Thanks to all for the great ideas. I will certainly check the wake-up, but I
am thinking strongly that the surge protector may be the problem. It has
only happened twice and I have a lot of stuff on the surge protector. You
guys are great!

-----Original Message-----
From: PCBUILD - Personal Computer Hardware discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Emie
Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2003 5:41 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] PC turns itself on


I was interrupted and accidentally click "Send" before I could finish typing
my first post below.  Anyway, I agree with Tom. 100%.  In fact Kenny Parks'
and  Joe Lore's  suggestions were what I had in mind to post.  You guys have
covered the "BIOS", "Wake up LAN" "Keyboard" & "Mouse" which would be the
first choice to check.

However, 2 weeks ago we run into a very interesting incident in our shop
very early in the morning.  A lady called and inquired about her computer
(one of those famous brands).  Her question was, "does a computer starts up
on its own?"  Jokingly, I said "not, if it's not plugged into your wall
outlet."  I learned:  she had a P4 1.8 GHz Win98 256MB system.  After using
at night, said she would go to the Windows auto shutdown and press the power
switch on the monitor, off.  So, I said okay... all system should be OFF.
One night she woke up with the sound of gurgling and mumbling (from Windows
"Underwater" screen saver)from the speakers on her PC.  Her room was dark
but noticed her CPU's red light  was ON.  The poor lady said she spent that
night with her behind up in the air and her head buried on her pillow,
scared to death.  She thought there was a ghost in her room!!  She strongly
believed of a ghost in the house since that was not the first time it
happened.  3 times, she said and always happen in the middle of the night.

To make this short, we checked her system's BIOS/CMOS, traced for switches
or possible jumpers on the motherboard that could trigger a "WakeUp" but
didn't find any.  We even thought it was a power supply defect.  Then we
learned she does not use surge protector.  We sold her an 1800 Joules unit
and I cross my fingers as she walked away.  The last time she called, she
left a message on the machine telling us "that thing you sold me for my
computer (the surge protector) must have driven the ghost away!  When my
computer is off, now it stays off!"

Far fetch?  Yes, I know it is.  I also found out the power company's
substation in our town swaps breakers at exactly 1:00 AM every night.  When
this happen, would a surge cause a momentary contact on her PC's switch?
Maybe a coincidence but I thought hmmm, possibility?  Well, it worked. (If
all else fail, Barb may need to have an exorcism done in her house?)   You
all have a pleasant day!

Emie DelRosario



We had a customer called and asked the same question
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Turak" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2003 12:08 PM
Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] PC turns itself on


> Although it may seem farfetched, some ATX power supplies support a
'resume'
> mode after a power outage.  Our servers will reboot after a power
> interruption, while my desktop stays dark until I press the power on
button.
> Your bios setting in cmos setup could be set to allow rebooting after an
> outage, and you are experiencing micro outages at night.  The surge
> protector will have no effect on this.  Normally, you need an ON / OFF /
ON
> cycling of the power for this bios feature to activate, but I don't know
> anything about your system so I'm guessing.
>
> As I said, just an outside chance that this is the cause.
> Tom Turak
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Emie [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Wednesday, October 08, 2003 4:52 PM
>
> How's your surge protector?  I'd recommend 1500 Joules or better.
>
> Emie DelRosario

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