iMac Starts Up Automatically at Midnight. Why?

Out of interest... of those experiencing this problem and don't have EyeTV or Timemachine, do you have Apple Remote Desktop installed?

I uninstalled ARD and the auto starts seemed to stop. Has only been a couple of days so not conclusive.

I am not sure wheter I have ARD installed or not, but I have not installed it myself so if it does not come with iLife, iWork or Leopard then I dont have it.

I tried to keep my Time Machine off but still have the external HD plugged in, and my computer *DID NOT* start in the middle of the night!

So for me, this bug was because of Time Machine I strongly believe, I am sorry that I do not have any times for when the computer starts but it is turned on when I wake up.

I have exactly the same problem, at midnight the computer switches on. Which is very annoying.

I don't have EyeTV, or Time Machine, or Apple Remote Desktop etc.

Please, Apple, give us a solution!

I've read here a possible solution:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=4619043

I've tried it out, let's see what happens tomorrow!

what a coincidence! but i have not experienced the problem now, because I no longer leave the external harddrive connected when not in use.

I haven't done anything else, but it seemed to work for me last night. Hopefully it wasn't just a one-off. 🙂

Resetting PRAM has worked for me, and now that everyone mentions it I have used to auto-start functions once or twice, and set it to the night. I set it to shut-down around 2-3 AM.

So I think that MY problem has got something to do with the auto-shut-down function gets into a conflict with Time Machine or something. I'm just glad that everything is worked out.

I have found a solution that cured my spontaneous reboots during early morning hours.

I removed the EyeTV software and reinstalled it from disc along with the two up grades.

Apparently when I upgraded to Leopard the HD directory structure got screwed up. The ..../Library/Application Support folder now looks like this:



EyeConnect (folder)
EyeConnect
EyeTV (folder)
Wakein
EyeTVEPG.db-journal
EyeTVEPG.db
EyeTV Helper

The Application folder is as follows:

Contents (folder)
Version.plist
Resources (folder)
PkgInfo
Library (folder)
Info.plist
Frameworks (folder)
MacOS (folder)

If you don't have EyeTV installed you will have to look else where for the cause. I would remove and reinstall any software that could possible cause the problem. If all other possible causes are ruled out I suppose it would be safe to conclude that the problem is with Leopard.

I have the same problem and it is driving me nuts. If I forget to turn the volume down before I go to bed the Powerbook G4 starts up and Eyetv launches and I amwoken up to voices in the middle of the night. Even if I shut it down it will start up again a few hours later.

It is not a Leopard problem as my Powerbook is running Tiger!

I hae spoken to several techs at Applestores and no-one has heard of the problem. They suggested PMU reset which I have done to no avail.

Help

or: Macs Attack!!!

Same problem here:
MacBook CD (1. Gen) OS 10.5.1 wakes up at 1am
- no external Hardware attached in any way besides power adaptor
- no ARD
- no TV software
- Leopard only (no Windows)
- Time Machine not activated
Temporary fix: I set the wakeup time to Monday at 6pm then it won't start at night, well only Mondays at 6pm.

Where is the wakeup time stored?

Apple, please look into this.

Symptom: Mac wakes up every night at 1am
History: once upon a time...a wakeup/fall asleep preference has been set and since removed
Consequence: a valid Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.AutoWake.plist file was created. Upon removing the wakup time from the preferences it was changed.
The file then had the Tag for a wakeup time that did not contain a time. The system upun shutdown interpreted this as 1am/everyday and wrote that information into PRAM.
Disarming:
1. deleted com.apple.AutoWake.plist - this left the information in PRAM
2. PRAM-Reset on next startup (cmd-opt-P-R)

Needed fix by Apple: Change the program that misinterprets an existing com.apple.AutoWake.plist with no time

Thank you.

That's fantastic... well done "shoot_me"!

That fits the symptoms perfectly, and is completely plausible. Yet another bug in Leopard, that hopefully will be fixed in 10.5.2!