PC started on its own - Creepy

[skaz]

I came home today and when I walked into my office I noticed that my mouse LED was lit. I walked over to my system and saw the fans spinning as well. I turned my monitor on to a message that said something in the lines of "system has experienced boot failure due to overclocking".

Now my system isn't overclocked at all except for the RAM to 1600Mhz. My CPU is at stock clock.

My computer was definitely off before I left my home and no body at least that I'm aware of was inside my home during that. Is there any explanation why my computer would randomly start and display that message? Thanks for any input you can give.

Mobo: ga-x58a-ud3r
CPU: Intel i7 960
RAM: Gskill 6GB 1600Mhz
GPU: Nvidia 275
PSU: Corsair 620tx
Case: Coolermaster 922

 

[kajabla]

The best explanation I can think of would be a faulty power switch or circuit somewhere between the power pins, but if you can't reproduce it I'd write it off as a mystery.

 

[skaz]

The best explanation I can think of would be a faulty power switch or circuit somewhere between the power pins, but if you can't reproduce it I'd write it off as a mystery.

Hmmm. So weird.

I ran CPUZ and found my RAM wasn't overclocked anymore. It must have set it back to stock settings after the overclock system fail warning?

 

[kajabla]

Yes, mine does that too. You have to go into the BIOS and save your settings again (they shouldn't be changed if you choose the BIOS instead of the boot option).

 

[skaz]

Yes, mine does that too. You have to go into the BIOS and save your settings again (they shouldn't be changed if you choose the BIOS instead of the boot option).

Thanks. Did that shorty after posting pic. Correct clock and timings were restored.



Still bugs me out. I mean lets say it was a short, cat, or human finger besides me that turns the PC on. The next question is why the OC failure message? Just seems to weird that both a random start which in itself is extremely rare and the OC failure warning would appear. Makes me think they would have something to do with one another.

Is there any chance that a surge could cause something like this to happen? My PSU is connected to a ISOBAR tripp lite surge protector. Sometimes during heavy winds and when the heater turns on we can have power outages and/or brown outs. (no power outages from the heater)

 

[davcon]

Yep i've experienced that issue on two of my Gigabyte boards.
Phantom bios changes.
One is on a UPS and the other a cheap surge protector.
I attributed the cheap surge protector as a power spike event.
Doesn't explain the episodes on my main rig with an expensive $200+ UPS though.
I'm still mystified as to what caused it.
Thank goodness and Gigabyte for Dual bios though.
Near impossible to brick a Giggy thru bios.

 

[skaz]

Yep i've experienced that issue on two of my Gigabyte boards.
Phantom bios changes.
One is on a UPS and the other a cheap surge protector.
I attributed the cheap surge protector as a power spike event.
Doesn't explain the episodes on my main rig with an expensive $200+ UPS though.
I'm still mystified as to what caused it.

That makes me feel better that someone else has experienced this before.

I checked my event log and I definitely shut her down. I was starting to think maybe a mad neighbor or my cat decided to boot into my BIOS and OC my components in an attempt to hurt me.

I've always loved my gigabyte boards but geez.

Davcon, say you cut all power to your computer while its off (either by turning the PSU off or unplugging it) and then reapply the power and turn your PC on. Does your board then boot, turn off, and then boot again fine? Sorry if that sounded confusing. I have this issue only on this board and was just curious if you experienced this as well.

True the dual BIOS is a great feature.

 

[davcon]

That makes me feel better that someone else has experienced this before.

I checked my event log and I definitely shut her down. I was starting to think maybe a mad neighbor or my cat decided to boot into my BIOS and OC my components in an attempt to hurt me.

I've always loved my gigabyte boards but geez.

Davcon, say you cut all power to your computer while its off (either by turning the PSU off or unplugging it) and then reapply the power and turn your PC on. Does your board then boot, turn off, and then boot again fine? Sorry if that sounded confusing. I have this issue only on this board and was just curious if you experienced this as well.

