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John Gretzinger · Post by **John Gretzinger** » 10 Jul 2000 5:48 am

This is one I have not run up against before...

My fiance'es computer (Celeron 500, 128Mbyte RAM, W'98SE) will turn itself on automatically every once and a while. When it does, it always happens at midnight.

Yeah, I know the rumor about Bill Gates wanting to check the contents of the hard disk, etc., but this is weird.

One more thing... when this happens, the screen resolution is reset from 1024x768 back to 640x480.

Any ideas??

jdg

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 10 Jul 2000 7:00 am

Check the Task Scheduler. It may have some periodic task, such as disk defrag secheduled to run at predetermined times.

Larry Bell · Post by **Larry Bell** » 10 Jul 2000 7:52 am

John,
Is it TURNING ITSELF ON (meaning: the power is OFF before what you're describing happens and then the power is turned ON) or is A PROGRAM RUNNING AUTOMATICALLY (meaning: the power was left on and the computer began doing someting 'on its own')?

Does she leave it on all the time?

The former would be VERY UNUSUAL. The latter requires that the power be left on for the task scheduler to function.

LTB

Jim Smith · Post by **Jim Smith** » 10 Jul 2000 7:59 am

Newer ATX motherboards have "wake on LAN", "wake on ring", etc. Check the BIOS settings to be sure those are NOT enabled. Also those motherboards turn off power automatically when they are shut down. Perhaps a power surge is causing the soft power switch to turn itself on?!?

John Gretzinger · Post by **John Gretzinger** » 10 Jul 2000 9:36 pm

Jack - No on the scheduler - the machine is physically turned off (powered down) each night.

Larry - Yep - the machine powers itself up at midnight occasionally.

Jim - settings are correct. The power surge has been considered, but I have it on a power conditioner (UPS). Also, the likelyhood that the surge happens only at midnight is remote.

It is a puzzlement.

jdg

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MSA D-10
'63 Gibson Hummingbird
16/15c Hammered Dulcimer

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 11 Jul 2000 2:53 am

Log it to "F.M."

John Gretzinger · Post by **John Gretzinger** » 11 Jul 2000 9:44 am

Thanks Jack,

I needed that ---

I've heard stories of this happening before but have always written it off to Urban Legend status. Now that I am seeing it happen I am curious.

Oh well, I'll find out what it is one of these days.

jdg

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MSA D-10
'63 Gibson Hummingbird
16/15c Hammered Dulcimer

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 11 Jul 2000 10:37 am

On a serious note (not the FM), when it's powered off, is it totally off or just the front panel.

On some PC's when it's "powered down" from closing down windows, it's only powered down from the front panel, but there is still a "master power off" switch on the rear of the PC that will completely power it off. My current Compaq Presario is that way and the old IBM Aptiva I had worked the same way.

If that PC has a rear panel "master" power off switch, make sure it's also powered off and then see if the "magic" is still happening.

John Gretzinger · Post by **John Gretzinger** » 11 Jul 2000 11:25 am

Good point Jack. It is just powered down from the front panel using the autoshutdown features of the motherboard/chip/software.

I'm sure that will fix the problem. We'll give it a try.

Still an interesting question as to why it fires up ONLY at midnight that way.

jdg

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MSA D-10
'63 Gibson Hummingbird
16/15c Hammered Dulcimer

Dave Horch · Post by **Dave Horch** » 11 Jul 2000 11:51 am

An idea... Change the system time so that "midnight" falls five minutes from now. Then power off and wait to see what happens?

John Gretzinger · Post by **John Gretzinger** » 11 Jul 2000 3:05 pm

Dave - unfortunately it's not a good option. I may reset the time to be off by 5 or 10 minutes to make sure it is based on the system clock (but I'm pretty sure of that already). If it happened every night at midnight resetting the time close to midnight would be instructive, but since it is a random occurance it's not practical.

jdg

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MSA D-10
'63 Gibson Hummingbird
16/15c Hammered Dulcimer

Jim Smith · Post by **Jim Smith** » 12 Jul 2000 3:46 pm

John, I just found this on Microsoft's site. It may help.

Windows 98 Second Edition Shutdown Supplement. Addresses shutdown issues on systems with specific hardware/software configurations running Windows 98 Second Edition. These issues include systems restarting when selecting shutdown and systems hanging on shutdown. NOTE: This supplement has been updated as of November, 1999. Please install this latest version.

Get it at: click here [This message was edited by b0b on 13 July 2000 at 06:02 PM.]