I woudl like my computer to boot up automatically in the morning in order to run my computer alarm clock software. If i just leave the computer on all night, it wastes energy and makes fan noise.
Is this a BIOS thing, that I would need to set my bios to a certain setting, or do I need some specialized software? If software, is it reliable?
Leave your computer turned on, but change your power settings so that the monitor and hard disks shut off and the system goes into standby mode after X minutes of inactivity.
This will use very little power and the drives and fans will not run, but your alarm clock will still activate at the proper time.
Every computer is different. Some will allow you to set a wake up time in the BIOS, many will not. Another possibility is to just wake up the computer using an external clock. In any case you will need to have the computer not have to go through log-ins etc. In other words, you could put the computer on a timer switch so that it starts up but you need to make sure that when it starts up you do not have to log in with user & password.
Wake on Lan or Wake on Modem could also be things you could use.
If I understand what computer alarm clock software is, shouldn’t that software address this issue?
The “computer alarm clock” version I have says it can SHUT down your system after the alarm goes off, but i dont see anything about waking it from sleep.
That would only work if there is a setting in your BIOS to turn back on after a power loss.
Obviously and I should have mentioned it but I believe most motherboards have the option of starting the system or staying off after the power comes on. All of mine (desktops I should add) certainly do
This program looks pretty good, and is free: Power Saver & Scheduler. WakeupOnStandBy - Energy Saver. Wakes Computers From Sleep or Hibernation
This one looks good too, but is $25: http://www.lifsoft.com/
When the computer is turned OFF the BIOS clock is still running and it is trivial at the BIOS level to turn it on. I have seen a few BIOS with such capability but not many.
If the BIOS does not have this capability then the computer CPU has to be running at some level or other for any program to run. While the computer may be saving power when in some power saving mode it is still using power. Depending on the specific computer and power-saving mode, fans may be still running, the main power supply, etc.
So in the end it depends on how far “off” the OP wants the computer to be. If it is entirely off then it cannot be running any program.
That’s odd, but that must be how the above linked-to programs work.
[smug mac guy] It’s standard for OSX. There’s a pane in the energy saver preference pane under ‘schedule…’[/smg]
Interesting.
I did not know that. [/Johnny Carson]
(You could also look into BOINC.)
Macs are computers.
Not to sound flippant, but I’d just buy an alarm clock. I think that might be a lot easier. 
Well, yes, that’s what I do, but there are valid reasons for having the computer start up.
I was using my earlier laptop as an alarm clock when I lost my alarm clock during a trip in China. It also saves carrying one more thing. It means the computer is booted up and ready and there’s no need to wait.
I just checked my laptop and it does not have that capability in the BIOS so I just realised it was my earlier laptop. I wish this one had it too even if I normally do not use it.
It would not be difficult to hook up the computer somehow so it would start, maybe hook it up to the coffee machine. There are many ways to start a computer and this seems ideally suited for a Rube Goldberg machine.