Activity light blinking on Ethernet cable at back of PC when PC is off... and 'Wake on...' are disabled /Allow This Device To Wake Computer =unchecked

[Good3alz]

I don't know how to stop it. The activity light on the plug of my Ethernet cable plugged into the back of my motherboard blinks when the PC is OFF. Not hybernate, not sleep... OFF.

Windows 10 64.
In Windows 7 64, you can simply solve this by going to the advance tab of the Local Area Connection, turn off Wake on Lan or Wake on ??.. just disable it.

Win 10
Advance tab :
Wake on Magic Packet - Disabled
Wake on Pattern Match - Disabled

Power Management tab:
Allow This Device To Wake Computer - Unchecked

I still get the blinking light. It never did this in Win 7 after I did these disables and unchecking.

I have never had to adjust anything in BIOS either.


- Another thing I noticed... my bluetooth dongle is blinking when PC is off. That also never did that. I use a small Bluetooth USB dongle to hear my JBL Flip 4 play. That dongle always was off in Win 7.

If I unplug that, turn off the PC... the Ethernet cable still blinks behind the PC.


I'm about to revert back to Win 7.

Any advice?

Thanks in advance.

PS
Only other thing I can think of is Router firmware change? Recent Asus router firmware? The last two firmwares in the past 4 months?

 

[Voluman]

I have 2 pc with win 7 and blinking too, but one dont. I didnt remember to set anything particular either, any chance to check ErP Lot setting maybe?

 

[TheGuruStud]

It's not turned off. It's using fast start up. https://www.windowscentral.com/how-disable-windows-10-fast-startup

 

[AsRock]

because it's not really off ?, and shutdown option does not shut the computer down 100% as it can be turned back on by a mouse keyboard if the options are turned on in the bios.

It's not turned off. It's using fast start up. https://www.windowscentral.com/how-disable-windows-10-fast-startup

Even with that turned off though the power options at least will not solve this issue, or at least for some as i have had it with my gaming rig ever since win10.

 

[eidairaman1]

What's the problem exactly?

 

[agent_x007]

Blinking LED on router is annoying at night ?
Fear of being "hacked" while LED is blinking (since it shows activity from network card even when PC is "off") ?
There probably is a perfectly good another reason... I think.

 

[TheGuruStud]

because it's not really off ?, and shutdown option does not shut the computer down 100% as it can be turned back on by a mouse keyboard if the options are turned on in the bios.



Even with that turned off though the power options at least will not solve this issue, or at least for some as i have had it with my gaming rig ever since win10.

Disable all acpi options in bios and see what happens. I dunno.

It's not an issue as long as WoL is off.

 

[P4-630]

 

[Wavetrex]

^-- THREAD

The thing is, since ATX was invented many, many years ago, computers aren't really "off" - The motherboard is always powered, ready to get that signal from the power signal button ( or, any other ways to turn it on, like keyboard/mouse, alarm, WoL, etc.)

The fact that the WoL function is disabled, it only means the software is set not to react to it.... but the hardware is still ready.

Just follow P4-630 advice.... turn it off via the switch.

Even better, put ALL your desk on one of these (displays, speakers, whatever else):

(Or any similar type of device wherever you are in the world)

 

[newtekie1]

Even with that turned off though the power options at least will not solve this issue, or at least for some as i have had it with my gaming rig ever since win10.

Then it isn't Windows 10 causing it in your case, it is your motherboard.

 

[AsRock]

Then it isn't Windows 10 causing it in your case, it is your motherboard.

Well never had the issue before win10, maybe a option that was enabled with win10 ?.

Not sure about the OP but in my case that's not a option as my mouse don't charge then.

 

[Bill_Bright]

Right it is NOT Windows (regardless the version). It is because when the computer is simply powered off, it goes into standby mode. If it didn't, even your front panel power button would not work because even that uses the +5Vsb standby voltage. So if really bugging you that much, you need to unplug from the wall or flip the master power switch on the back of your power supply - if it has one. Or go buy a roll of black electrical tape and cover it up. Or you could unplug the Ethernet cable.

Even if Wake on LAN (WOL) is disabled, the NIC may still show network activity as the router keeps pinging nodes to see who's out there and if still alive, and the +5Vsb voltage is still present on the NIC too. Having this disabled does not stop the network activity. It just keeps the BIOS firmware from waking the computer.

I'm about to revert back to Win 7.

Any advice?

Over this? Yes, that would be silly. Don't go back to a 10 year old OS that hasn't had mainstream support for over 5 years. I say just get used to it. Surely you have other power and activity lights lit. Between my router, modem, computer, 3 monitors, speaker, printer, UPS, switch - heck, even my paper shredder, I have about 20 LEDs lit all the time.

 

[Good3alz]

IN WINDOWS 10 64bit HOME:
Confirmed it is the BIOS that still needed to be adjusted AFTER the OS adjustments:
I don't see Wake on Link Settings optioned (photo was copied from the web cause I don't wan to edit )
I would disable Wake on Link Settings also if I did.

And Power options

1. Press the Windows logo key + X on your keyboard and then select Control Panel from the drop-down menu.
2. When you go to the control panel it shows up as the “Category” view option by default. Switch it to “Large icons” then click Power Options

By default, the Shutdown settings options are greyed out. Click on “Change settings that are currently unavailable” to unlock the greyed out options.

Uncheck...

Now in Windows 7, the above would solve my problem of blinking ethernet port when Ethernet cable plugged into the back of the PC when PC is OFF. But not in Win 10 for some reason.
I had to also, as others said its in BIOS, turn ON "ErP" Seen in THIS THREAD

SO THE FIX!!!!!

In the BIOS under ADVANCED>APM there is a ErP/EuP setting.

ErP Support determines whether to let the system consume less than 1W of power in S5 (shutdown) state. When the setting is enabled, the following four functions will become unavailable: PME Event Wake Up, Power On By Mouse, Power On By Keyboard, and Wake On LAN. redduc900 @overclockers.com (http://www.overclockers.com/forums/...ting-In-Bios?p=7098515&viewfull=1#post7098515)

This is the answer. When I enabled ErP S5 and powered off ALL LEDs were off. Motherboard, GPU, External HHD were all OFF!
So I re-enabled ROG Effects on the motherboard then powered off again. ALL LEDs were still OFF!

So this ErP enabled S5 will allow you to keep your fancy ROG lights on when the computer is on as well as turn OFF everything so you can get a good nights sleep.

As you see, it says turning OFF ErP solves the problem.. but mine was disabled. I enabled and it turned off the lights.

BUT in MY case, as explained in another post...

Enabling ErP if using a ErP compatible power supply has been the solution

So, BIOS under ADVANCED>APM there is a ErP- ENABLE

Thanks for replying guys!

 

[Vayra86]

Kudos for doing the legwork yourself with this issue!

 

[Good3alz]

Kudos for doing the legwork yourself with this issue!

I did have clues here in this thread to check my BIOS.

Not only that, but I wanted to help others if they came across this thread on a search.