My roommate has a laptop running Vista, and it keeps pulling itself out of sleep mode (at random times, not consistently) even when the lid is closed. By the time he notices, it is usallly really hot even though few applications are open.

Does this sound like a hardware problem, or some kind of malware taking over?

Do you or anyone in the residence have a cellphone that emits bluetooth (or maybe IR)? On my XP machine if my roommate would set his phone near my laptop sometimes it would establish a bluetooth or InfraRed connection with my computer; can't remember which protocol. Anyway, the end result was window popping up a bubble window announcing that the device was connected. Perhaps an action such as a device being wirelessly connected would bring a machine out of sleep/standby.

Bluetooth is off by default on the computer.

Anything in Vista's equivalent to the Windows Event Log?

Also, if it's really troublesome he could install macro software (like Automate by Network Automation) which can initiate off of a specific action such as processor usage or a certain process opening. Then a simple macro could be written to for example open up Task Manager, take screen shots, log what's running, email someone, etc.

Oh, and I'm not trying to be that guy, but I just googled it and this was the first result: http://www.howtoge...-in-windows-vista/ Is that happening?