Windows 7: Computer turns itself on by itself.

Hello.

I've been having an issue for around six months now. As the title suggests, my computer turns itself on without any physical contact, and I am clueless as to why.



My first guess was that since we have an electrical instability in our home, perhaps the uneven flows of power would sometimes send a false signal to the power unit of the computer and trigger a start-up (quite often the lights in our home will briefly, and sometimes violently, wave up and down, especially at night).

It could have a pattern, but I'm not sure.

Thanks in advance.

Is the BIOS set to turn the computer on when power is restored - mine at the office is set that way so that I can remote in as needed.

Edit: the thinking being that your power fluctuations might be enough to cause it to think that power was out and then restored.

Hi Xercess and welcome to Windows 7 Forums

Given what you have said about the state of your electrical supply, especially at night, I would consider switching off at the mains socket when you are not using the computer. Also consider using a surge-protected adapter. A UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply) might be useful, to enable you to safely shut down your computer should the power fail whilst you are using it.

As regards the settings in the BIOS, unless there is a specific reason why you would want your computer to restart after a power failure, or to boot on LAN, I would set the options to OFF. Check your motherboard manual for details. If you are unsure how to do this, let us know what motherboard you have and we'll guide you.

You can make this even easier with one of the "ZeroWatt" sockets. They detect the computer's standby mode, and switch off the electric connection completely. A model with a button and one with an IR sensor is available.