PC power ON back mysteriously...

Discussion in 'Software' started by daffie, Apr 26, 2003.

  1. daffie

    daffie Private E-2

    I have this weird problem recently, after shutting down my PC successfully (I actually stand there waiting for the "Your PC is now safe to shutdown" message and watching the power turn off) and leaving the room only to find that the PC will mysteriously ON back when I return to the room after couple of hours or minutes. Thinking is was just a once happen case so I ignore it but then I began to have alot of this happen and it really puzzle me as to how it managed to power ON back. Soon, I find out the reason how it happens... it seems that whenever a phone call come in, or when my phone rings to be precise, the PC will actually power ON by itself. This can't be normal right?

    I have done a full virus scan with Norton and trojan scan with Anti Trojan but found nothing suspicious. Everything seems to be fine except that the PC will power on back whenever the phone rings. Anyone have any ideas whats going on?

    BTW, whenever it power back this way... 2 of of 5 times it managed to enter windows without problem. The other 3 times it usually hangs halfway thru when Norton or ZA or some other background programs is loading. When its hangs, I get alot of that darn BSOD.
     
    Last edited: Apr 26, 2003
  2. Fw190

    Fw190 Lt. Anti-Social

    if the PC is shut off and then powers back on you have a hardware problem. I delt with one of these before and it was the mainboard. Try switching out the power supply, but your best bet for the culprit is the mainboard, especially if you get lockups frequently.
     
  3. Maxwell

    Maxwell Folgers

    You don't say which version of windows you have but 2 other possibilities:

    1) You've shutdown with the restart option enabled.

    2) There are some software that talks to HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) on your computer that will allow a remote power-on. Seen this on Windows NT machines for when sys admn want to install latest virus info on PCs powered down overnight.

    Have a look here to see if anything helps you: http://www.aumha.org/a/shutdown.htm

    You could try the Windows shutdown troubleshooter: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/...ome/using/productdoc/en/hsc_tshooter_list.asp
     
  4. exeter_acres

    exeter_acres Sergeant

    Nutty thought... could this be anything to do with "Wake on Lan"(WOL) is anything hooked up to that??
     
  5. BigBird

    BigBird Private First Class

    Actually this is an option as to wake when the phone rings...this is important to people who use their computers to receive faxes! This is a normal funtion, but somehow you enabled this function! Check what exeter_acres was refering to....WOL must be enabled! You can find settings for it in the bios!
     
  6. iamien

    iamien Cptn "Eh!"

    Soudns about right. BTW what motherboard do you have?
     
  7. daffie

    daffie Private E-2

    Actually, I could power OFF the PC normally but it's only turn back on when the phone rings.

    So if it got to do with WOL thing, how exactly do I check on that and disable it?

    And also how do I check what is the type of motherboard that I have?

    BTW, using Win ME.
     
  8. augiedoggie

    augiedoggie The Canadian Loon - LocoAugie (R.I.P. 2012)

    Check this thread for finding out your hardware specs.

    HTH
     
  9. goldfish

    goldfish Lt. Sushi.DC

    you should be able to get into BIOS settings by hitting delete while the PC is starting up, or whatever is specified as "setup" on compaq machines i think its F12 and IBMs its F2 ( i think, at least). you should see it on the screen as you boot. if you can change the setting it will be under somthing like "Features Setup"
    if you have AMIBios like me then thats where it lies. Cant give you any more info because we dont know your specs.......
     
  10. da chicken

    da chicken MajorGeek

    Sounds exactly like Wake-On-LAN or Wake-on-FAX. This is a BIOS setting. When the computer boots, you should first see a blob of text that appears at the top of the screen. The first one you see should be your video card. The next one is your Motherboard's BIOS. On this screen you see the BIOS version number, the memoray detection, and the HDD and CD drive detection. You also usually see "Keyboard detected" and "Mouse detected". It also usually says "Press <key> to enter BIOS" somewhere on the screen.

    However, most manufactured PCs (Dell, Gateway, etc) have a wonderful little graphic that comes up to hide this info from you. All of it. When this image apprears (before the loading WIndows screen), try pressing Escape to see what is written on the screen. You might need to reboot several times to read it all. Today's machines are too fast sometimes. :)

    Common keys to try to enter the BIOS are Del (most common), F1, F12, F10, Shift, Control and Esc. Press the key rapidly as soon as you turn on the machine. At worst, the machine will yell at you about a keyboard error.

    In the BIOS, look for a Power Management or ACPI section. Navigae to it and look for Wake-On-LAN or Wake-On-Phone or some similar. Change it to Disabled. Save the settings and exit; your machine will reboot normally.

    Note: Be very careful with your BIOS settings. You can seriously mess up your PC if you do something wrong.

    Also, make sure your PC is actually shutting off and not just entering hibernation when you shutdown windows. Make sure it says "shurdown" and not "standby".

    Best bet is to crack open the case and look at it. If you have a Dell or a Gateway, call Tech Support and they should be able to step you through all of this.

    That's too bad. This shouldn't be the cause of this particular problem, but I for one would rather use Windows 3.1 than ME. ME is the worst OS ever.
     
  11. daffie

    daffie Private E-2

    Problem solves as it turn out that the modem that I had been using temporarily while waiting for a newer one was the main reason the PC power on when there's an incoming call because it was a data fax modem and thats was one of it's features. I guess this was the case of not reading the manual beforehand. :p

    Thanks all for the inputs anyway.
     
  12. exeter_acres

    exeter_acres Sergeant

    Hooooray another mystery solved!!



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