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Geek Culture / Why would my PC switch itself on?

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James H
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Location: St Helens
Posted: 2nd Dec 2008 20:40
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Ok, I don`t have anything in my task schedules set for this and it has never done so before. It was definately off at 11am this morning(since 1am this morning) and no-one has been in the house. When I got in around 6pm this evening it was running, though logged off - the screen and speakers where off(as I had left them), the mouse and keyboard unplugged(also how I left them). Remote access is the only other thing I can think of, but the bios option for wake on LAN is disabled and nobody has access to my PC to get the IP anyway. Does anybody have any ideas as to how/why this might have happened? The event viewer shows normal events for startup from 3.55 this afternoon. A scan using AVG 8.0 full version shows nothing(last scan was last night just after 12 midnight).
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Omega gamer 89
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Posted: 2nd Dec 2008 20:49
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It was a ghost.
Seriously, though, that's freaky.
You may have an intruder in your house. The call is coming from inside the house.

If the good lord had intended us to go outside or have a social life, he wouldn't have invented the internet.
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Yodaman Jer
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Posted: 2nd Dec 2008 20:51
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Did you maybe just click 'Restart' instead of 'Shutdown'?


Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
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bitJericho
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Posted: 2nd Dec 2008 21:08
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355 huh, are you sure it was from today, and not yesterday (when you first turned it on yesterday). It could be that you clicked logoff instead of shutdown.

The other thing it could be is if you had a power outage, and your bios is set to restart on power cuts. Although, it should normally not start up unless you have it on already, afaik.

Last option could just be a short on the mobo started her up. Perhaps a (real) bug.

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kaedroho
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Posted: 2nd Dec 2008 21:11
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Acctually, this has happened to me about twice. You suddenly wake up to the windows startup tune! D: Its hard to get back to sleep afterwards.

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James H
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Posted: 2nd Dec 2008 21:12
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Intruder is out of the question, I can`t think of any reason why an intruder would only switch my computer on and leave everything else in the house alone, unless the intruder is the police and believes I have something on my machine that shouldn`t be, in which case why would they go to the length of leaving everything as it was but forget to shut down. Besides, there is no reason for the police to sniff round here.
It has been switched off since 1am this morning, when I woke up at 1030am it was still off and I left it alone, so no chance of me clicking restart instead of shutdown.
Thanks anyway. I was rather hoping that someone may know of a virus that can do this that AVG might not identify
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Yodaman Jer
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Posted: 2nd Dec 2008 21:18
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There's always a chance that it could be a virus. But I sort of doubt it. If more weird things start happening to your computer, definitely look into that option a bit.

I agree with Jerico, it could just have been a short on the mobo. Stuff like that happens, if something actually got into your computer and chewed through a wire, it could have started it up. Perhaps dig into your computer and search for a dead rodent.


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Plystire
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Posted: 2nd Dec 2008 21:32
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Quote: "It was a ghost."


Funny you should mention that here. My friend did have a ghost in his room that did this all the time. (Not sure if it's still there, but I witnessed it one night) The only difference for him, though, is that when it "turned itself on" it also typed in his user password at the login screen and logged on. It wouldn't do anything after that, but just seeing the password typed in by itself was freaky enough for me.

He solved the problem by switching off his power supply whenever he'd shut it down for the night.


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bitJericho
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Posted: 2nd Dec 2008 21:56
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Quote: "Funny you should mention that here. My friend did have a ghost in his room that did this all the time. (Not sure if it's still there, but I witnessed it one night) The only difference for him, though, is that when it "turned itself on" it also typed in his user password at the login screen and logged on. It wouldn't do anything after that, but just seeing the password typed in by itself was freaky enough for me."


Creepy! But I think he was having a laugh at you. This can be done with remote software, or a haxxor booting the machine to gain access. You wouldn't necessarily see his actions once he's logged in.

Unless you mean you actually saw the ghost? Then you have to tell us more!

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James H
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Posted: 2nd Dec 2008 22:19
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Quote: "355 huh..."
it was today, there are 8 fans inside so when its on I am more than aware its on.
The bios is set for the machine to remain off when loss of power occurs. The short on the mobo looks a strong possibility as I don`t believe in ghosts or any thing supernatural. I`d agree that the chance of it being a virus is small as there is nothing else wrong with it. I normally do switch off at the plug, lately I haven`t as I am using homeplugs(sends network through house electrics) which means resetting the modem everyday - if the tower isn`t saturated between shutdown and next startup(has power in it) then the connection is lost(doesn`t occur with a router between the homeplug and pc though)
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Plystire
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Posted: 2nd Dec 2008 22:49 Edited at: 2nd Dec 2008 22:52
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@Jerico:

I think that'd be pretty hard, considering that he was not only in the room with me at the time, but he isn't the software type of computer nerd. He's mainly about hardware. (I help him in software classes )

We never have actually "seen" the ghost, but we've both had random objects thrown at us when no body else was in the house. He was fortunate enough to have a stuffed bear thrown at him... whereas I was unfortunate enough to get his r/c helicopter (big one, too) thrown at my head. He was mad about that, because it broke when it made contact. (No, he didn't throw it at me, he was sitting next to me... in fact, I bet the ghost had crappy aim and was ACTUALLY intending to hit him, lol)


@James:

It could be possible that there is a signal coming from your "connection" that triggers a startup.

