Computer Restarted middle of the night

[fluentdesigns]

Lastnight I was woken by my computer starting up. It was a little after 3am. Its not the first time this has happened so I was wondering if anyone has any incite as to what could be causing this?

Ive checked the house for ghosts as well!

Maybe I should take a look at the Event Viewer?

 

[esha]

I always switch my PC off overnight. But this morning there were several updates that required a re-start. If you don't prevent it, the computer is rebooted automatically a few minutes after the updates are done. I guess that might have been the reason for your PC restarting.

... or was yours switched off and it got active all by itself? That would be weird indeed!

 

[fluentdesigns]

No I leave my computer running 24/7 as it acts as my server for downloads or remote working. So it was on and restarted. I do remember it installing updates when it was booting up through as it gave me the configuring windows message then said it installed updates. That must have been it then. But the funny thing is I do have a computer that likes to wake up by it self as well. Its my htpc for my living room. If I dont shut it down and just put it to sleep it likes to wake up randomly. Only thing I can think of for that is it is some how picking up an IR signal from some where and its bringing it out of sleep mode.

 

[Graemzy]

if you go to command prompt and type

powercfg -lastwake

it will tell you what has been wakin up the computer. then go to decive manager and stop whatever it is from wakin it up. it could be the network card!

 

[techmonkey74]

Most likely it was a windows update which sometime the computer restarts it's self to install. It was the second tuesday of the month and we did get updates yesterday so I would say this was the reboot cause

 

[Graemzy]

sorry, should of said!

it prob was the update we got yesterday that woke the comp in your room but i was on a bout the one in your living room that keeps wakin up all the time!

 

[brianzion]

look in the bios settings and see if you have the settings for automatic startup enabled or not

BIOS Settings - Some computers support wake on alarm in power management area of computer BIOS.
The only two ways I know of to automatically turn on a computer is the "Wake on LAN" feature, which likely doesn't apply to your situation, and the "Power on by Alarm" feature sometimes available in the system BIOS.

The BIOS settings are those available normally when you first start your computer... a message that says "[F2] to enter Setup" or something similar. Sometime the BIOS access key announcement is hidden, but the access always works. You can check with your manufacturer website for the actual key to use if it isn't displayed on the screen. The more typical BIOS access keys are F1, F2, F10, or the DEL key.

Assuming you make it to the BIOS, the bottom of the screen usually has navigation tips. Look for Power Mangement or something similar. From there you would look for "Power ON / RESUME By Alarm". If that option exists, it'll allow you to set a time for automatically turning on. If it is there, F10 normally saves and exits the BIOS settings, and ESC and then "Exit without Saving" would be the way to go if you never find the feature you're looking for.

Good luck, hope this gives you a direction to look.