What's starting my computer every night?

bczoom · Mar 21, 2014

I have an old XP machine.

With Windows dropping XP support soon, earlier this week, I went out and got all the Windows updates. For the record, I also updated MalwareBytes and Avast.

Now, every morning when I come into the office, I find that machine is running, sitting at the signon screen. This just started after doing the updates.

I can't figure out what's firing up this machine. I've checked:
Avast - nothing scheduled (and option is for advanced version of software only)
Malware - nothing scheduled
Windows Scheduled Tasks - nothing there anymore. I did remove all scheduled tasks earlier this week but it's still happening.

How does one find out what's firing up this computer in the middle of the night?

jpr62902 · Mar 21, 2014

Can you undo the updates one at a time to see if that isolates the offender?

Are you shutting the computer down completely, or just putting it to sleep or in hibernation?

Do you have a really smart cat?

bczoom · Mar 21, 2014

Hate do undo the XP updates since there was over 50 of them.

Computer is being shut down completely.

No cats but the dog sleeps in my office at night. I just asked the dog if it's been firing up the computer at night and she said no.

jpr62902 · Mar 21, 2014

If you trust your dog, maybe you can ask her if she notices anything weird with the computer overnight.

Or maybe it's a bios issue: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...y-itself/6740017b-b251-4b8e-9887-cc898326ff24

Edit: Here's another guy with a similar problem and it was a precursor to a power supply failure (see post #19): http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=203401

Doc · Mar 21, 2014

Good find JP. I've been scratchin my noggin on this one but not coming up with anything. I've never heard of a power supply acting that way but I'm sure there are a lot of things I've not yet heard of .... Keep us posted on whatever the solution turns out to be BC.

bczoom · Mar 21, 2014

Thanks JP!

I'm looking at things based on the links you provided.

What I'm wondering about the power supply is why would it act as a scheduled task and always start at night instead of doing it randomly and also why this just started after doing updates?

JimVT · Mar 21, 2014

my ham radio turns on motion lights

Jim_S · Mar 21, 2014

bczoom said:
What I'm wondering about the power supply is why would it act as a scheduled task and always start at night instead of doing it randomly and also why this just started after doing updates?

If the power supply is failing it may be sensitive to power line transients and whatever triggers the power on is happening during the night.

Jim

Reuben Goldberg · Mar 21, 2014

My suspicion is that your mouse is being jiggled at night, causing the system to start up. Is your bedroom next to your office? Maybe you and mama are banging the headboard against the wall.

300 H and H · Mar 21, 2014

Our is some one else using his machine as a "bot" for other purposes?

From what I understand this is the reason for creation of the "cloud" and why large hard drives may become a thing of the past in personal computers...

Or am I all wet..?

Regards, Kirk

jimbo · Mar 21, 2014

300 H and H said:
Our is some one else using his machine as a "bot" for other purposes?

From what I understand this is the reason for creation of the "cloud" and why large hard drives may become a thing of the past in personal computers...

Or am I all wet..?

Regards, Kirk

I was thinking the same thing. One common virus hijacks the email contact list and sends junk mail to your list.

Changing your password sometimes stops it.

bczoom · Mar 21, 2014

I tweaked some things and got rid of some things that looked like they could be an auto start.

wuauserv was one of them. (Windows Update auto update service).

Changed the clock by 12 hours so I can see if it does something this afternoon.

Mouse bump doesn't do anything.

Doc · Mar 21, 2014

bczoom said:
I tweaked some things and got rid of some things that looked like they could be an auto start.

wuauserv was one of them. (Windows Update auto update service).

Changed the clock by 12 hours so I can see if it does something this afternoon.

Mouse bump doesn't do anything.

Good thinking BC. That should either solve the issue or give you some good information to help get to the bottom of this.

300 H and H said:
Our is some one else using his machine as a "bot" for other purposes?

From what I understand this is the reason for creation of the "cloud" and why large hard drives may become a thing of the past in personal computers...

Or am I all wet..?

Regards, Kirk

As for the cloud, I know there is no data in a physical cloud. It is a concept so that folks would would not think of their data being stored by google, yahoo or whoever. I sure hope we can always buy big hard drives, and portable hard drives for backup as I never want to put all my data on the cloud. Understood that I already have more than I might like out there, with a smart phone and auto cloud backup, and free apps that I've used that keep the info and sell it to multiple buyers.

I am not a fan of the cloud and will hold off using it as much as possible for as long as I can.

bczoom · Mar 21, 2014

I found a nice command but the lastwake option doesn't seem to be available in XP.

Open Command prompt and type
powercfg -lastwake

It tells you what programs are starting up your computer.

I found that doing a google search for computer waking up. That's where I found the wuauserv is a common culprit so I disabled it.

muleman · Mar 21, 2014

Have you tried unplugging it at night? I find I need electricity to start mine..... :yum:

bczoom · Mar 21, 2014

Laptop on docking station with wires buried. (the computer is circa 2001). I'd be lucky to find the power and network cables without digging...

luvs · Mar 21, 2014

i have noticed newer devices tend to think fer themselves. my droid can be on a bar, on my wallet, & noise/vibration makes that phone wake.

bczoom · Mar 22, 2014

Must have been that wuauserv process as my computer hasn't woken back up.

Doc · Mar 22, 2014

Good info for us all. Good job figuring it out.

But one has to wonder, since it is a windows update agent why doesn't it shut back down after waking / starting up?

bczoom · Mar 22, 2014

Waiting for administrator password to do the updates I guess. Except anti-virus definitions, I never allow any auto updates to my computer.

Galvatron · Mar 26, 2014

I would go in to the control panel and check the power options.

bczoom · Mar 26, 2014

I did look at the power options.

The dang thing started coming on again (from complete shutdown).

I just finished undoing all the Windows Updates that I applied. Will find out tomorrow if that fixes it.

muleman · Mar 26, 2014

ET is in there calling home to the mother ship.... :whistling:

I would be real suspect of a rogue program that is either using your machine as a base or just reporting all your activity daily.

bczoom · Mar 26, 2014

If it starts again tonight I'm going to check that. I do run a decent suite of products and their checks to check for anything bad.

If all else fails, I'll unplug the damn thing. I don't need the computer nor do I have any more patience to deal with this crap.

What's starting my computer every night?

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