My PC likes to turn on by itself. Why and how to fix it?

[Ranteh]

So recently I built myself my first computer. Everything went really smooth with no problems. However, lately I've noticed it's been turning on by itself at random times. At first, I thought maybe I accidentally restarted instead of shutting down and not noticing, but I've been very careful about making sure I'm shutting down and this still happens. I changed my settings to Sleep after two hours of inactivity so I don't waste power through the entire night if it were to turn on (like last night again), but I would like a real fix to stop it from turning on. Any ideas?

Specs:
i5 4590
MSI z97 gd65
8gb g.skill ripjaws x
No GPU yet
PSU: Corsair CS550M
1tb Seagate HDD
Rosewill Stealth gaming ATX case
Windows 8.1

Could this be a Windows thing? Could my case have an issue? Could my wiring be causing it? Could it be hardware related? Just throwing out ideas. Also, I remember an Asus board with with this problem, anyone with the MSI z97 gd 65 have this problem?

 

[shadows1234]

I had this problem on a amd build make your automatic updates are off

 

[OriginalCadaver]

Do you have 'wake on LAN' enabled? It could be an issue with your wiring/power switch.

 

[Ranteh]

I don't know if I have that enabled. I will check when I get home much later today.

 

[Phod]

Rantah, did you solve this problem? I am having the same issue.

Here's my post:

I purchased an ibuypower from newegg. The Phantom NE783K. It has been a nice computer, was purchased for my daughter and her enjoyment of gaming. I haven't had any problems with the machine other than this. It just turns itself on seemingly at random. I will shut it down normally and then sometime later I will notice it's on and booted up. I have had many PCs over the years but have never encountered this issue.

The only differences that I know of from other machines:

- it has a wireless dongle inside. I googled this issue and it seemed some answers was that the wireless dongle can wake up the machine? I went to properties of the dongle and disabled the wake feature as suggested. Didn't fix. The computer is hooked via LAN so I tried to do the same thing there but problem still exists.

- It came with a USB mouse that stays lit up even when the computer is off. Dunno if that is causing a wake feature, I have no idea. Just something I hadn't seen before, a mouse with lights that stay on all the time.

Any ideas? Would love any advice. The computer runs entirely normally except for this weird thing. Would really appreciate any advice you can share. Obviously I could just turn off the surge protector power strip power whenever the computer isn't in use but I'd rather just solve this problem first.

Thank you for any help!

--

So as you see, I tried turning off the Wake on LAN etc and it didn't seem to fix it. I had another PC hooked up to the same LAN and it never turned on by itself but this new one does.

I haven't tried the automatic updates through. That could actually power on a computer from shut down?

 

[Ranteh]

Rantah, did you solve this problem? I am having the same issue.

Here's my post:

I purchased an ibuypower from newegg. The Phantom NE783K. It has been a nice computer, was purchased for my daughter and her enjoyment of gaming. I haven't had any problems with the machine other than this. It just turns itself on seemingly at random. I will shut it down normally and then sometime later I will notice it's on and booted up. I have had many PCs over the years but have never encountered this issue.
. . .
So as you see, I tried turning off the Wake on LAN etc and it didn't seem to fix it. I had another PC hooked up to the same LAN and it never turned on by itself but this new one does.

I haven't tried the automatic updates through. That could actually power on a computer from shut down?

I still haven't fixed it yet. For the time being I've just been unplugging it from the wall when I'm done but yeah that's not really a solution. I haven't tried the automatic updates either, and I also didn't think that could power on a computer, but I do know that computers always have power in them as long as they're plugged in (hence your mouse always being lit) so I guess that could happen? I don't know. Do you know your specs? Maybe we have a same piece of hardware that's doing it I really don't know

EDIT:
I looked up your computer, HOT DAMN it's nice lol. Anyway, it seems the only thing we have in common is win8.1. So it could very well be the auto updates or some other 8.1 feature.

 

[Phod]

Yeah I don't get it. If I figure it out I'll post here, please do the same. I disabled all the wake on lan stuff though I haven't checked the BIOS yet have you?

Thanks for the discussion!

 

[shadows1234]

I know it isnt a issue with with windows 8.1 only had it on a windows 7 build but i would check for automatic updates to applications
Also a automatic harddisk check could be the case also
I fixed my problem disabling HDD check maybe it would also work for you

 

[Phod]

Ok I went to control panel, windows updates and clicked

Updates will be automatically installed during the maintenance window

On that screen the box that says. "allow scheduled maintenance to wake up my computer at the scheduled time" was clicked On. I turned that off. The scheduled time was 2 am and I've noticed it on late at night.

I'm hoping that was it. Will report.

 

[Ranteh]

I disabled wake on lan and it hasn't done it since but I think it's too soon to be sure. Phod, I hope you got yours fixed it sounds like you did c:

 

[Phod]

Unfortunately my fix didn't work. It turned on around 10 tonight for no reason.
I'm unplugged it from the lan and see if it comes on.

 

[Ranteh]

Unfortunately my fix didn't work. It turned on around 10 tonight for no reason.
I'm unplugged it from the lan and see if it comes on.

Wait so you did have wake on lan disabled, as well as auto updates off, and it still did it?

 

[Phod]

Well I'm not sure I have all the wake on lan settings off. Researching there's some in the bios and another I missed in device manager so I'll try those also.

Yours still good? Which wake on lan did you turn off?

 

[Ranteh]

Well I'm not sure I have all the wake on lan settings off. Researching there's some in the bios and another I missed in device manager so I'll try those also.

Yours still good? Which wake on lan did you turn off?

In device management I disabled wake on lan for Killer Network Ethernet (I have an MSI motherboard and that's what they call their Ethernet thing). The Ethernet port the only way my PC gets internet I have no wifi card or anything. I assume if I had more than one way of getting on the network I'd need to disable all of them.

Also, you might need to disable waking from usb in the device management. If it's enabled, plugging in a usb device could turn on your PC (although I don't think your PC is plugging in a usb by itself lol. I left it on)