No way to stop PC rebooting

[DeepButi]

You could stick the machine's network into a network HUB rather than a switch and have another machine on the same hub running something like Wireshark. If something on the net is sending "wakeup" packets that cause the insomnia to your machine then you should be able to see that.

OK. Everything disconnected (even the IP phones) but my laptop with Ethereal running ... and it seems that the router is waking up the PC:

No.     Time        Source                Destination           Protocol Info
    101 77.756653   192.168.1.1           Broadcast             ARP      Who has 192.168.1.37?  Tell 192.168.1.1

Frame 101 (60 bytes on wire, 60 bytes captured)
    Arrival Time: Jun 13, 2008 14:25:48.219095000
    Time delta from previous packet: 1.007566000 seconds
    Time since reference or first frame: 77.756653000 seconds
    Frame Number: 101
    Packet Length: 60 bytes
    Capture Length: 60 bytes
    Protocols in frame: eth:arp
Ethernet II, Src: 192.168.1.1 (00:50:7f:b5:c6:c8), Dst: Broadcast (ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff)
    Destination: Broadcast (ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff)
    Source: 192.168.1.1 (00:50:7f:b5:c6:c8)
    Type: ARP (0x0806)
    Trailer: 000000000000000000000000000000000000
Address Resolution Protocol (request)
    Hardware type: Ethernet (0x0001)
    Protocol type: IP (0x0800)
    Hardware size: 6
    Protocol size: 4
    Opcode: request (0x0001)
    Sender MAC address: 192.168.1.1 (00:50:7f:b5:c6:c8)
    Sender IP address: 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1)
    Target MAC address: 00:00:00_00:00:00 (00:00:00:00:00:00)
    Target IP address: 192.168.1.37 (192.168.1.37)

192.168.1.37 is the unstoppable PC, and it seems to be responding to the broadcast message.

Is this something I can stop?

Thks

[PeejAvery]

What kind of incoming data do you have to your router?

[DeepButi]

What kind of incoming data do you have to your router?

VPN connecting two small offices.

Before you ask: nothing on at the other office either.

[Marraco]

OK. I was wrong on one point: Power on by PCI card is enabled.
Disabling it stops the PC "powering on".
My fault, I was confused with the "3rd booting device: LAN/disabled"

Anyway, my question remains ... who/what is powering it on?

We want to be able to power it on remotely, but we don't want it to power on by itself without us giving the order to do it.

What can cause it to power on?

Thks

If is not a LAN device, it looks like an energy BIOS setting.

By the way:

- What model of motherboard -exactly- do you have?
- Are you sure the PC is powered off?. It can be on suspend S1, S3, or hibernated. On those states, many things, even optical mouse vibrations can power up your PC. Check Windows power settings, and BIOS settings like "power from USB", power from keyboard, mouse, etc.
(After installing a new video card, when I suspend on S3 my computer, it power on when I hack the table. Is the USB mouse).
Even things that are not supossed to power up your PC, can do it when Wake on LAN is enabled, because BIOS are software, so crammed with bugs.
- Had you updated the BIOS? may be a BIOS bug.
- Some motherboards have wireless LAN integrated, so any casual nearby notebook can power up your PC.
- How many devices there are on the network?. Your PC is connected to a hub, switch, router, what? Your network runs on DHCP, Static IP, No Idea?
_

[Marraco]

OK. Everything disconnected (even the IP phones) but my laptop with Ethereal running ... and it seems that the router is waking up the PC:

...
    Sender MAC address: 192.168.1.1 (00:50:7f:b5:c6:c8)
    Sender IP address: 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1)
    Target MAC address: 00:00:00_00:00:00 (00:00:00:00:00:00)
    Target IP address: 192.168.1.37 (192.168.1.37)

192.168.1.37 is the unstoppable PC, and it seems to be responding to the broadcast message.
...

I don't know much of networks protocols, but it looks like your MAC address is really weird!
Try changing it. Surely your card allows it.
Try switching between DHCP/Static, and changing your IP, or disconnecting the router WAN port, to see if the origin of the problem is out of the network.
_

[Marraco]

To discard any Windows problem:
Boot from a Linux Live CD, power off your computer, and see if it wakes by itself.

A small life saver, Live CD ISO, can be downloaded from http://www.puppylinux.org/ (80 Mb)

Or try Knoppix, or Ubuntu. Don't need to install it.
_

[DeepButi]

Marraco,
the PC is shutted down. No suspended or hibernated states of any kind. Completely shutted down. No wireless. No other devices on the net but the router itself.

There is nothing wrong with its hardware. The MAC address of the ARP packet is 00:00:00:00 because it's a broadcast packet intended to be listened by every card on the LAN.

I cannot see any help on starting a Linux/Ubuntu/Whatever OS on this PC. I need to know what happens with our actual configuration. Let's assume it doesn't wake up if the last booted OS is Linux. So what? This will not help me at all to discover how to prevent it after a W/Vista boot.

It seems that the router is waking it up. I cannot understand why the router sends an ARP message by itself. I could understand a lost connection from another device (PC), so this second PC would try to recover the connection and so the router would need to know the MAC of the desired IP. But with every single PC shutted down (completely) I cannot see why the router keeps asking.

Unsure of my own laptop asking for some kind of service ... I had not any shared folder defined, neither the USB shared printer ... nothing that I can think of.
The test was made in the following order:
* all LAN PCs shutted down (not suspended, neither hibernated: shutted down)
* unplug IP phones power
* unplug WoL PC LAN cable
* shut down WoL PC
* wait 5 minutes ... It doesn't wake up.
* plug my laptop to the LAN. No shared folders (I deleted all references), no USB shared printer. In theory my laptop shouldn't know anything about the services previously offered by WoL PC.
* start Ethereal
* plug WoL PC LAN cable
... 35sec later the WoL PC wakes up and starts booting.
* stop Ethereal

Last messages on the sniffer are a couple of ARPs as the one I posted.

I'm definitely lost.



I will try with the router WAN disconnected to discard a VPN request (request that I cannot either understand if nobody is on).

Thks for all support!

[Marraco]

...

I`m out up to Tuesday. I still would check some things:

- Check Bios updates.
- Don't discard malware trying to connect your PC from outside. You can be victim of a worm trying to offer server services. It may configure your router.
- Maybe is a wrong router configuration. Try reseting it, or disabling DHCP. Also check for router firmware updates.

Good luck.