# Tower computer starts by itself **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 16, 2020, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tower-computer-starts-by-itself/915451 "2020-07-16T00:15:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MrMrmrmr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrmrmrmr/32/5828_2.png) [@MrMrmrmr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrMrmrmr)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2020, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tower-computer-starts-by-itself/915451/1 "2020-07-16T00:15:19Z")
Woke up the other morning with the computer disk spooling up as if to start and then stopping. It happened several times until I pulled the plug. It is a dell server I got from work. Why would it try to boot without my doing anything? ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2020, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tower-computer-starts-by-itself/915451/2 "2020-07-16T00:25:13Z")
Was it just turning on for the first time when you woke up or did you go to bed with it running and what you woke up to was it stuck in a reboot loop? Can you turn it on and fully boot it up now? ---
**Author:** ![MrMrmrmr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrmrmrmr/32/5828_2.png) [@MrMrmrmr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrMrmrmr)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2020, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tower-computer-starts-by-itself/915451/3 "2020-07-16T00:44:57Z")
It was shut down. ---
**Author:** ![MrMrmrmr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrmrmrmr/32/5828_2.png) [@MrMrmrmr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrMrmrmr)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2020, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tower-computer-starts-by-itself/915451/4 "2020-07-16T00:46:52Z")
It does the same thing when I try to start it up. Whirling sounds, flashing lights, then nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Kimera757](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kimera757/32/3765_2.png) [@Kimera757](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimera757)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2020, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tower-computer-starts-by-itself/915451/5 "2020-07-16T00:48:08Z")
A few years ago, I had this problem. It was a Microsoft Edge update. Since I didn’t turn it on, it was just weird. I had to contact Microsoft and they reversed an update. I updated it again and made sure to NEVER update Edge. My current computer updates Edge without consent. It hasn’t caused a problem, but I get a bit leery of updates now. I doubt you are facing the same problem. OP should probably contact Microsoft (or Apple, or Google, or Linux, or whoever wrote the operating system OP is using). ---
**Author:** ![MrMrmrmr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrmrmrmr/32/5828_2.png) [@MrMrmrmr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrMrmrmr)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2020, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tower-computer-starts-by-itself/915451/6 "2020-07-16T01:01:47Z")
It’s running an old windows os. It is looking for a boot disk from the floppy drive ( it was free from work, what can I say). I will try to boot from a disk. Thanks to everyone trying to help an old man. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2020, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tower-computer-starts-by-itself/915451/7 "2020-07-16T12:49:13Z")
NM///// Misread the question. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2020, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tower-computer-starts-by-itself/915451/8 "2020-07-16T15:41:43Z")
My guess would be that the server is configured to boot as soon as power is connected - and you experienced a little blip in your mains power which triggered this. If the thing is unplugged, and you plug it in, does it power on and boot up with no need to press any buttons? If so, it was a mini power cut. Also, servers are usually designed with the ability to be started remotely by wake-on-LAN or other similar signalling methods (this makes it possible to start them up after a power loss without physically visiting them), so something could be triggering that, or more likely, the network card could be malfunctioning in a way that makes it think it has been woken. ---
**Author:** ![MrMrmrmr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrmrmrmr/32/5828_2.png) [@MrMrmrmr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrMrmrmr)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2020, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tower-computer-starts-by-itself/915451/9 "2020-07-16T16:40:31Z")
Thanks, gives me things to look into.