Strangest Thing

Are you ready to hear this? My computer has a mind of its own, it turns on automatically by itself. Some how I built a computer with AI . Ok maybe it doesn't have AI but it definitely has a problem, for some reason it turns on by iteslf, yes I am serious and yes I said it turns on by itself. Most likely its some hardware problem. The newest addition of hardware to my PC is the Logitech G15 keyboard. Its a home built PC with Win XP x64 in it.

My first guess was that the power button was plugged into the wrong place on the mother board but I checked and its correct. I also thought that the power button was stuck, but if that was true the comp would never shut off, and if it did it would just turn right back on, but I'm not going to rule out that it could be the button.

Any other ideas on what it could be?

 

Just a shot in the dark, but:

Some computers have options in the BIOS for automatic power-on. I have mine set to boot 10 minutes before I arrive to work. Anything there like that?

 

I'll have to go check, give me a few minutes to reboot and check out the BIOS.

 

I went through the entire BIOS and nothing has been set up to boot automatically. The strange thing is that it just randomly boots up, its not like at a specific time it will just boot.

 

Perhaps the 'wake in LAN ' or other similar funtion is set in BIOS?
Is this pc connected to DSL?

 

i am using DSL but my PC is wireless

 

Wake On LAN was going to be my next guess... do believe the option is on wireless NICs as well....

 

If I cut all power to my PC including the BIOS battery and then start it up again do you think if any autoboot settings that have been set would be erased?

 

No you will have to enter the bios and check, some may be enabled as the default setting.

If you don't have a bios manual, post motherboad details and we will try to help find one.

 

the only reason i asked is because i've had this computer for about a month and this problem started happening 2 days ago so in my opinion it wouldn't be a default setting beause then it would have happened from the begining, and like i said in my first post the only new hardware is the keyboard

but i'll check the LAN setting as soon as I get a chance, in the meantime other suggestions would be helpful so I don't have to keep rebooting every 5 minute I could just try it all at once lol

 

I'm going to guess that the new keyboard is USB, and I'm also going to guess that it has Power ON/Off button and Sleep or Standby button; most of the newer high-end keyboards do have these buttons. It could be that one of these is stuck or malfunctioning. Try disconnecting the new keyboard and go with the old one and see if that clears it up. USB ports actually use live voltage; it isn't much, but it's enough to wreak havoc when it goes ka-blooey. And yes.... ka-blooey is the correct technical term

 

yes it is usb but no it doesn't have any of those keys you are talking about, its a gamming keyboard with 18 customizable keys, if i wanted i could customize those keys to do what you said, but right now none of them are set to do that, and there is on power button anywhere on the keyboard to turn the PC on so i'm 98% sure its not the keyboard, i just don't want to rule it out yet

also i checked about the wake on LAN setting and I couldn't find it, actually i couldn't find any setting that had to do with the LAN so thats not it.

 

Congratulations, you are clearly not a novice.

However several posters have suggested things you have only half carried out or at least reported.


For instance

and

(sorry about the spelling)

So is there any point offering a systematic troubleshooting list?

 

well right now i can't see if the problem has been fixed or not because i'm using the computer, so we will have to wait until tomorrow morning to see if it booted up during the night. So far all I tried is:

Checking the BIOS for Wake on LAN setting and Automatic Boot setting. Both aren't the problem.

If the problem continues I will try:
Changing the keyboard.
Resetting the BIOS

I'll keep you guys posted on what happens.

 

Resetting the bios won't work, though, if there's a default that is a wake up event and the problem is based on that setting. I have a manual here for a motherboard with ami bios and the place to find wake up events is under Power Management features. Two of the wake up events are a default on this one. Another possible wake up event that you should look for is keyboard events. I discovered one day in the bios of an old machine that we used to have, that Ctrl and F12 pressed together were a wake up event and would start up the computer. This new one has an option that includes any key can wake up the computer or you can set specific keys. I actually find myself wondering if something else has changed that has nothing to do with the computer itself - have you a new kitten or other pet perhaps or moved the computer? If the keyboard wake up event is set and the cat or any other creature heavy enough walks across a wake up key (which remember, could potentially be any key on the keyboard or may be a specific key or combination) the computer would power up.

Resume By Alarm is the name of the feature in an ami bios that Mada_Milty is referring to and that's also in the wake up events section. Certainly this shouldn't be the case if it wasn't doing it before but you should still check it.

Post what bios brand it is; ami, Award, something else. The bios features are much alike even between different versions. And let us know if you have a motherboard manual and what the motherboard is.

As dlb has suggested, it could well be the new keyboard and this sounds the most likely to me of all possibilities. The computer is never really off these days unless you turn off at the "wall" (and the wall switch isn't faulty) or pull the plug. That would mean that the keyboard has power because it's drawing it from the USB port which is in turn drawing it from the "wall." You've only to look at the back of most computers these days, to be able to see at least one glowing light.

What about the battery in the motherboard? Did it come with the motherboard or did you buy it new yourself? In my experience, batteries which come with an item often don't last long and the bios settings may have reverted to default. Have you had any cause to reset the date and time recently?

AC power loss setting is another feature in the bios that I'm wondering about. This is the one that tells it whether to power the computer on again as soon as power is restored after a power loss. Technically, this shouldn't be a factor because your machine has been told it's in an "off" state and the power loss setting is only meant to work on an "on" state computer but I throw this into the suggestion box for others more knowledgeable on possible faults with this part of the computer. Would problems with his mains power perhaps cause spikes or glitches that may make the computer turn on?

 

Actualy I reset the BIOS about 24 hours ago and until now it hasn't happened. The computer was off for about 3 hours after I reset it and it didn't turn on. Than I had it off all night while I was sleeping so that was about 6 hours and it didn' t happen. Finally I wasn't home all day today and the computer never turned on once. So it seems like I fixed the problem by resetting the BIOS.

Thanks for all your suggestions, if it happens again I'll try removing the keyboard if that doesn't work than I'll go through your suggestions chookers.

Thanks again.