Ghost In the Machine?

[Daniel644]

So I've got this weird issue that I can't figure out on the secretaries computer at work, it started in the last week or so with a machine that is nearly 10 years old, I will FULLY SHUTDOWN the computer and anywhere from a few minutes to a few dozen minutes later the computer will just turn itself on and I can't figure out why, years ago I tried setting the BIOS in it for a Wake on LAN setup but that never worked (and I may have replaced the motherboard after doing that) Computer is an old Q6600 core 2 quad running Vista, because thats the latest OS supported by our version of Quickbooks. Any Ideas on what to try tomorrow to see if it will stay turned off?

[Numbafieve]

I had this problem a while ago with my computer.  As soon as i moved it downstairs it wouldn't do it anymore, and no hardware changed.  So the only conclusion i could come to was the power from the wall was somehow doing it even though that defies all logic.  I would have to just turn off the power strip if i wanted my computer to not prepare for takeoff at 2AM

[Skiiwee29]

Verify in the BIOS that Wake on Lan is not enabled. Also go into the NIC itself and ensure that Wake on Lan is disabled. You might still be getting the magic packet hitting it if it was ever configured. 

[SpaceGhostC2C]

10 minutes ago, Daniel644 said:

So I've got this weird issue that I can't figure out on the secretaries computer at work, it started in the last week or so with a machine that is nearly 10 years old, I will FULLY SHUTDOWN the computer and anywhere from a few minutes to a few dozen minutes later the computer will just turn itself on and I can't figure out why, years ago I tried setting the BIOS in it for a Wake on LAN setup but that never worked (and I may have replaced the motherboard after doing that) Computer is an old Q6600 core 2 quad running Vista, because thats the latest OS supported by our version of Quickbooks. Any Ideas on what to try tomorrow to see if it will stay turned off?

Have you changed any USB peripheral recently? I've seen a PC wake up despite having all "wake on..." features OFF. We noticed that the light in the optical mouse wasn't turning off. Replacing the mouse made it stop, but we still don't know how exactly using a particular mouse could overrule the motherboard settings.

[Daniel644]

55 minutes ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

Have you changed any USB peripheral recently? I've seen a PC wake up despite having all "wake on..." features OFF. We noticed that the light in the optical mouse wasn't turning off. Replacing the mouse made it stop, but we still don't know how exactly using a particular mouse could overrule the motherboard settings.

the most that has happened with connected devices was one old Microsoft wireless keyboard/mouse combo receivers got unplugged when I pulled the computer out to dust it out about 3 weeks ago (I plugged it back in), not sure how close that dusting was to this starting.

[Daniel644]

Looks like the "ghost" is the microsoft wireless keyboard or more specifically the wake on ANY KEY (we've used this since day one so we can boot the PC by hitting any key on the keyboard instead of opening the front door cover to hit the power button) BIOS setting, the transmitter receiver for the wireless keyboard was the ONE thing I unplugged (cable to short) when pulling the machine out to dust it a few weeks ago. Still don't know why it's doing it but at least I've tracked down how to stop it from turning on.