my thinkpad turns on the tv

[zd323]

I'm sitting here in my friend's living room using my X40... then the TV suddenly turns on all by itself. My friend informs this this has happened before when another friend used his Thinkpad T(something) in her living room. After a while, the TV turned off, then on again... so we had to unplug the TV.

Has anyone else had this happen? Is it really the Thinkpad turning on/off the TV?

[christopher_wolf]

First, Welcome to the Thinkpad Forum

Second....Wow; have you tried it in a room that is deviod of all emitters, other than your Thinkpad, with just the television? That would narrow it down.

I can't say I have had it happen to me before with a Thinkpad, but I have had it happen with other IR-equipped electronics.

On the bright side, you are probably far closer to controlling his television than anybody else would be in getting their Thinkpads to act as remotes. Heck, it was even quite an issue for some to get their remotes to work with Thinkpads in the first place.

[draco2527]

LOL!

There are some utilities that will let you change your infrared into a remote...but I never heard of your "problem"

Go under "Thinkpad Configuration" and disable the infrared...I know that if it is enabled it will scan for devices in range, so that could be part of the problem!

[USSS]

Hmm...I have GPS-guided tripod ...

...to which I could attach my T43 and perhaps bounce it off the troposphere (pointing north, of course)...

...and perhaps turn on my friend's DVD player via infrared while he's heading into work on Michigan Ave. in his SUV (might need to insert a "strong" pre-amp stage in the emitter final) ...

...well, hope he's got a G-rated DVD in the player is all I can say.

[lev]

Is it quite an old TV? Some old TVs used ultrasonic remote controls rather than the modern infrared. These TVs can be switched on by jangling keys, fiddling with a slinky, etc:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_270.html

Modern laptops make a variety of ultrasonic and not-quite-ultrasonic noises (search for complaints about high-pitched whining noises) due to switching processor clock speeds and such things, and I wouldn't be surprised if the particular thermal control algorithms in IBM firmware/bios code happened to trigger your friend's tv to switch on.

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_270.html

[liquidous]

i used to have a utility for my pocketPC that had about 200 models of televisions, and also programmable (had to sync with the tv first to program it into universal mode) that you could end up using your pda, or infrared device to operate the tvs.

it was a ghast going into restaraunts and bars and changing the tv channels looking like i was checking my calendar. haha
drove the bar tenders nuts.