Ghost in the machine?

[Madpacket]

Hello,

In a nutshell my PC is turning itself on randomly. When I shutdown the PC it'll power itself up usually within 24-48 hours. After turning on it just sits idle at the login screen waiting for me to to enter my system password.

I've reset the BIOS and have ensured any WOL, or wake on *anything* has been disabled. I'm using the wireless adapter (Intel 2x2 A/C adapter) and not the ethernet port.

I thought at first I had a faulty power button but I've since switched cases and power supplies and the problem still persists.

My hardware:

Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit.
Intel 4790K at stock clocks
AsRock Z97E ITX-A/C WiFi with latest BIOS (updated BIOS recently as a test).
16GB 1.35 Low Profile DDR3 RAM
2*480GB Radeon R7 SSD's (Raid 0 Stripe)
Silverstone 500W SFX gold modular power supply
SilverStone FTZ01B Case with 3X 120MM fans.
MSI Radeon 390 Gaming Video Card
Low Profile Xigmatek Praeton CPU Cooler

Any ideas?

I've scanned my system for Malware (with a valid license of MalwareBytes) and Windows Defender. I've found no evidence of an OS rootkit, virus or malware but I'm wondering if a faulty motherboard would randomly turn itself on? Or perhaps I may have a rootkit in the BIOS? and if so, how the heck can I check for that?

Would dumping the BIOS and running an MD5 checksum against it to compare against the ROM file from AsRock's site be a useful check?

Anyways, there may be something very simple that I'm overlooking but I'm reaching out to you guys for ideas.

Any help would be appreciated

 

[C1]

To determine if it's hardware, try to eliminate the OS (or software) as culprit. Physically disconnect the HDDs or disable them in the BIOS.

Who knows, you might have gotten a firmware maleware. There's stuff that writes to HDD ROMs for example. Id also be wary of a wifi signal as possibility.

 

[Madpacket]

To determine if it's hardware, try to eliminate the OS (or software) as culprit. Physically disconnect the HDDs or disable them in the BIOS.

Who knows, you might have gotten a firmware maleware. There's stuff that writes to HDD ROMs for example. Id also be wary of a wifi signal as possibility.

Good idea. I'll disable the drives in the BIOS and disable my WiFi to ensure any WOL stuff is disabled.

If it still turns on I'm tempted to hook it up to a hub and run wireshark on an adjacent PC to see if any software is phoning home...

 

[boomerang]

This problem interests me.

You have a UEFI BIOS so if it was compromised that would certainly be interesting. Should the problem be negated by disconnecting drives I would then wonder if you had installed any ASRock utilities that might be interacting with the BIOS and that is the root of your problem. That may be out in left field though and because it's random seems unlikely.

Next, I'd suspect the PS. I've never heard of one spontaneously starting a system but I don't imagine it's outside the realm of possibility. Edit: I see I managed to miss that you'd swapped the PS.

My thoughts, for any value they may have. I hope you keep us posted on what you learn.

Edit: Did you install Dehumidifier? Almost at the bottom of the page. You are saying that you are flat out shutting down the PC though.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z97E-ITXac/

Dampness kills most electronics, so it's a better idea to keep your personal computer dry. Now users may prevent motherboard damages due to dampness by enabling Dehumidifier. When it is enabled, the computer will power on automatically to dehumidify the system after entering S4/S5 state.

 

[DigDog]

if you switched psu, and the problem still happens, then someone is walking into your room and physically turning on your pc. or you are not shutting down fully the machine.
otherwise there is no way the machine can turn itself on.

 

[Madpacket]

Thanks for the responses and suggestions guys. The PC is in a climate controlled area with no humidity issues and I've ensured that feature in the BIOS was and is still disabled.

So after another extended period of off time the computer turned itself back on last night again (after everyone was a asleep) so I disabled all of the SATA ports rendering the hard drives inoperable. Also for good measure I disabled the WiFi in the BIOS and also ensured "suspend to RAM" or sleep mode is disabled.

To ensure the drives are in fact disabled, when I power on the PC it goes immediately into the BIOS (as no boot devices are identified).

I double checked and I'm running in CSM mode, not UEFI boot (even though all my hardware should be UEFI compatible) and I don't have any *AsRock* software utilities installed in Windows 10.

