Why does my pc turn itself on?

WindowsStar said:

No, no quite ok, I have not posted anything about WMC for the OP, so that is a great idea. WMC was not my issue. Thank you for jumping in sometimes it is very helpful to remind us.

Thank you for the kind words. In your case, it could also be static electricity. The switch is the place that turns on the computer and I would always look for the answer inside it. They could be faulty, or trip on the computer for a myriad of weird reasons.

BTW I stacked up all 3 of my 8540w's and put a digital clock next to them. I then setup my camcorder and started recording at 11:45 PM Saturday evening. Since we both know 'midnight' seems to be the witching hour I went back down to the kitchen at 11:59 to see if the phenomenon would indeed replicate itself once again this week. Sure enough at the stroke of midnight the HP loaded with Windows XP booted itself up; and yes, with the lid closed. I know HP wants to see this happen in their own test lab but I'll send them the video file and see what they have to say. Unfortunately in the meantime I'm starting to poke around and see what the competition has to offer in similar machines. I can't be burdened with the responsibility of constantly disconnecting the AC adapters and removing the batteries especially when putting them into their cases. These HPs are great machines but randomly turning themselves on is not something I want to bear during their next several years of service.

BTW The humidity dropped considerably this weekend. Actually it's not too bad out here on the ledge!

Robbie

I'm glad that I wandered on to this post because I am having sort of the same problem. My computer intermittently turns itself on (and then back off) after a complete shutdown. I have a 3-year Dell Dimension E510 desktop and I did a complete install of Windows 7 in December 2009, but this problem began maybe 3 or 4 months ago. I have my pc connected to a APC UPS backup and surge protector (model ES750G). This model has a Master Control outlet which turns off my speakers and monitor when I shut off the computer. What I started to notice is that sometimes when my computer is turned off, I will hear a click and I notice that the monitor and the power light on the speakers comes on, then fades off within seconds. Then do it again a few minutes or an hour, or whatever, later. I fiddled with the settings for the battery, but nothing changed, so I just lived with it. Stupid me, I considered this a monitor problem. I thought perhaps the monitor was wearing out (a Hanns monitor - about 2 years old); so when it started taking forever to come on when I turned the computer on, well I guess that was the problem. Then one day the monitor would not turn on at all. I wasn't expecting that. i plugged in a small hdtv monitor that I happened to not be using and I thought that solved the problem - but it has not. Now I just do not have the monitor powered by the master outlet - I manually turn it off, but the click of the pc intermittently turning itself on persists. I contacted APC and was referred to the same instructions in the user manual that I had been using, so I'm really bugged by this conundrum. I will tweak the battery some more and I've considered that it could be the power supply in the apartment (coincidently, I moved to a new apartment in April), but funny, the TV never turned itself on when plugged directly into the same wall outlet, nor does it behave in this strange way when I have it plugged into the same UPS, just not in a master controlled outlet. After reading other posts here, I'm feel like we might be on to something since it seems that most others started having this problem 3 to 5 months ago. Any new information is appreciated. I will check my Power Plan and BIOS sleep state settings (neither of which I have ever changed - at least to my knowledge) when I get home and will check back later. Thanks in advance for any help.

On the new HP laptop there is a program called HP Quicklook and it will turn your computer on by itself if the button is pushed. But recently i was working a new laptop and every time i closed the lid it would start up after fully shutting down. One way to fix this problem is to go into the BIOS and go into System Configuration then select Device Configurations, Select HP QuickLook and choose to disable the program. See if this helps or if you don't plan on using the button just go to the programs and features menu and uninstall the program all together.

Hope this helps

But what happened to 1genius in the end!? Perhaps he's unable to reply having gone ahead with the ledge idea...

So I am running a custom built PC and was working on another box next to this one when it just turned itself on at 9:30 in the morning. So, No static electricity, no pets, No HP or Dell bios. Running Windows 7.

Looking at this forum, I checked updates, OFF. I checked Media Center, Disabled.

Is this still happening to people?

I believe its actually wol in s4, s3, s2, s1, or s5
Wake - On - Lan

I have gone through this thread's past postings. I have done a complete factory reset on my Wife's Dell Inspiron N5040 I have done the BIOS update from Dell for it.

With ONLY the Windows Updates completed this thing STILL turns itself on at 3 AM. The disks I used were created by this system way before this problem started happening.

My gut feeling is it is something within the Microsoft Updates themselves that has reset a portion of this system to tell it to turn on at 3 AM to check something. Windows Update has been shut off. My BIOS on this has no Wake on LAN settings. The BIOS is as generic as it could get.

Anyone else know where else to look? I'm about ready to just get her a new computer and take a sledge hammer to this one to put it out of it's misery and mine.