Ethernet light keeps flashing when the machine is powered down

cheaterslick · 03 Mar 2023

Hello,

I'm not sure if this is the forum to ask, but as the title says, the ethernet light keeps flashing when the machine is turned off. I remember this happening about 10 years ago and for the life of me I can't remember what setting to change. I believe it's either in the network adapter settings or through device manager. Does anybody know what changes I can make?

Thanks

I'm on Windows 10 Pro 22H2

dalchina · 03 Mar 2023

Probably your equivalent of this?

Ethernet light keeps flashing when the machine is powered down-1.jpg

selden · 03 Mar 2023

You might also check to see if "Wake on Lan" is enabled in the BIOS and disable it.

Many computers have a feature called "Wake on Lan" which can be enabled and disabled in the BIOS. I suspect this is what's causing your ethernet interface to blink while your computer is supposed to be off. When this feature is enabled, an appropriate packet received over the network will cause the computer to turn on and boot. For this feature to work, the computer's network interface must powered on all the time, even when the computer is nominally powered off. It's often used in corporate environments so software can be updated during off-hours, when the computer normally would be powered off to save energy.

bro67 · 03 Mar 2023

Modern standby means that devices are never fully powered down unless you have physically removed the power source. The Ethernet eill continue to show ping activity from the router while there is power on that device.

User2468 · 03 Mar 2023

Yeah, it's a power setting.... or the NSA...

=Off Topic =

Movie was a blast back then. I saw it in the movie theater opening day, too I believe. The movie to me reminds me of Gene Hackman's performance in the movie The Conversation. Totality different plots of course, but the theme is there in a way...

Did pretty good in the box office! The Conversation - Wikipedia

Wikipedia said:

Surveillance expert Harry Caul, who runs his own company in San Francisco, is obsessed with his own privacy. His apartment is almost bare behind its triple-locked door and burglar alarm, he uses pay phones to make calls and claims to have no home telephone, and his office is enclosed in a chain-link cage in a corner of a much larger warehouse. He has no friends, his girlfriend Amy knows little about him, and his sole hobby is playing along to jazz records on a tenor saxophone alone in his apartment.

cheaterslick · 04 Mar 2023

It's a new Lenovo and this is the only pc I have that does this, so it's a setting somewhere.

@dalchina, @selden, it could very well be that. When I get a chance, I will look at those settings. Thanks

bro67 · 04 Mar 2023

There is no setting that can be changed. Machines have been this way for over ten years.

hdmi · 04 Mar 2023

It's how this particular network IC has been designed by Intel. Even after you pull the ethernet cable out of the computer to allow the IC to enter Ultra Low Power (ULP) mode with the computer shut down (Shut Down = neither Legacy Standby nor Modern Standby..), the LEDs on it will still be in Tri-state mode.. just look at the bottom of page 43 in the official datasheet:
https://www.mouser.com/datasheet/2/6...eet-275854.pdf

dalchina · 04 Mar 2023

..although the first post makes it sound as if this wasn't happening, but now is... @cheaterslick - please confirm.

cheaterslick · 04 Mar 2023

I have two new machines that I'm helping someone configure. A 14" Lenovo ThinkPad and an ASUS ExpertBook 14" laptop. The Lenovo ethernet flashes while the ASUS one doesn't. Both happen to be Windows 11 but that shouldn't make any difference here. It's not about "paranoia", it's about making it so the light won't flash at night in their bedroom, keeping people awake.

So I'm convinced it's a setting. I'm not at home right now so I can't do anything at the moment, but I do remember there was a way to turn it off from back in Windows 7 days.