True the dual BIOS is a great feature.

As a matter of fact yes! that has happened before.
Even with all these mysterious glitches taken into account every instance has been recoverable quite easily and i'll still buy and recommend Gigabyte boards.
All my Giggy boards are easy to o'c and the bios is easy to use too.

 

[kajabla]

Mine's a Gigabyte as well, for the record. I've never had that double-boot issue, though.

 

[nforce4max]

Is wake up lan or something like that enabled? Because I got a friend that had a similar issue and it turned out it was a hacker trying to break in. Yes I know it doesn't sound possible but for many boards the nic is almost always on when the system is powered down but still has a source. Wake up on lan has to be enabled and the hardware mac address has to be known for it to happen though. Besides that everyone else pretty much may have it figured out.

 

[skaz]

Mine's a Gigabyte as well, for the record. I've never had that double-boot issue, though.

I have had multiple gigabyte boards and only this one has had this double boot issue. I was just curious if davcon had anything similar happening because he did notice the random starts as well.

Is wake up lan or something like that enabled? Because I got a friend that had a similar issue and it turned out it was a hacker trying to break in. Yes I know it doesn't sound possible but for many boards the nic is almost always on when the system is powered down but still has a source. Wake up on lan has to be enabled and the hardware mac address has to be known for it to happen though. Besides that everyone else pretty much may have it figured out.

Wake on lan is turned off through my device manager. And in my BIOS the only function enabled I can see that would be similar to this is the "Power on by Ring".

- "Allows the system to be awakened from an ACPI sleep state by a wake-up signal from a modem that
supports wake-up function."

But the computer was completely turned off and not put to sleep or hibernate.

EDIT: Also, I have checked my router's logs for the 10th and everything seems okay accept for [WLAN access rejected: incorrect security]. But this appears to be common and also it was recorded in the morning and was before I even left my home.

 

[kajabla]

On a somewhat-unrelated issue, I found out recently that S3 sleep (RAM sleep, "suspend to RAM" in BIOS settings, the one that looks like the computer's off) uses almost no more power than a full shutdown (~1-2W more). With LAN wakeup turned OFF this could make the lives of many a little easier.
Source: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/power-supply-protection-calculate-consumption,3066-4.html

 

[skaz]

On a somewhat-unrelated issue, I found out recently that S3 sleep (RAM sleep, "suspend to RAM" in BIOS settings, the one that looks like the computer's off) uses almost no more power than a full shutdown (~1-2W more). With LAN wakeup turned OFF this could make the lives of many a little easier.
Source: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/power-supply-protection-calculate-consumption,3066-4.html

Good article but I was pretty surprised to see it was so current. I thought most people knew about sleep mode. I use it randomly but shut my system off completely during extended times away from the pc. Mostly because I don't want my system accidentally turning on and my boot time from a cold start isn't bad.

 

[aqe040466]

I came home today and when I walked into my office I noticed that my mouse LED was lit. I walked over to my system and saw the fans spinning as well. I turned my monitor on to a message that said something in the lines of "system has experienced boot failure due to overclocking".

Now my system isn't overclocked at all except for the RAM to 1600Mhz. My CPU is at stock clock.

My computer was definitely off before I left my home and no body at least that I'm aware of was inside my home during that. Is there any explanation why my computer would randomly start and display that message? Thanks for any input you can give.

Mobo: ga-x58a-ud3r
CPU: Intel i7 960
RAM: Gskill 6GB 1600Mhz
GPU: Nvidia 275
PSU: Corsair 620tx
Case: Coolermaster 922

Try to do this: Go to BIOS and Load optimized defaults, Save setteings and exit. Or go to your motherboard and clear CMOS, some motherboard have jumpers to do this. Consult your Motherboard's manual if necessary.

 

[kajabla]

Well, yes. Going back to stock clocks will generally solve OCing failures.

 

[skaz]

Best answer selected by skaz.