and try it out. Close the lid, and after 2 or 3 seconds, all the activity will stop, and you may hear a very faint chirping of capacitors or whatever, but no fans, no humming or anything like that. This is a once-and-done process. You may have to repeat it if Windows installs a massive update like the Creators updates where it totally changes the UI, but I haven't since I first did this... EXCEPT when Windows Insider Program installs a new Windows build.

Enabling S4 (Hibernate). - much less involved, but less convenient. I dunno, certain people prefer this mode.

• Open Start, type Control Panel. In the Search Box type "closing the lid" and then select that option from Power Options.
• Click check "Hibernate" from the Shutdown settings list, or if it's grayed out, click "Change Settings that are currently unavailable."
• Set your lid close action for both AC and DC to "Hibernate."

Good luck, hope this solves your problem. This was Microsoft's mission to enable S0 mode for everybody because it's so instantaneous, but maybe Dell didn't implement it properly? Anyways S3 sleep is works great. Sometimes I have some issues waking my PC up b/c it won't respond to the keyboard or touchpad, but just close the lid for a few seconds, and open it again, and it should wake up just fine.

You may also want to check your BIOS and make sure that there are no auto-on timers enabled in the BIOS. Check and make sure S3 sleep isn't disabled in the BIOS, turn off the option that powers the laptop on when the lid opens.

Hi Gargamel314,

thanks for your detailed answer.  Well, in my case, it is not the GPU, simply because my Inspiron 16 has no GPU (it only has CPU graphics). It is also not a Microsoft Windows problem, as this also happens with no SSD installed. There are also no other external devices attached to the Inspiron 16 other than the power supply. Thanks for your detailed work on the windows registry, but as no SSD and no windows are installed, it cannot be the reason for the problem.

I found something else which is _very_ strange. Two nights ago, at 4 a.m.,I woke up because the Inspiron 16 was beeping as it has no SSD detected. Why does the notebook powers on in the middle of night at 4am? Well, I just switched it off.   But...

The next night, I have set my alarm clock to  5 minutes before that time, to see, if it happens again at the same time. And it did! I recorded a video from it:

https://streamable.com/0xvf9w

Regarding the BIOS, it has no changes at all, it is factory default.
-There are no "Auto on" times enabled (the whole function is disabled)
- The "Power" menu has no "adcanced battery charge" enabled and no times set

The system log only shows the entry:
"05/16/2022 04.01.28 Power off - Power Button" (I switched it off there myself).
But there is no entry in the systen log why it switched on.

As there is no SSD installed and no external devices connected, the notebook itself is triggering the power-on, most likely from the BIOS. 

The second Inspiron 16 does not show this behaviour. This is really strange! I wonder what this background activity in the BIOS could be. It is definitely not operating system related. I went through all BIOS menus, there is nothing that is configured to do something at 4.00 a.m. 

May it be a manipulated BIOS that this notebook came with (as they are individually manufactured in...)? I find no explanation, why this notebook does that, and the other one does not. Both run the same BIOS version.

I will close the lid and will try to see if it powers on again at 4 am with closed lid. If this is the case, there is really a risk of overheating when transporting it. However, this unknown background activity in the BIOS is worrying my security concerns.

There is a setting in the 7610 BIOS to make the unit power on upon opening the lid. Could it be that a lid sensor is malfunctioning? Try turning this option off and see if it powers on again by itself. If this is the case, you have a hardware problem that warrants a tech support repair. I mean, it's obvious you do anyway, but at least you have evidence/data for the tech support people to use.

Well, a defect sensor wont turn on the computer always at the same time at 4.00.40 am.

I now tried with a closed lid. I woke up 5 minutes before it happens, and even with a closed lid, it starts powering up the notebook at 4.00 and 40 seconds. And it wont shut down until I do it manually.

Here is a video with closed lid: https://streamable.com/qs97gm

This is pretty dangerous. Imagine having this notebook in your suitcase (in your hotel room, car or in an air plane). It is about guaranteed to overheat, with all consequences.

I am still suspicious why it activates at night and what it wants to do.

Hello Adrian,

thanks for you help. I found the text that you cut´n´paste here already in another forum thread, but it does not solve the problem. Even with all values set to the description, the notebook powered on at 4 a.m. again last night.

https://streamable.com/evoybw

I will now systematically change one setting per day, and see what is making a difference. But this will take several days/nights.

Thank you for sharing the details. We will now continue the conversation via private messages to reach a resolution.