My computer starts up by itself

I wonder if you have something setup in "task scheduler" to trigger the startup This tip tells you how to look into it

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-CA/windows7/schedule-a-task

It is too bad the MS Answers forums implementation does not prompt for any fundamental system information when a new question is asked, so we know absolutely nothing about your system.

Not knowing fundamental information about a problem prolongs the frustration and agony of resolving these issues but that is the way they choose to run things here.

Thank you MS Answers owners, for continuing to make the resolution of simple problems as frustrating and time consuming as possible.

Please answer the following questions as best you can:

What is your system make and model?

What is your XP Version and Service Pack?

It could be a Scheduled Task that is causing your system to wake up every day but I think that is unlikely since that would take some extra effort and system requirements for that to work, but you can sure check that if you want.

Anybody that thinks it might be a Scheduled Task, just try to set up a Scheduled Task on your own system to wake it up when it is shutdown and you will see what I mean.

It is more likely that your system of unspecified make and model with unspecified operating system and Service Pack is getting a "magic packet" from your Internet Service provider (ISP).

That means that even if the system is turned off, some systems have a feature called "Wake on LAN" that will wake them up when there is some activity on their Internet connection - even if the machine is powered off (that is by design and can be useful).  

Sometimes this can be referred to as receiving a "magic packet" that is just what the system needs to see on the Internet connection to wake itself up.  Often these things seem to happen shortly after midnight when your Internet Service Provide (ISP) might be sending out these magic packets.

You can read some about it here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/810719

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake-on-LAN

Wake on LAN (WoL) support is sometimes implemented in the motherboard of the computer.  Most modern motherboards with an embedded Ethernet controller support WoL so you need to find that option/feature and disable it.

To test the WoL theory, the next time you turn off your computer for the day, physically unplug the Internet connection from the computer and then wait (as long as you think it takes to convince you) and see if the system turns itself on or not when the cable is unplugged at the time you suspect - after waiting longer than it usually takes for it to turn on by itself (which may be overnight).  That means you may have to wait a day or two to test this idea.

There could be a setting in your system BIOS to enable/disable this feature or in your network card, but since we don't know anything about your system, that is just a guess.  You can look around in your system BIOS and see if you can spot this feature and disable it, save the setting and see how things look.

You might visit the manufacturers web site for your system of unspecified make and model to see how to disable this feature.

There could also be a setting to disable in the Properties of your network interface card to not allow the system to be started or come out of hibernation or standby on a signal from the device or router.  You can look in Device Manager and the Properties of your device for those settings and disable those features.

On my motherboard in the system BIOS settings under Power Management is a section called "Wake Up Setup Event" and under that are the various ways that one could configure the system to wake up from some event.  Under that section are things like keyboard, mouse and one is "Resume by Onboard LAN" which if I enable that, and the correct "magic packet" comes into the built in Ethernet connection, my system would startup by itself.

Try not to think of it as an XP thing you need to change - it is more of a hardware thing that has to do with your motherboard and/or network interface and the way you connect to the Internet.

Wake on LAN (WoL) support is sometimes implemented in the motherboard of the computer. Most modern motherboards with an embedded Ethernet controller support WoL so you need to find that option/feature and disable it.

Sometimes you can do this from Windows through the Properties of the network adapter in the Device Manager, on the "Advanced" or "Power Management" tab.  You may have to look around for it.

Look for things like "Allow this device to bring the computer out of standby" or "Only allow management stations to bring the computer out of standby" and make adjustments to disable and turn off these features.

Then you may have to wait a day to see how things work.