My computer turns itself off and on without me doing it.

thanosnic

Honorable
Jan 10, 2016
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10,510
A really strange thing has been happening the past few weeks. I have noticed that sometimes when I return home from school I find my computer on the password screen, even though I left it on the desktop, logged in and all, and it's as if the computer restarted itself. I have also noticed that sometimes it turns itself on. It has happened in front of me and I thought it was very peculiar but i often find the computer turned on when I come home even though it was off when I left. What is happening? Should I be worried or is this normal?
 
Solution
I'm thinking of two possibilities. One is if your computer is set to boot upon power being applied (normally plugging a computer in won't boot it), and the power is blinking. You'd probably have to add an UPS with brownout protection to see if the issue stops before you'd know if it is a power line issue.

Power blinking might result in corruption while a system is running. If your computer suddenly just turns off it could be a "triple exception" where the CPU finds things so corrupt it simply shuts off to protect from further failures. If it shuts down in a normal sequence, then something else in software is causing it to shut down.

Try adding an UPS with brownout protection (the UPS does not have to have a long protection time...if...

gosubuilder

Commendable
Apr 21, 2017
158
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1,760
it is nearing Halloween.... freaky stuff will happen more than is the norm.

time to check your components. check each ram stick on its own. if u have another psu switch it out and see if it is the psu. test the pc without the gpu.

everything you described with the exception of the pc powering on by itself I have seen happen due to bad ram.
 

thanosnic

Honorable
Jan 10, 2016
7
0
10,510

I really don't think it's the ram or the PSU since it's been working perfectly while I'm using it and under load. Could it be software maybe?

 
I'm thinking of two possibilities. One is if your computer is set to boot upon power being applied (normally plugging a computer in won't boot it), and the power is blinking. You'd probably have to add an UPS with brownout protection to see if the issue stops before you'd know if it is a power line issue.

Power blinking might result in corruption while a system is running. If your computer suddenly just turns off it could be a "triple exception" where the CPU finds things so corrupt it simply shuts off to protect from further failures. If it shuts down in a normal sequence, then something else in software is causing it to shut down.

Try adding an UPS with brownout protection (the UPS does not have to have a long protection time...if it can run your system for even 3 minutes you will know a power blink can't cause your issues).

If the system shuts down normally, and if you have ruled out power delivery issues, then it is possible you have "wake on lan" (WOL) set up and your network card is receiving the magic cookie to power up or power down. I haven't used this, but perhaps there is a BIOS option related to WOL you can check for. Windows itself might also have some way of seeing what your WOL settings are...this would depend on the specific network card you have, e.g., integrated NICs may be more likely to have a setting in BIOS. Many add-on NICs support this feature.
 
Solution

Vic 40

Titan
Ambassador
Looked at settings in the bios? Like system can be powered on by use of mouse or ethernet? Last one came to mind.
I also had this happen and from what i've found out and tested it seems that my "Killer ethernet controller" could do this too.If not using it disable it in the bios or look at it in the device manager,disable there.
Can't hurt to swap parts like psu for testing if possible.