Do you have any anti-virus software set to auto-scan at .... maybe around 3:50 pm?


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Those who live in the past, are destined to insanity. Those who live only for the future, will be slaves to their ambitions.
Those who live in the moment... only they, are truly happy.
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tha_rami
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Posted: 2nd Dec 2008 23:00
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Have you by any chance seen 'The Ring'?

Sleep well .


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James H
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Posted: 2nd Dec 2008 23:36 Edited at: 2nd Dec 2008 23:40
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No auto scan set, although it may well be possible that the house electrics could affect the signal between the homeplugs* I would imagine a specific signal is required to start up the PC. Any power-up based on a time won`t work anyway. The timer used shows up and has always shown up as an error in the event viewer with the blame being placed on it not being configured in the bios(advanced timer), might need a bios update or maybe I need the latest Ntune or whatever its called instead, as I don`t currently have that option as far as I can see.



*The centre of the wire is utilised by homeplugs as under normal usage only the outside of the wires are used

Edit: Heard about the film, didn`t like what I heard so haven`t watched it as although I say I`m not supersticous, I still like my sleep
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Haven Studios
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Posted: 3rd Dec 2008 00:18
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This has happened to me and it is really annoying I leave my computer in hibernate sometimes and come back later to see it on, and it's not an accident because I come back in like 6 hrs and I know I pressed the button because I saw it go into hibernation.

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El Goorf
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Posted: 3rd Dec 2008 00:31
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serious note: check your bios.

i have my bios set to turn my pc on at 8:30am every morning, basically as an alarm clock, and also to warm the room up before i emerge fromt he warm bed ^_^

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James H
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Posted: 3rd Dec 2008 01:00
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Yes it was the alarm in the bios, didn`t realise it had one, thanks
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Haven Studios
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Posted: 3rd Dec 2008 01:28
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I turned off my alarm about a month ago

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Yodaman Jer
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Posted: 3rd Dec 2008 02:16
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So, no dead rodents stuck to the motherboard then? Darn, that'd been funny...


Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
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Jeku
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Posted: 4th Dec 2008 08:33
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Quote: "My friend did have a ghost in his room that did this all the time. (Not sure if it's still there, but I witnessed it one night)"


There is a logical explanation. If you can reproduce this so-called "ghost" occurrence the sceptic society will give you a cool million bucks.


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Aertic
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Posted: 4th Dec 2008 12:06 Edited at: 4th Dec 2008 12:07
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-NVM-
Odd...


"Your greatest teacher is your harshest critic"-'Butterfingers'
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Plystire
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Posted: 4th Dec 2008 20:59
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Quote: "If you can reproduce this so-called "ghost" occurrence the sceptic society will give you a cool million bucks."


Hmmmm, I hope it hasn't moved away then.


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Those who live in the past, are destined to insanity. Those who live only for the future, will be slaves to their ambitions.
Those who live in the moment... only they, are truly happy.
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AlexI
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Posted: 6th Dec 2008 19:18
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Wake on LAN maybe


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bergice
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Posted: 6th Dec 2008 21:17
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Why tell those ghost stories while i am sitting at my computer in complete darkness?

I remember tough that a friend of mine had a computer that his dad had full control over.

He could just start to contol his pc anytime, the fun thing was they could both do it at the same time so when he was playing a game suddenly the escape screen would pop up and he would have to fight against the mouse


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Green Gandalf
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Posted: 7th Dec 2008 13:52
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Quote: "Why tell those ghost stories while i am sitting at my computer in complete darkness?"


Total darkness? No light coming from the screen?

Now that is geeky.
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bergice
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Posted: 7th Dec 2008 14:10
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Of course the screen, but that only let me see the ghosts behind me


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Grandma
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Posted: 7th Dec 2008 14:10
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Quote: "Total darkness? No light coming from the screen?"

He must have one of those analog computers. Which is impressive, seeing that he's on the internet with it and stuff.

This message was brought to you by Grandma industries.

Making yesterdays games, today!
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Lukas W
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Posted: 7th Dec 2008 14:30
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Maybe your power went out for a while, then when it came back on it kick-started the engines in your computer which ultimately lead to a startup OMG!

But seriously, some computers do that. At least if it was already turned on when the power went out.

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Raven
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Posted: 7th Dec 2008 15:03
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The desktop I'm on atm, will boot whenever anyone opens the disc drive; if they accidentally turn on the wireless xbox 360 controllers connected; if Windows update has set an update to run while the PC is off; if there is a remote network call (i.e. someone wants to use Media Center while it's off); if a USB stick with an OS is inserted; etc..

realistically this desktop only gets turned off once every month for regular maintainance and rebuilding to make sure it is running in top-condition; but still there's a number of safe-guards that are pretty automatic nowadays to make sure that it will turn on if it needs to be. Windows Update now being tied to the BIOS is particularly useful cause at 3-4am I'm usually asleep or messing around on the 360, so it's the best time for the computer to do something that intensive without it affecting anything I'm doing.

Not exactly ghostly or such, just a standard built-in feature now. Think about it most people are asleep early in the morning (what it's defaulted to) so the PC will turn on, update and shutdown again without you even realising most of the time.

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Lukas W
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Posted: 7th Dec 2008 15:44
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Quote: "Think about it most people are asleep early in the morning (what it's defaulted to) so the PC will turn on, update and shutdown again without you even realising most of the time."

What?! Is that true?
I learn something new every day now

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