My computer keeps turning itself on at random times.

I have no idea why its happening. Some nights it turns itself on every 30-50 minutes, some nights not at all, and some nights it will just turn itself on once. It never does it before midnight though. I have absolutely no idea why it is doing it. I checked the energy save scheduler and it doesn't have anything in it. I also disabled all the wake upon stuff. Including the restart in case of power failure. This is really starting to boggle my mind. I've started just pulling the chord out of the machine every night. I really don't know what to do. I've tried hitting the death button and resetting the pram. Anyone have any other ideas?

BTW i have a UPS hooked up to the machine also.

Dual 1.25 PowerMac G4 mdd, G5 1.8, Powerbook 1.25, Mac Pro 2.66 Quad X1900XT, Mac OS X (10.5.1)

Posted on Jan 12, 2008 3:02 AM

33 replies

James G4

Level 1

80 points

Mar 10, 2008 8:55 AM in response to Christopher Wetzel

Glad I'm not the only one this is happening to. My Mac Pro has turned itself on the past 2 nights at dead on 12:00 midnight GMT. I've also got Eyetv (diversity) so will try disconnecting it tonight before I turn everything off and see if this stops it.

Message was edited by: James G4

James G4

Level 1

80 points

Mar 13, 2008 9:42 AM in response to islk350

Sorry forgot to get back to everyone. Since I've been disconnecting the eyetv before shutdown it hasn't turned itself on. There is also a setting in the preferences for EyeTV 3 to update the schedule or guide (I can't remember now as im at work) but this was set to 3am. I have also unticked the checkbox next to this option aswell.

Apr 25, 2008 4:07 AM in response to Christopher Wetzel

My Macbook turns on at 6am if I power down but leave it open. I've had to completely remove the battery and unplug the adaptor so that I don't have to hear it cycle through waking and sleeping. I don't have alarms set to wake me up.

Is there some panel that I need to disable so that the computer will stay off without having to remove the battery every night? I've reset the PRAM many times but that does not help. I'm just as lost as the original poster of this issue.

Network 23

Level 6

12,351 points

Apr 25, 2008 10:56 PM in response to Christopher Wetzel

Another idea to try is to audit your electrical system for rogue appliances.

When my Mac Pro used to wake itself up, I eventually matched up the wake times in the log to a timer than switched an old fluorescent lamp I have in the same room, same circuit as the Mac Pro. Switching the lamp on, even without the timer involved, somehow generated a power signature that would trip the startup signal in the Mac Pro...even though I have the Mac Pro behind a supposedly better-than-average APC UPS/line filter.

I unplugged the old lamp and the Mac Pro never woke itself again. I now have a newer fluorescent lamp and it does not cause the Mac Pro to wake up.

Jun 15, 2008 6:19 PM in response to Network 23

I've started experiencing the same problem, my Mac Pro (Early 2008) will turn itself on from a complete shutdown. I thought it might be the "restart automatically after power failure" causing the problem, but even after turning it off, it still starts up random times.

Hope someone figures this one out.

Jul 7, 2008 12:19 PM in response to gregwright

This one is caused by corruption in the Energy Saver plist file. Easiest way around it is to create a dummy event far in the future.

More here

http://forums.elgato.com/viewtopic.php?f=86&t=2441&p=12062#p12420

Message was edited by: David Hulse

Jul 9, 2008 5:07 AM in response to Christopher Wetzel

Same problem here. My Mac Pro running a fresh tiger installation starts itself up every night at exactly 2:00 am from complete shutdown. Since i installed the fresh os on a wiped hd i doubt that it could be a damaged pref file. I´ve had this issue quite since i bought the machine (10.4 installed) and setting it up to shut down at 2:01 am is not the everlasting solution of choice. The only additional app i´ve installed so far is adobe cs3. I will check the startup-log and post any interesting entries.

Aug 31, 2008 11:24 AM in response to David Klingl

I have had this problem with my Imac (brand new) , itstarted after about 4 months. I sent the computer for repair 2 times, then I had to work really hard to get Apple to replace with a new one.
The new one has the same problem, What are the odds?
btw: This never happened to my Emac.

I notice that manyusers have similar symptoms to me, I own an Elgato tv receiver, I read throught their solutions and tried them. No luck.
I definitely think its down to the mac.

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

Jul 3, 2008 3:32 AM in response to angieshel

Asks other MacBook owners here:
http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=218

Jan 13, 2008 12:38 PM in response to barshnik

Is there like a main scheduler list or something like that to see if an app is screwing with something?

Jan 24, 2008 8:19 PM in response to cawu

Hmm odd, i've reset it before and that only seemed to make it stop for a day or two before it started up again.

Jan 26, 2008 3:23 PM in response to Coolmatt49

Hmm i have eyetv too. Wonder if that is causing it.

cawu

Level 1

5 points

Jan 26, 2008 5:35 PM in response to Coolmatt49

hmmm...no eyetv here, but my machine keeps starting up at 4PM like clock work. I did the SMC reset and it made no difference.

Feb 6, 2008 10:46 PM in response to Churto

I'm going to be reinstalling on new drives from blank so i'll see if that works.

Feb 7, 2008 2:02 PM in response to Christopher Wetzel

I think our computers are starting to have a mind of their own! They want to be turned on!

I say unplug that power cord before it slaughters you!

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My computer keeps turning itself on at random times.