My computer boots up during the night

Question

My PC with Windows 10 Pro boots up without me touching it. I always use "On/Off"->"Shut down" to shut down my PC in the evening.

Nevertheless, sometimes during the night or the day when I am at work, the computer boots up. I haven't touched it, and there is no other person near it, so there is no apparent reason.

Anything I could do against that? As of now, I have to use the kill switch at the power supply to make sure my PC doesn't power up unexpectedly.

C:\users\alexander>powercfg -wake
Aktivierungsverlaufsanzahl - 1
Aktivierungsverlauf [0]
  Aktivierungsquellenanzahl  - 1
  Aktivierungsquelle [0]
    Typ: Schalter
    Netzschalter

Answer 1

As @DavidPostill said .. "powercfg -lastwake" will tell you what device woke the computer. I have found it is usually a mouse or Network component. You can then go into Device Manager, right-click the offending hardware and under Properties > Power management (Some items don't have it), Clear "Allow this device to wake the computer".

It's also good to go through each device and make sure they also have this disabled, The Keyboard is usually all you need enabled.

You may want to just put the computer to sleep and wake it from the keyboard then check what's reported; as it may be listed as "USB Host controller" not keyboard

Answer 2

This sounds like either someone set up a "Power Up By RTC Alarm" in your computer's BIOS/UEFI or you have got a faulty power button in your case.

I recommend doing the following:

1) Try resetting your BIOS/UEFI to Factory Defaults (or deactivate Power Up by XXX options) and see whether the problems persists.

2) In case the first approach did not fix this issue, try detaching the cable for the power button from your motherboard after you have turned off the machine.