I have my grandfather's old computer, and it seems to have a mind of its own—it randomly lights up at 11:30 PM every night. I'm not sure why it's doing this. Sometimes it wakes up with this dramatic whirring sound and lights up like it's come back to life. Could it be scheduled to power on for updates, or is there some setting causing this? Do I need to call in a tech expert, or is it something I can fix myself?
5 Answers
When it wakes up, try opening a command prompt and typing 'powercfg -lastwake'. This command tells you what triggered the last wake. After that, head to Device Manager and check the properties for the device that woke it. You can stop it from waking under the power management settings.
Sounds like it might be set to wake up on a schedule. You can check this by entering the BIOS and seeing if there's a power-on schedule enabled. It used to be a neat trick for me when I wanted my PC ready in the morning without waiting for it to boot up with that ancient hard drive! Also, check if 'Wake on LAN' is turned on; that can trigger wake-ups too.
Could just be Windows updates. They often wake the computer to install stuff. Also, make sure to check if the mouse or network connection is causing it. Sometimes a little nibble from a pet can wake it up!
You might want to disable 'Fast Startup' in Power Options. It's infamous for messing with shutdown and wake settings, leading to unexpected wake-ups.
If it's running Windows, definitely look into the Task Scheduler. That might be scheduling tasks during the night that could cause it to wake.
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