Computer sometimes turns on by itself?

My parents have sometimes noticed the computer turn on by itself. The
blue light on the power button will turn on, and it will start
blinking. They have said that it is possible they bumped a key on the
keyboard while doing something at their desk, so I assumed that there
is a feature that automatically boots up the computer if a key is
pressed.

But I just tried pressing all of the keys on the keyboard, and the
computer did not turn on. Then I turned it on and looked at the
BIOS. Under the power management section, I saw "Remote Wake Up" set
to on, "Auto Power On" was set to disabled, and "Auto Recovery" was
set to off. Doesn't look like any of those settings would turn on the
computer if a key is pressed.

But I did watch my parents turn off the computer earlier this evening,
and then later my mom went to the desk to do something, and she said
the computer suddenly turned on by itself. She must have pressed a
key, I don't see how else the computer would turn on without pressing
the power button. But then it didn't turn on when I tried pressing
every single key. Is it a sleep mode thing? No, because I saw my mom
select the "Shut Down" option earlier, before she went back and then
it suddenly turned on.

Weird.

In
,
typed on Tue, 13 May 2008 18:41:25 -0700
(PDT):
My parents have sometimes noticed the computer turn on by itself. The
blue light on the power button will turn on, and it will start
blinking. They have said that it is possible they bumped a key on the
keyboard while doing something at their desk, so I assumed that there
is a feature that automatically boots up the computer if a key is
pressed.

But I just tried pressing all of the keys on the keyboard, and the
computer did not turn on. Then I turned it on and looked at the
BIOS. Under the power management section, I saw "Remote Wake Up" set
to on, "Auto Power On" was set to disabled, and "Auto Recovery" was
set to off. Doesn't look like any of those settings would turn on the
computer if a key is pressed.

But I did watch my parents turn off the computer earlier this evening,
and then later my mom went to the desk to do something, and she said
the computer suddenly turned on by itself. She must have pressed a
key, I don't see how else the computer would turn on without pressing
the power button. But then it didn't turn on when I tried pressing
every single key. Is it a sleep mode thing? No, because I saw my mom
select the "Shut Down" option earlier, before she went back and then
it suddenly turned on.

Weird.

Doesn't sound weird to me. Some software and devices can turn on the
computer if the BIOS supports it. And that "Remote Wake Up" BIOS setting
should be off. And if this doesn't take care of it, open up the Device
Manager and some devices there will be a Power Management tab under
Properties.

I'm checking my Gateway MX6124 laptop for example and I see the modem
has this option. Also the Ethernet device under the Advance tab shows
"Wake From Shutdown". And under "Universal Serial Bus controllers" I see
"Power" and "Power Management" tabs under "USB Root Hub" as well. This
might turn on the computer right here.

I just checked all of the rest under the Device Manager and I see
nothing else here. Although you might find some more things over there.

--
Bill

Hi!

First thing to do--look for a setting in the BIOS that pertains to
behavior after a power loss. If the system is losing power (because of
a loose cord, undiscovered switched outlet, or something similarly
goofy) it could be turning back on if the settings in the BIOS specify
that it should do so.

If everything seems good there, check the CMOS battery. I've seen some
systems with dead/dying CMOS batteries that would turn on by
themselves.

Finally, check the power button. Does it work properly, or do you have
to tinker with it to get the system to power on?

What computer model do your parents have?

William