My home build PC windows 7 turns itself on during the night.

danno2 said:

This same problem was posted here by another member and I read the other thread responses, but no answer was discovered. I am having the same issue the system boots on its own every night. I have done all the scheduled task checks and disabled everything I could find, but it still turns itself on nightly.
I have checked the BIOS to no avail can't find anything there either. Looking for help. Thanks in advance!

If you put the machine to SLEEP when you go home, then it WILL be capable of getting awakened by scheduled tasks, including (as has been mentioned) Windows Media Center nightly GUIDE updates. But this requires that you've configured and activated WMC and are actually using it for TV, where the GUIDE updates are required and normally performed each night at around 3AM.

There are also other standard Windows functions and services (e.g. defrag, Windows updates and auto-restart, etc.) which also are automatically scheduled as part of a new "retail" Windows install, and must be configured by you to disable them or configure them to your liking. Again, when the machine is in SLEEP mode these types of services can wake the machine up.

Same with other software products (e.g. anti-virus), which also may do daily periodic updates, and might be configured and able to bring the machine out of SLEEP state.

So, you might try NOT putting the machine into SLEEP state when you go home for the night. Instead you might try using HIBERNATE (requires enabling in Windows, as it is not enabled by default). Then put it into that state when you go home for the night. In HIBERNATE state it is much less likely or impossible to awake from without your manual push of the POWER button on the case, or a button or mouse-click or keyboard-touch (if your BIOS can wake the machine that way) the next morning.

Or... just SHUT DOWN. Now it absolutely cannot be automatically powered up except by you, manually doing what you need to.

I don't think the BIOS of the machine can do an auto-power-on and self-initiate the boot process, but check you motherboard's manual to see if it is the BIOS itself which is currently awakening your machine from whatever "soft-OFF" state you are placing it in when you go home for the night.

MrWhoopee said:

" Powered-down or turned off computers capable of Wake-on-LAN will contain network devices able to "listen" to incoming packets in low-power mode while the system is powered down. If a magic packet is received that is directed to the device's MAC address, the NIC signals the computer's power supply or motherboard to initiate system wake-up, much in the same way as pressing the power button would do."

You're right. I stand corrected.

It's just that in my experience the default BIOS settings to enable this are DISABLED. You'd really want to have such a situation available, and then explicitly ENABLE the switch in the BIOS, to facilitate this. Clearly this will vary by board and manufacturer, but my experience with ASUS has always been this way. And having no such need for this ability I've never turned the feature on.

Obviously it can't hurt to double-check the BIOS to see if there is such capability, and if it is ENABLED or DISABLED. But my own hunch is that this is a very very low probability possibility.

And even then, there would have to be a magic packet sent from somewhere (seems unlikely to be within the LAN), reaching the PC by getting through the router's firewall which also takes a very conscious setup. You need to WANT to wake up the PC this way, and take very explicit actions to enable it. You'd clearly remember doing it, if you had.

In your first post, you stated:
"disabled everything I could find, but it still turns itself on nightly"
Does this mean that you turned the computer off before leaving work?
Or do you just let the computer go to sleep after a period of inactivity?
If you let it go to sleep, then maybe the info below will help.
If you turn it off, I'm not sure if the commands below will report anything useful.

According to this website...
Powercfg Command-Line Options
...this command:

Code:

powercfg -lastwake

...might tell you:

Reports information about the event that woke the computer from the last sleep transition.

I realize that you have already look into wake on lan, but this command...

Code:

powercfg -devicequery wake_armed

...might still be worth running.

You might also look around in BIOS for settings that wake the computer. I have several computers at the office that are set to turn themselves on each night or after power has been restored. Some retail motherboards do not have BIOS settings that support such power on options.

The Media Center isn't even set up yet, would those settings still be active in Windows itself?
P.S. the "mcupdate" disabling didn't work either it was on again when I came in this morning...

What are your "Windows Updates" settings?