My BRIX computer turns itself on sometimes in the middle of the night. The blue colored power button shows NO blue color. The monitor does not turn on either. I can only tell it is running because I can hear the CPU fan running.
I went into the BIOS and disable the wake on lan, wake on any event to keep the thing from being woken by any packet. I even disabled the PXE storage stuff to keep the bios from running/loading those.
My BRIX still sometimes turns itself on secretly in the middle of the night, and doesn't lite up the blue LED to show it's running. I suspected it is a similar feature to Intel's "vPro" where Intel can secretly get into the system...so I ripped out the wireless card so there is no communication card available, no ethernet cable plugged in either.
It STILL secretly turns itself on and is doing something in the middle of the night. Looking at the Linux kernel config file it shows that Linux detected several NFC communication chips on the motherboard. (Near Field Communication), which communicates using radio waves to other devices to get back to Gigabyte.
So I ripped out the mSata chip containing Linux so the BRIX no longer has a user installed operating system. I then left it plugged in to watch what happens. To my amazement, without a wireless card, without any mSata or harddrives....she still secretly starts herself up and is doing some kind of NFC communication.....I have a feeling Gigabyte copied what Intel/Apple was doing with vPro (the hidden operating system inside the motherboard just for them) and also using NFC to communicate back to Gigabyte when it can't get a wireless or wired access to the internet.
To detect the NFC communication I have a small fm radio that also has shortwave-medium wave- and Long wave capability to listen to those frequencies. Using that little radio I can pick up the Near Field Communication (radio) being emitted from the BRIX.
This saddens me that Gigabyte has started using this new technology and is copying what Intel/Apple are doing. I'm taking the BRIX motherboard to an electronics engineer to see if he can identify the NFC piece on the motherboard so we can remove or disable it. If it can't be disabled, I will sell it on Craigslist and cease buying Gigabyte products.
I feel Apple/Intel are creating major security issues with their secret NFC devices inside their products they aren't telling the public about. No PC of mine will ever have that security weakness...or a "Manufacturers Only" capability on a PC device that I OWN.
I bought a Gigabyte Brix with the AMDA8-5545M processor/chipset. I DID NOT wish to purchase a PC device with Near Field Communication devices secretly installed inside it. Are these new Electric Company "wireless" Power Meters emitting NFC through the power lines inside of homes to connect to these devices??? If not the only other device the BRIX could have been NFC communicating with was my wife's iPhone 4, to get a network access that way.
There are several other people on the web complaining their BRIX is turning itself on in the middle of the night. Disable all internet access, start watching the NFC (radio) transmissions. Shame on you Gigabyte.
