PC switching itself on overnight

[Guineafowl]

Windows 10 pro for workstations, TP link PCI wireless adapter (no ethernet connection), Brother wifi printer which does, admittedly, get left on most of the time.

Even if I shut it down in the evening, as in - Start, Power, Shut Down, click off, fan stops, it’s awake by the morning. Disabled ‘Wake on magic packet’ and ‘Wake on Pattern match’ in network adapter properties. Disabled ‘Fast restart’.

Printer properties don’t show anything about being able to switch it on.

What else could switch it on?

 

[Wildefalcon]

Cat walking on keyboard.

 

[hotponyshoes]

I don't think anything can turn on a computer that's actually shut down (as opposed to sleep or suspend) apart from wake-on-lan or the power button.
Might have changed in recent years but it was hard work when I was trying to remote start one a few years ago.

Check the bios settings as you might have a setting for power loss. That makes the computer start up if you are getting short power outages overnight?

After that I'd be suspecting a faulty power button although you would expect it to behave the same during the day?

 

[hotponyshoes]

Might be worth checking the windows power settings as well.
I know you can reconfigure the physical power button to go into suspend rather than off. Maybe you can do the same with the soft power button?

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

Google Search

 

[eSCHEn]

Check the BIOS doesn't have an auto-wake feature. A lot of them will let you boot up at a specific time each day / schedule.

 

[bricol]

I just pull the power cable out the back - it's not turned on once since

 

[Haz87]

Check the BIOS doesn't have an auto-wake feature. A lot of them will let you boot up at a specific time each day / schedule.

This - tho I'd expect you to remember setting this. Its not exactly the kind of thing you'd accidentally setup

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

This - tho I'd expect you to remember setting this. Its not exactly the kind of thing you'd accidentally setup

No.
But you may find that it has been hacked and being used for doggy activities.

 

[Porkypine]

Sounds like a Poltergeist to me..

 

[addjunkie]

I suspect its big brother checkin* you are old enough to not needs vpn to surf porn

 

[Bobtail4x4]

are you having power cuts?
ours boots up even if the power flashed off and back on,

 

[MetalMonkey]

It will be related to the updateorchestrator.

I've run into this before, but honestly can't recall how i solved it. Its annoying because you disable every option, wake on lan the lot and it still boots it unless its physically unplugged.
I have a feeling it was something to do with disabling or limiting the wake up under task scheduler for the updateorchestrator, or maybe via group policy.

 

[hotponyshoes]

Check the activities/events log.
Might be something there

 

[Guineafowl]

Ok, done the wake timer and disabled daily power-on in the BIOS.

This was a secondhand PC, presumably from some sort of office.

Cheers for the suggestions, will now have to wait and see!

 

[ajlelectronics]

being used for doggy activities.

Make no bones about it, that would be very wuff.

 

[droopsnoot]

When I got a power consumption meter I discovered that even in "off" mode, my PC is using 12w. While that's not much, I turn it off at the socket now so it's not using anything when I switch it off. Much easier than trying to figure out what's using it.

 

[Jack_K]

are you having power cuts?
ours boots up even if the power flashed off and back on,

There is usually a setting to change this.

 

[voipio]

Make sure that there are no scheduled tasks set to run overnight. Sometimes software installs add scheduled tasks. NCH Software installs have done this kind of thing in the past. Find Scheduled Tasks in the Control Panel. It's possible to create a shortcut on the desktop, and then set a keyboard shortcut to something like CTRL+ALT+S.

 

[fizzy]

Windows updates are the biggest culprit. Also it could have wake on mouse. Wireless keyboards or mice are also culprits. Mine kept doing it until I moved the little transmitter/receiver dongle into a different USB port.
But nothing beats a proper hard on off switch!