Tommy Logic™

Question:

I find at various times of the day or night that my computer turns on all by itself. What causes this, and how do I get it to stop? Running Windows XP Pro.

Answer:

Computer turns on by itself:

The ghost machine that turns itself on and off is a fairly common problem. When a computer mysteriously does this, it's a BIOS issue. If you are unfamiliar with the system BIOS, read a couple of the previous articles about changing BIOS settings and be sure to see the note below.

You typically enter BIOS by restarting your computer and immediately pressing the Delete key repeatedly until you enter the BIOS Utility Screen (usually in blue). The fix is fairly easy.

1. Once in BIOS, go to Power Options (refer to the owner's manual if you do not know where it is).
2. Scroll down to Wake On LAN and/or Wake On Ring and change them to Disable. This will prevent Scroll down to Wake on LAN and / or Wake on Ring and Change them to DISABLE
   
   This will prevent the computer from being able to come out of its power down mode whenever the phone rings or if LAN activity occurs (ie: you have another computer in the house on a network and someone logs on to the network from there).

Press F10 and choose YES to save settings and exit. Your system restarts and the problem should be fixed.

NOTE: USE EXTREME CAUTION in BIOS. Changing the incorrect settings may cause your computer to not be able to reboot or operate.

Best of luck,