Hi,

I have 2 computers, one running Ubuntu 9.10. I don't often use this one and rather than turning on the power point & having the computer automatically come on, as my Windows machine does, you had to press the power button to switch it on.

As of yesterday - after not using it for some time - it turned itself on when I turned the main power point at the wall on to use my other computer. Thought maybe the button was knocked, but this has happened twice since. Seems it's mysteriously changed to automatic start up & I can't work out how to change this. Can someone tell me what settings need to be changed to have it not turn itself on until asked, please?

Hi, it's possible that the bios is set to restart on "Power being disrupted",

like from a local power black out,

or "wake on lan".

I know my system sometimes boots in the middle of the night,

but the evidence is the blinking digital clock on the book shelf...

It can be useful to use this function, perhaps a web-server...auto restart on....

If you have easy access to the back of the case, just pull the IEC power lead,

when the unit is definitely not required.

But over-all, My answer is, it's probably normal.

As GlennsPref said, it is basically a BIOS setup option. You will need to get into the BIOS and work out which options have been set to wake up the motherboard and turn all of these off.

I think they're called "states", like S1, S2 and S3

Look those up first to see what you need and what you want.

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Hi, thanks! So can someone tell me how to change the BIOS or whatever back to what they were? I'd prefer not to pull the plug, because it's a bit awkward & there are a mess of wires down there & this computer is primarily for my young kids, so I don't want them having to play with the plugs when they want to use it.

You will have to press one of the appropriate buttons on your keyboard to get into the BIOS setup screens before it boots the operating system. Usually the right key may be F2, or the delete key or sometimes it is even the F10 key. You may be able to work this out by watching carefully any messages that appear as your system boots up. These messages usually appear at the bottom of the screen.

It sounds to me like you have may not done something like this before, so when you do get into the BIOS setup screens be careful as to what you do. If in doubt you can always go to the BIOS setup screen that says something like "Reset to defaults" and this will get you out of trouble. Don't forget to "Save any changes" before you exit the BIOS setup screens. Your system should then reboot. Good luck.

Hi & thanks again. Yes, I have done stuff in BIOS before, but a long time ago & not much so thanks for reminding me what it is & how to get into it. Cheers!

On one of my machines, there's a handy BIOS setting that allows power on at a certain time. I suspend this machine to disk last thing in the evening and when the BIOS powers it up again, it's all logged in and ready to go when I get up in the morning.