PC Spooky!

[potty64]

Why does my PC turn itself on from sleep mode in the middle of the night?

[sfby]

Probably an auto-update - either your anti-virus software or Windows will connect automatically in the early morning.

[bazwillrun]

One of my Win 7 machines does that, and theres definitely no updates or anything I can find going on.

When I put the machine to sleep I turn off the screens power button so at least when it does spring to life the screen stays off which uses up most of the power

[potty64]

Thx sfby & bazwillrun, at least it sounds like nothing serious. I suspect it's the auto up date. (Thought I had a ghost intruder!)

[rhythmcrazy]

Maybe there is a setting in the power options which tells the laptop to turn off after a certain amount of hours of non-use. You can change the settings there to suit you.

[Old_Geezer]

Yeah but how does it turn on the mains switch on the wall ?!?!?
Do you sleepwalk ?

[whiskeryron]

OG, I always click Shut Down & Never switch off at mains.

WR.

[SlackAlice]

You might have " 'Wake up On Lan' set in your Bios settings". Normally applies to pc's switched off but still live at the plug and connected to a live modem.

[ChuckFickens]

Wake on LAN requires a special "magic packet" to be sent to the computer generally from another computer or device on the same LAN using broadcast packets, which aren't routed. so highly unlikely to be WOL causing it.

Far more likely to be something like a scheduled scan in the antivirus.

[SlackAlice]

^^^
My previous computer used to wake up all the time, I agree it shouldn't have because the conditions didn't apply to my pc.

Wasn't until I disabled 'Wake on LAN' did it stop doing it.

[ChuckFickens]

The OP could check the system event log, that should record what the last "wake up" source is. if you filter the log by power troubleshooter it will make it easier to find, you'll then get the hardware ID of the device that woke the computer up, cross checking this with the hardware IDs in the device manager will tell you what woke it up (assuming it's a hardware device waking it)

[ChuckFickens]

Or running a " powercfg /lastwake" from the command prompt will give the same information as the event viewer and may be easier.

[potty64]

Thx for all the suggestions but not sure what a LAN is. Also when I go to Power options I then find ENERGY STAR (on) with TURN OFF THE DISPLAY set at 15 mins & PUT COMPUTER TO SLEEP - 20 mins. So what do I do next? Neither the power Saver & High performance are on. Hmm.

[ChuckFickens]

Well you could (as already suggested) check the event log, or run a "powercfg /lastwake" from a command prompt (if the latter then do it before the computer sleeps again after the overnight wakeup)

[ChuckFickens]

Oh... and 20min to sleep is a really short time IMO! I set my computers to never sleep on mains and about an hour on battery.

[Old_Geezer]

LAN - Local Area Network.
A number of things in your room/house connected together via cable, or maybe wireless link, so they may communicate with each other.