[jek1862]

At the stroke of midnight, every night, my computer automatically turns on. And it STAYS on...for HOURS. One time I checked it 4am, that would be on for 4 hours and it was STILL on! When I turn on the monitor, I am just at the log in screen. I then shut the [bleep] thing off.
This is getting to be a REAL pain. I do not understand why my computer is turning on at that hour, and running for hours, until I shut it off. I have looked at several things in the Control Panel to try and figure out why my computer is doing this. I've checked the Task Scheduler. I do not see anything that is scheduled to turn on at midnight. I've checked my antivirus settings and other applications to see if I have any set to turn on at midnight, for updates or whatever...I cannot find anything. I also have checked Windows Update. I have that scheduled to come on every day at THREE A.M., not midnight. Plus that is greyed out and I couldn't change it even if I wanted to. I don't know what else to look for in the Control Panel or on my computer to determine why my computer is turning on at this hour, and the baffling part...why it stays on for hours until I shut it off. If it was some kind of an update, you would think the computer would shut itself off after it had 'done its scheduled work'. Obviously, SOMETHING on my computer is causing it to turn on at midnight every night and run for hours and I need some ideas on trying to figure out what it is so I can STOP it. Other things or areas I might look at? Any ideas as to what may be causing it to go on, and stay on? Thanks.

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try this...
enter BIOS by restarting your computer and immediately tapping the Delete key repeatedly until you enter the BIOS Utility Screen
Once in BIOS, go to Power Options (refer to the owner's manual if you do not know where it is).

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

Edited by happyrock, 16 April 2010 - 06:04 AM.

[happyrock]

try this...
enter BIOS by restarting your computer and immediately tapping the Delete key repeatedly until you enter the BIOS Utility Screen
Once in BIOS, go to Power Options (refer to the owner's manual if you do not know where it is).

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

Edited by happyrock, 16 April 2010 - 06:04 AM.

[jek1862]

Thank you for your reply. The wording in my particular BIOS is a bit different than what you are listing, so I am going to list what I have in my BIOS and the settings and then you can advise me as to what to do, change, etc. I don't have a 'Wake on LAN' or a 'Wake on Ring' but I believe I have 'similar' categories. First off, here are the main categories in my particular BIOS, in case you want me to go to a particular category to adjust a setting:

BIOS Main Categories

1. Standard CMOS Features
2. Advanced BIOS Features
3. Advanced Chipset Features
4. Integrated Peripherals
5. Power Management Setup(similar to your 'Power Options')
6. PnP/Pci Configurations
7. Frequency Voltage Control

Categories under 'Power Management Setup', which I think apply to my problem:

1. HDD Power Down-Disabled
2. Suspend Mode-Disabled
3. Video Off Option-Suspend-Off
4. Video Off Method-V/H Sync+Blank
5. Modem Use IRQ-3
6. Soft-Off by PWRBTN-Instant-Off
7. Power On After Power Fail-Off
8. AMD k8 Cool'n'Quiet Control-Auto
9. VGA-On
10.LPT & COM-LPT/COM
11.HDD & FDD-On
12.PCI Master-On
13.Power On By PCI Card-Enabled
14.Modem Ring Resume-Disabled
15.RTC Alarm Resume-Disabled
16.Date(of Month)-0
17.Resume Time(hr-mm-ss)-0 0 0

Please look these settings over and see if they should be as you think they should be. If not, please tell me to change a setting or settings. If I need to go to a different category, please of course tell me the category and what sub-category I should be looking for and what to change it to. Thanks

[happyrock]

10.LPT & COM-LPT/COM...set to disabled
13.Power On By PCI Card-...set to disabled

[jek1862]

happyrock-that was it! I disabled both of those and for the first time last night my computer did not start itself at midnight. I wonder, though, what started this problem in the first place. I have not changed any settings in the BIOS of late, nor done anything else I know of to have caused this problem, but obviously something did. Anyway, I am happy this problem appears to have been solved. Thanks for all your help with this.
However, I have a new problem(don't they ever end, lol???). It involves my System Restore. Basically, it is not creating a restore point, and I have tried manually to do it in several different ways, but still no success. Let me post a new thread with that problem, because I need to list the error messages I am getting, and I want to include more details. Thanks.

[happyrock]

your welcome...and thanks for letting us know...
now about system restore...
all restore points a linked...so if 1 is bad they are all bad...the only fix is to turn off restore to clear out all the old restore points...
then turn it back on...manually create a restore point... and then test it to make sure its working

Edited by happyrock, 20 April 2010 - 09:17 AM.