PC starting itself ?!

[westgate]

Hi - One of my users has a Dell PC running Win 95 that seems to be starting itself , he shuts the machine down correctly but when he returns its on . The last time it happened was during the day and no-one had been near his machine ( its a shared office so there are plenty of people to keep an eye on it ) I ran a virus scan which showed nothing , any ideas ?
cheers
Ed

 

[wolluf]

Machine is definitely shutting down correctly (ie, you've seen that it has shut down - its not just rebooting when you shut it down)?

Does (or should it) power off automatically when you shut it down?

 

[westgate]

I watched him shut the machine down and he certainly seemed to be doing it all ok , and the power light goes off and stays off ( until it starts again ! which I haven't seen ) It also doesn't restart every time , only occasionally .
cheers
Ed

 

[wolluf]

As its intermittent, can only suggest something loose in the power switch (on button) is causing a short circuit which turns the machine on (temperature affected - something cooling down?). Totally guessing - something like this is very difficult to diagnose - but I'd certainly have a look at the power switch.

 

[edfair]

Any power settings. Wake on lan? modem?

Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[ashpp]

Good suggestions others things...

1- Faulty PSU
2- Power spikes/surges
3- Interference

So swapping out the PSU and checking for wake on lan/modem would be a good idea.

Better idea would be to forget about the problem and tell him to switch off at the mains