Dell Latitude D610 Boots up by itself

I've poured over the internet for several hours trying to find people with a similar problem with little luck aside from one forum post on a different system.

I recently purchased a refurb Dell Latitude D610 from a reputable, well known shop. and It's been giving me a very curious headache.

It turns on for now apparent reason and completely at random.

Whether I turn it off via the "Turn Off Computer" start menu option, or simply pressing the power button. It keeps happily coming back to life. I've made sure that "wake on lan" is turned off in the bios, and turned "automatic restart" off under error recovery.

At this point, I'm completely perplexed and massively frustrated as I bought this as an Xmas gift for somebody which I'm unable to give to them 'till I have this straightened out.

Any help would be hugely appreciated.

 

Was the OS preinstalled, or did you install it yourself. Sounds like you have what is known as a "zombie". It is were the computer has some sort of corrupt code imbedded in the system files. try booting to safe mode with networking by tapping F8 at the dell screen and downloading some free scanning software. I like to use SuperAntiSpyWare remover....works pretty good.

 

The OS did come pre-installed. But the computer came with the "Windows XP Professional for refurbished PCs" disc with all the required codes and such. I had to activate the OS on the first boot.

 

Take another look in BIOS and see if there is any setting for starting at a particular time of day. Maybe under Power Management. This is the only thread I could find mentioning such a thing from 2003. I can't find any place that details the options in your BIOS.

 

Or, you can simply remove the battery and unplug the power cord when it's not in use... I know this doesn't solve the problem, but it keeps it from turning on.

 

Return it to the well known reputable shop...
Could be related to the reason it was refurbed in the first place
Most refurb pc's will have at least 90day gurantee