PC boots on its own, WOL turned off

Ok my pc's been starting up on its own for a while at odd hours, I have checked my bios settings and all automatic wake on settings have been turned off, but just to be sure I disconnected my ethernet cable and it still starts itself. I do have a wifi card which i have disabled in my device manager, but i doupt that is the cause. Its even started when I have not had any internet connections which makes me doupt that it is a lan issue, but i don't know.
I have run all the virus scans etc.. with no results so any ideas would be appreciated.

On a separate note (i think) , when I am working on my pc sometimes I get a 'device connect' 'device disconnect' sound even thought i have not connected anything. The icon in the systray goes by too quick for me to see what was plugged or unplugged, is there any way i can create a log for the device connect/disconnect so I know what is going on???

Thanks everyone, Merc

Your computer goes from powered off to on? Not from standby or hibernate?

What is your ISP connection? DSL? via a USB modem? Is there a Fax attached? Do you have any remote connections setup?

Are you saying that this also occurs with absolutely no ISP connection? Modem disconnected?

The device connect/disconnect issue is perhaps a USB port being triggered to search for a driver.
The usual trigger of course would be plugging in a USB device. Or a faulty port. Or device.
A device resetting itself would trigger a device connect/disconnect.

Have you checked the Device Manager Start/Run/ devmgmt.msc for any issues with your USB controller?

Also check your Event Viewer: Start/Run/ eventvwr

Every boot should leave some trace.

USB errors would probably fall under Service Layer Gateway errors.

Yes it goes from Powered off to on.

I have a ADSL connection which I connect to via an adsl ethernet router/modem , I don't have any Fax attached nor any USB modems, I have 1 VPN connection setup.

Yes it has occured when I have not had any ISP connection and when I have diconnected my ethernet cable from my computer so its not connected to anything (unless my wifi card is trying to connect somehow, but even then I had no ISP connections at all ??).

I have checked my device manager and found no USB issues. The only thing in there is the wifi card that I disabled manualy after this connect/disconnect and boot thing happened a few times.
I will check and make sure all my connected devices drivers are uptodate, or better yet i will disconnect all my usb devices and see if it still happens.

I've checked my eventvwr everytime the machine boots but to me it looks fairly normal, however I am not an expert and can't really say.

Thanks for the help

Here is a general search for your browsing:

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=co...+starts+on+own

Most issues point to BIOS Wake On settings & or power supply problems.

Also perhaps the BIOS setting for automatically start after a power outage.


Another possible trobleshooter is to enable boot logging:

There is also an actual BOOTLOG option.


Start | Run | Type: msconfig | OK |
Boot.ini tab | select /BOOTLOG | Apply | OK


/bootlog = Enables boot logging to a file called systemroot\Ntbtlog.txt.


C:\WINDOWS\Ntbtlog.txt


/BOOTLOG - This option tells Windows XP to log everything it does during the
boot process to the c:\windows\ntbtlog.txt file. This can be useful for
diagnosing startup problems by seeing exactly where the boot process is
hanging.


Boot Logging
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/d...s/XP/all/reski...


When you use msconfig, after booting you will see a 'Troubleshooting
mode' warning. Check the 'do not show again' box and Exit.

---------------------------
One thing you can do with this is to compare an intentional boot with an unintentional to check for the differences.





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Yeah, thats the same thing i've looked at.
1- I've disabled all BIOS wake on setthings (as i mentioned before)
2- If you're not connected to a LAN, or anything else for that matter, then it can't be a LAN issue.

I will try the boot log and see what comes up.