What Could Trigger This To Happen

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09-23-2003, 06:03 PM
nikita69

Couple of days ago, late at night, I turned off one of my PCs (home). The following morning I saw the PC was ON. I looked at the logs and it was turned on exactly 00:59:59 after I shut it down. That is 1 second from an hour (not 1am). executed my protocols for any suspecious acts on my PC and no trace of any abuse/change or any type of action done to it. HOW COULD THIS HAVE HAPPENED.

Now before u answer, please note:
This PC's Info:

Quote:

System Model: Supermicro P4SGA

Processor a  Main Circuit Board b
2.40 gigahertz Intel Pentium 4
8 kilobyte primary memory cache
512 kilobyte secondary memory cache  Board: Supermicro P4SGA PCB Version
Bus Clock: 133 megahertz
BIOS: Phoenix Technologies, LTD 6.00 PG 05/11/2002

Drives  Memory Modules c,d
362.38 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
186.49 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

SONY DVD RW DRU-500A [CD-ROM drive]
SONY DVD-ROM DDU1611 [CD-ROM drive]

IC25N040 ATCS04-0 USB Device [Hard drive] (40.01 GB) -- drive 2
IC35L080AVVA07-0 [Hard drive] (82.34 GB) -- drive 1
TOSHIBA MK4018GAS USB Device [Hard drive] (40.01 GB) -- drive 3
WDC WD1600JB-00DUA0 [Hard drive] (160.04 GB) -- drive 0
WDC WD40 0BB-32AUA1 USB Device [Hard drive] (40.02 GB) -- drive 4  1024

Megabytes Installed Memory
Slot 'A0' has 1 MB
Slot 'A1' has 1 MB

Operating System:Windows XP Professional Service Pack 1 (build 2600)

LAN: N/A
This PC is standalone, connected to no other PC on my Lan. Has it's own T1 Connection. ALL, and I mean ALL settings found in some hardware and software that would trigger to power on, ARE OFF (Yes, including Bios)

As for me, well let's just say that i know my stuff about PCs (not Mr. know it all tho :D ). As I said earlier, I checked the logs, ALL logs, double checked ALL hardware/software settings, anything that I can think of that would trigger such action. NO LUCK. I also, scanned for possible bugs or glitches that might have occured in any of the connected hardware, also no luck.
IDEAS? SUGGESTIONS?
09-23-2003, 06:34 PM
Gre1

After checking all of that I don't know what the problem could be do u live with someone else or something cause even with a trojan or hackor they can't just turn your computer on maybe when u shut it down u just restarted or something. But that is very weird.
09-23-2003, 06:57 PM
nikita69

Quote:

Originally posted by Gre1@24 September 2003 - 00:34
After checking all of that I don't know what the problem could be do u live with someone else or something cause even with a trojan or hackor they can't just turn your computer on maybe when u shut it down u just restarted or something. But that is very weird.

Nope, none of the above. i live by myself. no torjans/hacker or shut/restart issue either. what's more puzzling is Why it booted up at exactly 59 minutes & 59 seconds after I shut it down (my timer logs it just before loss of power, not when i press shut down)?
09-23-2003, 08:45 PM
footballmad

Possible power surge???

Sorry but you seem to have checked most other things.
09-23-2003, 08:45 PM
Jay

i heard of viruses shuttin computers down not starting them up.
09-23-2003, 08:50 PM
chinook_apache

lol you could have had a mouse or animal or some ant press the power button

:D lol ok thats bullshit
09-23-2003, 08:59 PM
GlennTheBaker

My PC used to occasionally power up all by itself and I was mystified until one day I left my word processor open while I went off and mad a cup of tea or whatever. When I came back, there was 'llllllllllllllllll' across the screen.

Turns out the 'L' key had some debris stuck under it which sometimes made contact. This was causing the PC to turn on by itself.

No ghost for me I'm afraid.
09-23-2003, 09:02 PM
pol

Quote:

..'L' key had some debris stuck under it..

Glenn are you a master baker ? :D
09-23-2003, 09:04 PM
Livy

thje only thing that could make it boot is the bios, i dont think windows has the control to do it, or maybe wake on lan, it wakes up when a signal is sent across the lan, is ur modem in th elan port?
09-23-2003, 10:26 PM
nikita69

Quote:

Originally posted by Livy@24 September 2003 - 03:04
thje only thing that could make it boot is the bios, i dont think windows has the control to do it, or maybe wake on lan, it wakes up when a signal is sent across the lan, is ur modem in th elan port?

right about the bios, not windows. that's where am at now. stuck on HOW? btw, no lan or elan port, ethernet. I've contacted Phoenix & Supermicro, my case interested them so they emailed me some testing utilities (really cool ones, not posted on their site :D ). tried them and found no bugs, trojans or anything wrong with them.

Frankly, I haven't ruled out the followings:
1. trojan/hacker (wld be extremely surprised if so)
2. hardware defect somewhere
09-23-2003, 10:32 PM
Livy

if u suspect it may be bios, try updating it, has ur computer done this again, or just the once, if tis only done it once just leave it
09-23-2003, 10:32 PM
nikita69

Quote:

Originally posted by footballmad@24 September 2003 - 02:45
Possible power surge???

Sorry but you seem to have checked most other things.

i'm not aware of power surge can trigger the power to the bios/motherboard! wanna elaborate?
09-23-2003, 10:33 PM
zapjb

Just spitballing here. If somebody close to you (neighbor) has the same wireless mouse & keyboard you do, they could be on the same "channel" as you. Heard of this happening.
09-23-2003, 10:34 PM
nikita69

Quote:

Originally posted by Livy@24 September 2003 - 04:32
if u suspect it may be bios, try updating it, has ur computer done this again, or just the once, if tis only done it once just leave it

i did, no update was needed, and they helped check for bugs/trojan or anything irregular. no luck.
09-23-2003, 10:37 PM
nikita69

Quote:

Originally posted by zapjb@24 September 2003 - 04:33
Just spitballing here. If somebody close to you (neighbor) has the same wireless mouse & keyboard you do, they could be on the same "channel" as you. Heard of this happening.

believe me, the way I approach technical problem-solving is by looking at the least possibilities and/or odd ones, like what u said. the only wireless i have is the mouse. tested and spoke to microsoft, confirmed to me it's not possible (especially that i have it setup to turn off power). all good points tho.
09-23-2003, 10:42 PM
nikita69

Please note, I can simply donate this PC to some org and just build another from scratch. that's not why i'm trying to figure this out. instead, first I like tech chanllanges, second, it would be a good learning experience to know why (remember, the 00:59:59 is what's tempting me the most to find out why), third sharing knowldge is my middle name. :)
09-23-2003, 10:51 PM
pol

Quote:

third sharing knowldge is my middle name. :)

me too :rolleyes:

you spelt 'challenges' wrong :D
09-23-2003, 10:53 PM
DarthInsinuate

00:59:59 seems way to precise to be caused by anything like a power surge or ants - I don't think this is a tech. problem, call your local cleric/psychic/David Duchovny
09-23-2003, 10:56 PM
VB

The only thing that could boot up a computer that is completely shutdown (not hibernating or something) is the mainboard itself.

So it must be in the bios or something hardware related.

Wake on LAN?
Wake on Ring?
Restart on power-loss + electrical outage/surge?

The last one is the most likely.