iMac Switches on by itself

[ICEBreaker]

Dear Apple users,

I've recently started having an odd problem, and that is my iMac would boot up by itself for no reason whatsoever, such as in the middle of the night, or during the day when I am not at home. For the record:

• It is not scheduled to start up. The start up times appear to be random.
• It is not set to wake for ethernet admin access.
• It is not set to restart after a power failure.
• It is actually shut down and is not in sleep mode.
• I do not have pets or kids who could touch the keyboard/mouse and wake the computer.

It is really very odd. Can anyone think of why this is happening?

Thank you!
JC

 

[xXriderXx7]

That is extremely weird.
How are you turning it off?
Going to the Apple menu?
Or pressing the power button on the back?

 

[linuxophile]

Dear Apple users,

I've recently started having an odd problem, and that is my iMac would boot up by itself for no reason whatsoever, such as in the middle of the night, or during the day when I am not at home. For the record:

• It is not scheduled to be switched on. The times are random.
• It is not set to be switched on via ethernet.
• It is not set to restore itself after a power cut/interruption.
• It is actually switched OFF and is not sleeping.
• I do not have pets or kids who could touch the keyboard/mouse and activate it.

It is really very odd. Can anyone think of why this is happening?

Thank you!
JC

Did you open it recently? Maybe the back panel is just slightly off center and puts pressure on the button, with erratic turning on...

(Never heard of a random power on, only of random shutdowns!)

 

[ICEBreaker]

Hello xXriderXx7 and linuxophile. Thanks for your reply. I switch off my computer from the Apple menu. I also haven't opened the back of my computer before.

The problem does not occur regularly. So far it has only happened a few times within the past week. Before, I assumed perhaps someone switched it on during the day, or I forgot to switch it off before leaving home.

I only became more concerned last night, because it woke me up at 3am (btw not exactly on the hour) with the loud boot up sound and bright screen. This was the first time I witnessed it starting up by itself.

 

[juanster]

there s a ghost in my house that turns the tv s on all the time.. maybe you ve got one that likes your imac lol

 

[ICEBreaker]

there s a ghost in my house that turns the tv s on all the time.. maybe you ve got one that likes your imac lol

Apple News: Sir Richard II of Livingstone endorses the new iMac. "It helps me organise my afterlife, and now I can even email Lady McCraigen for tea and scones. She is very particular about her cucumber sandwiches."

Your story reminds me of my dad. He was worried that the vacation home was haunted as the TV switches on by itself every night and even shows B&W horror movies. He dared not pull the plug for fear it would still switch itself on. Alas, upon watching TV with him one night, I noticed he keeps pressing the "timer on" key inadvertently while he furiously thumps the remote control during one of his channel surfing "escapades".

 

[juanster]

Apple News: Sir Richard II of Livingstone endorses the new iMac. "It helps me organise my afterlife, and now I can even email Lady McCraigen for tea and scones. She is very particular about her cucumber sandwiches."

Your story reminds me of my dad. He was worried that the vacation home was haunted as the TV switches on by itself every night and even shows B&W horror movies. He dared not pull the plug for fear it would still switch itself on. Alas, upon watching TV with him one night, I noticed he keeps pressing the "timer on" key inadvertently while he furiously thumps the remote control during one of his channel surfing "escapades".

lol that's hilarious, did you tell him? i wouldn t have sound like a good story for the kids, when i have some

 

[Nonentity]

I've had a similar problem with my iMac, after some googling i found that resetting the SMC solved the issue, simply shut down your iMac unplug everything including the power cable for at least 15 seconds, then plu the power lead in first followed by the keyboard etc.

 

[ICEBreaker]

Hi Nonentity, thanks a lot for your help! I'll give it a try. By the way, any reason why the power has to be plugged first, followed by keyboard/mouse?

It doesn't matter to me since I am on wireless, but am curious.

 

[Nonentity]

I have no idea why the power cable has to be plugged in before anything else; It's just the way apple says to do it: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303446

Just want to add my understanding of the cause is messing with the scheduling options at some point (or OSX changing the settings for what ever reason), but when these settings are turned off the SMU decides to keep the settings, hence needing to be reset.

 

[Killyp]

I believe it may be a glitch in Leopard, I've seen people with MacBooks and MacBook Pros reporting this too...

 

[rmh]

This has happened to me before with my C2D Mac mini running Leopard. It woke me up at night too haha. Post again if the fix works. It hasn't happened to me again, but if it does,at least I'll know how to fix it.