To answer a few more questions you may be thinking. Yes, I'm shutting down the PC and not putting it into some weird sleep mode. My power settings in windows are set to balanced with the computer set to never shut off and the monitor to vblank after 15 minutes.

I've also tried three different power supplies. Seasonic 850W Bronze, Silverstone 500W SFX-L (currently in system) and a EVGA 430W 80+. I don't think it's a power supply issue.

If the computer still boots up with the drives, WiFi and Suspend to RAM disabled I'm thinking either either Malware in the BIOS or simply a faulty motherboard (probably the latter).

Do you guys have any ideas how to check for BIOS/UEFI/Fimrware Malware? The power-on times seem to be random almost always within 24-48 hours so I'm wondering if the Malware to turn the PC on is on some C&C schedule to use my PC as a zombie, perhaps pulling the CMOS battery would confuse it?

If it turns on again I'll update the thread. This is an interesting problem.

 

[Madpacket]

if you switched psu, and the problem still happens, then someone is walking into your room and physically turning on your pc. or you are not shutting down fully the machine.
otherwise there is no way the machine can turn itself on.

No offense but that's pretty narrow minded. I've taken a lot steps to eliminate "not shutting down fully the computer" such as hooking the PC up to a Killawatt to measure the number of watts when fully shut down (which it does). Also I've had the PC turn on inside a case, outside of a case and in different rooms altogether. Although I haven't gone as far as setting up CCTV recorded footage I'm pretty damn sure no one is randomly turning the PC one for the lols. I live in single detached home and don't share my home with anyone other than my immediate family. This computer will turn itself on in the middle of the night in my mostly empty basement while everyone's asleep upstairs. I don't have any pets that have access to the computer either.

 

[Madpacket]

This problem interests me.

Edit: Did you install Dehumidifier? Almost at the bottom of the page. You are saying that you are flat out shutting down the PC though.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z97E-ITXac/

Also to answer this further, when the PC was in my basement and randomly turning on I always have a dehumidifier running even though this time of year the humidity levels are really low in southern Ontario.

 

[DigDog]

well, it must be some bios wake up feature. is this you ?
https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/3gd066/computer_wakes_up_every_night_from_sleep/
meanwhile, could you try to unplug the ethernet cable?

 

[Steltek]

Are you running on a UPS? If not, I wonder if you could be having power spikes or dirty power at your home location. Is the motherboard BIOS set for the computer to restart when power is restored after a power loss, or for the computer to remain shut down?

 

[Madpacket]

well, it must be some bios wake up feature. is this you ?
https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/3gd066/computer_wakes_up_every_night_from_sleep/
meanwhile, could you try to unplug the ethernet cable?

No that's not me. Interesting thread thanks for sharing. I have no ethernet cable plugged in (and it's been disabled anyway in the BIOS).

 

[Madpacket]

Are you running on a UPS? If not, I wonder if you could be having power spikes or dirty power at your home location. Is the motherboard BIOS set for the computer to restart when power is restored after a power loss, or for the computer to remain shut down?

Not running a UPS. I did switch power bars as a test though. I have several other computers running in the house that don't have this issue, some of which were plugged in the exact same spots.

 

[Steltek]

Not running a UPS. I did switch power bars as a test though. I have several other computers running in the house that don't have this issue, some of which were plugged in the exact same spots.

Based upon what you've done and checked, it really sounds like it is going to come back to a bad motherboard. Out of curiosity, are you running Intel's Smart Connect driver? I vaguely remember having a problem like this with my ASUS Sabertooth Z77 board. It kept powering up at random times regardless of how it was configured, or even when Smart Connect was turned off. I eventually had to just uninstall the software to get it to stop.

 

[Ketchup]

A little late on this one, but flaky power switch (on the board) or bad power button on the case would be in my book of possible causes.

 

[DigDog]

this is a really weird case. power needs to come from somewhere, and it's not spikes from the PSU. dirty power could have been a factor but the PSU you listed are all modern, reliable units that would not let a spike go through.
since the only other source is the CMOS battery, it needs to be a motherboard fault.
you can try unplugging the power on cable from the mobo to make sure it's not a wiring problem and/or a fault in the power on switch.. which again is something i have never seen happen.

i'm also curious if the power on happens at a specific time of day.

 

[DigDog]

update? did you fix it? what was it?