Boot up computer at a certain time of day?

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Filler

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Sep 27, 2003
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Is there a program, or something, that will turn my computer on at a certain time fo the day?
 
Little bit complicated to have a program that did that don't you think? There is hardware that does support that, sans that hardware though I can't see it working.

Why do you need to have your computer off? Most damage is done to them turning them on, avoiding that where possible is a good thing.

The computer next to me has been on 24/7 since mid 97, except for storms and a little maintennance. It's only failure points have been the floppy and cd drives in those 7 years. Mine's been on for nearly 4, again, the only failures have been the floppy and cd drives.

If noise is an issue, there's a plethora of low noise components and steps to take. If power drain is an issue, make sure your monitor turns itself off and the drives power down, then the computer uses bugger all electricity.
 
Only way to turn on PC would be a wake on lan thing. Nothing else.
 
Check you BIOS for an alarm clock option, there was another thread where someone mentioned this. I haven't seen it, but it's worth looking. Only the BIOS will be able to do this, either through WoL or some other built in feature.
 
I checked in BIOS and there was no alarm clock. Maybe theres an update, or something...?
 
Only computers with the BIOS to support this I've seen are the Dell Optiplex machines.

Why not set the machine up to hibernate at night and have a certain application wake it up as a daily scheduled task? You could even leave your favorite apps open for when it starts, like Outlook and IE.

Edit: Actually I just checked and the BIOS for my Epox 8kda3j board does have it.. under Power Options there is an option called "Power-On by Alarm", when Enabled it allows you to input date/time. Pretty cool, but I still recommend hibernate. Once you get used to it you never find the need to turn your system off and on completely again. :)
 
So is hibernate basicaly the same as having your computer off? Just that it doesn't actualy turn off all the way.
 
Hibernate is the lowest form of power management, it also requires a hibernate file the size of your RAM (saves RAM to disk). You may have to enable hibernate support in your power management options for it to be available in the shutdown menu.
 
Another alternative would be to set the BIOS to power back on upon power less and have a timer-based wall socket (They're available) and set the timer to turn the socket on and thus your machine would boot.
 
The Donut said:
Another alternative would be to set the BIOS to power back on upon power less and have a timer-based wall socket (They're available) and set the timer to turn the socket on and thus your machine would boot.
Click to expand...

Worst
Idea
Ever
.
 
The Donut said:
And why would that be?
Click to expand...

First of all, why would you want to intentionally cause a power loss? You would not only lose data but you could ruin your PSU and the mainboard connected to it. The Power On After Power Loss is an emergency only option for always-on machines like servers running critical apps and it only works if the machine loses power without being properly shut down.

Second of all, every other device on that socket that uses power would get interrupted. For example I have a desk lamp, alarm clock, and fax machine hooked to my surge protector along side my computer.

Finally, why would you go to all that trouble when you could simply set a BIOS option to power on the computer or turn on Hibernate and set a scheduled task in Windows to wake it up in the morning?
 
He already said that his BIOS didn't have such options, and that the Hibernate still uses power.

I never said it was the best idea, just an idea - also, you don't have to plug the entire surge protector into the timed socket, you can plug the timed socket into the surge protector and the computer into that.

And, you'll only lose data if it's unsaved. It all depends really, on how important it is that his machine turns on itself.

*Shrug*
 
Stellar said:
First of all, why would you want to intentionally cause a power loss? You would not only lose data but you could ruin your PSU and the mainboard connected to it. The Power On After Power Loss is an emergency only option for always-on machines like servers running critical apps and it only works if the machine loses power without being properly shut down.

Second of all, every other device on that socket that uses power would get interrupted. For example I have a desk lamp, alarm clock, and fax machine hooked to my surge protector along side my computer.

Finally, why would you go to all that trouble when you could simply set a BIOS option to power on the computer or turn on Hibernate and set a scheduled task in Windows to wake it up in the morning?
Click to expand...
This isn't that bad of an idea, as long as you let the PC turn itself off. You could handle shutdown through software so there is no data loss, and the socket could turn off after that time. Then the timer could turn itself on and the PC would boot as normal.
 
Phoenix86 said:
This isn't that bad of an idea, as long as you let the PC turn itself off. You could handle shutdown through software so there is no data loss, and the socket could turn off after that time. Then the timer could turn itself on and the PC would boot as normal.
Click to expand...

A proper shutdown would negate the usage of Power On After Power Loss, now wouldn't it?
 
Hrmm... OK, so did I mention there is this "alarm clock" BIOS option on some boards... ;)
 
Stellar said:
... but I still recommend hibernate. Once you get used to it you never find the need to turn your system off and on completely again. :)
Click to expand...
with hibernate i was actually able to maintain my server's huge uptime when i moved it (though it ended since there was a power outage that lasted longer than my ups :() but you will still need to do a real shut down and power on every now and then, just to keep things clean. windows has a way of just becoming weird sometimes after being on for days for no apparant reason. it's not that bad in 2k/xp but occasionally noticable.
 
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