[Solved] XP Desktop Starts Up Automatically

Revived a D.O.P 8/2003 Compaq S4000 desktop that was seldom used. Has XP Home. After setting it up for use and connecting to internet to make sure it worked I shut it down and left it plugged into power strip, where 2 monitors and a W98se desktop also are plugged in. Nothing has ever started up automatically before, but now I go to that room at different times and find the S4000 running, but no internet connection, other monitor or PC running. I shut it down. Later on at no specific time interval I will find it on and running again.
I have not used it often or in awhile and I made no settings to cause automatic activation I know of. Does anyone have any idea why this is happening and what settings to check?
Now I have set it to shut down when power switch pressed and have unplugged it unless planning to use it.

 

Hi,
The first and most likely thing is a sticking power on button on the case wherever it is. If there is a problem with the button, now you have set it to shut down with it, leave it on for a while and see if it shuts down on its own.

Nev.

 

Will check this out. Usually shut down with keyboard or Start>ShutDown

 

I would look in the bios BG under startup options you know like "enable Usb mouse to start system" etc as allow to come back from sleep is fine but you never want anything to be allowed to start pc.

 

Didnt see anything in BIOS that looked like it would wake up from a shutdown condition. Didnt want to change anything. Not all that familiar with BIOS anyway. Believe it is the way it came when purchased-dont recall changing anything.
Any information anywhere that tells recommended settings or choices?
One thing that was disabled was 'show diagnostics on startup'.

 

I have never seen a bios that did not have wakeup settings BG, better go back and find them usually under power management I believe. You change all those settings to disabled and then hit ESC and F10 to save changes.

 

I did not mean to say it did not have them- only that if did I did not recognize them. BIOS has Main, Advanced, Power, Boot, Exit.Power had only After AC power failure Stay Off , which I left.
Boot said Boot time diagnostic screen Disabled. I left it. Quick Boot Enabled. I set to disable. It said if disabled it takes longer to boot.
This was not an expensive machine and on sale at Staples in August, and I still see nothing that seems to refer to startup. I usually just unplug it after pressing power button as I set it for in the on screen saver power options. That is easy. Maybe there is somewhere else it can be set to turn itself on. I have a 1998 Compaq 5660 that I used to find running in middle of night on occasion. I am certainly not a BIOS expert and there could be something there I dont recognize but nothing appears to refer to ways of Start Up. I will check them again and see. Think I will leave it plugged in and see what happens and how often I find it on. I am sure I shut it down, but could somehow be mistaken. But that was with start Menu shut down.

 

BG they cold be called "wake-up" or "Power up" have a look here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/bios-beginners,1126-8.html

 

I tried to upload this file showing the BIOS settings that offered change settings options. MAIN had no apparently useful items so did not include. It is called "Phoenix Bios Setup Utility" and does not seem like a very elaborate one. This is not a big problem - I can just unplug it; but I like to understand things and have them working correctly if possible. I am watching it now to see if it recurs. Could be some maintenance setting that turns it on that I am unaware of. XP is not supported, Windows Update is turned off, and I am leaving it plugged in to see if ever on and how often. Originally got this PC for video surveillance use so not used much for general purposes and have since gotten newer ones like the laptops.

BTW, how do I delete the 1st "esktop" uploaded notepad????

 

Not at all sure it is there, Cindy, or even in BIOS. Meanwhile, I went back in room at 7:45pm and found PC on- green power light on left was on and yellow (standby) light on right side of power button was on and monitor when turned on said no signal. PC was unresponsive to mouse and keyboard so I turned it off by holding power button in for 5 seconds. Cant imagine what is causing this. Apparently it isn't really on but lights are. Determined to get to bottom of of this.

 

Under normal circumstances, when you click "Start" then "Shutdown" to turn a computer off, to get a computer to start up again it definitely needs the push button pressing. That then makes a circuit right back to the power supply to turn the power supply on, then everything else follows that. There shouldn't be anything in any part of BIOS or operating system able to by pass that start circuit, therefore I am wondering about two or three possibilities, firstly, the main start button may be faulty and the slightest vibration is making the contact, secondly, the bit of printed circuitry on the mother board may have a problem, (Could be just a loose screw under the MB) and thirdly the power supply itself. With everything that has been looked at so far, I am definitely thinking some hardware problem.

Nev.

 

No Nev it doesn't. There are settings in the bios to allow startup boot cold just by tapping a mouse or keyboard. There are setups for a modem to startup a pc with a ringup of a telephone and startups by programs as well to run scans etc....all done out of the bios.

 

We are talking about a quite old machine Rich, it may be possible in the more recent BIOS systems perhaps. We also have to take into consideration that BGBG may not have ever set it up in the BIOS previously any way, so how come it is there now? I still go for hardware problems myself.

Nev.

 

True Nev but I have seen unexplained bios changes along with really strange default bios settings especially on older pcs. I am convinced that accidental keystrokes can alter bios settings. People changing settings in the bios when they don't even know what a bios is can't be explained any other way and I see it quite often.

 

I would bet you are set to recover from power failure by starting up in the bios Pete. I used to bypass my power strip by doing that so all I had to do was turn on the power strip and my pc would start right up without having to touch the power button.

 

Well too if the settings don't hold because the cmos battery is dead then whatever the default is is what is happening as I know you know Pete.