Question How to trace a culprit of PC being turned on in the night?

[nick1232]

Hi there, from relatively recent times I started to find my PC being turned on in the night.

I checked windows schedule and see no task which could do that, there is only browser update task set to time close to when that sometimes happens, but this task is scheduled to be executed each day, when PC is turned on randomly. Once in 1-2 weeks maybe. I do not think it is somehow related.

I checked BIOS and disabled wake on LAN and ERP. But it still happens from time to time.

Is there something else I can do to change it's behavior or find out why it happens?

It is relatively old PC, so there is risk of capacitors problem, but I am not sure it may lead to such problems. My mobo is ASUS Prime Z270M-Plus, it is almost 9 years 'in action'.

 

[helpstar]

did you set in BIOS, after power out power on again?
if your power grid is off and on again, might trigger your PC

 

[nick1232]

did you set in BIOS, after power out power on again?
if your power grid is off and on again, might trigger your PC

I have UPS and overall power is stable in my house even without it.

 

[Eximo]

On Power Restore what is it set to in the BIOS?

Also Windows updates that can cause a computer to fire up install updates, and then cycle back and forth booting up and then going back to sleep.

 

[artk2219]

I have UPS and overall power is stable in my house even without it.

Do you think your power supply may be a bit flaky causing that feature to kick on if its enabled?

 

[nick1232]

Do you think your power supply may be a bit flaky causing that feature to kick on if its enabled?

That is an idea, did not think of it... and it is hard to check from what I know of it. Thanks.

 

[nick1232]

On Power Restore what is it set to in the BIOS?

Also Windows updates that can cause a computer to fire up install updates, and then cycle back and forth booting up and then going back to sleep.

Thanks. Possible, is there any sort of logs when I can check if this is what happened?

 

[nick1232]

On Power Restore what is it set to in the BIOS?

Also Windows updates that can cause a computer to fire up install updates, and then cycle back and forth booting up and then going back to sleep.

All restore options are set to disabled, power loss is set to power off

 

[Eximo]

I'm not sure what it would like in the logs, actually. You could certainly see the power on events, but not sure about the trigger.

I just know that 9/10 times I find my desktop on, it is from unfinished Windows updates.

 

[USAFRet]

Some years ago, I had a VERY sensitive mouse.

Walking across the floor in that house would sometimes jiggle the desk and mouse just enough to wake it up.

 

[artk2219]

All restore options are set to disabled, power loss is set to power off

Just for grins, think you could disconnect your power switch from the motherboard for a few weeks and use the reset button, another power switch, or a screwdriver or something to turn on the computer? I've seen power switches go bad and cause behaviour like that in the past. Also reset switches, those are fun to diagnose.

 

[nick1232]

Just for grins, think you could disconnect your power switch from the motherboard for a few weeks and use the reset button, another power switch, or a screwdriver or something to turn on the computer? I've seen power switches go bad and cause behaviour like that in the past. Also reset switches, those are fun to diagnose.

I did not try the switch itself, but I tried to disable power by power off on my PSU, I left it like that for a couple of days. I thought it could do something with capacitors if we think of them as a culprit. But I found my PC turned on this night again.

 

[nick1232]

Some years ago, I had a VERY sensitive mouse.

Walking across the floor in that house would sometimes jiggle the desk and mouse just enough to wake it up.

No, there is no movement in a house when that happens, and I checked my keyboard and mouse do nothing if I press them.

 

[helpstar]

I would suspect the UPS. These don't produce a clean sinus wave and can cause problems with some power supplies.

 

[nick1232]

I would suspect the UPS. These don't produce a clean sinus wave and can cause problems with some power supplies.

Is there a way to disable power up on mobo? I set all wake up functions to disabled, what else can be done?

 

[helpstar]

couldn't find any
you can make a bios update and have a look if it helps
intel me and chipset drivers as well

or just shutdown windows instead of sleep

 

[nick1232]

couldn't find any
you can make a bios update and have a look if it helps
intel me and chipset drivers as well

or just shutdown windows instead of sleep

I never use sleep, that is an issue, it is always power off, and then boom, I wake up in the find because of cooler started to work and my system is on. So far the only reliable solution for me is power off on my PSU, I wondered why could that happen, especially it started to appear more often recently.

 

[helpstar]

replace power supply and cmos battery of motherboard

 

[nick1232]

replace power supply and cmos battery of motherboard

How can they be related? If it was CMOS battery I would have BIOS reset each time when something like that happens, and it does not happen. Not sure if PSU can do something like that alone, to me it seems like problem is somewhere in mobo, I noticed that in some cases my PC was rebooted instead of being turned off, that could indicate something, but I don't know what.

 

[helpstar]

which power supply is it exactly?
the motherboard is off and can only activate the psu by getting a short on the power button. could be a culprit as well, the button. or a short on the motherboard.
in my experience it's 80 to 90% a faulty power supply.