Scheduling PC startups

thor

I know you can schedule Windows XP to shutdown from Windows XP but is there anyway schedule a PC to start automatically from scratch?
I guess with Windows being out of action it is going to need a bios feature to get it done but I can't find anything in my motherboard manual which could help. Is it just not possible?
My mainboard is an Abit IS7.

John_Gray

thor wrote: »

I know you can schedule Windows XP to shutdown from Windows XP but is there anyway schedule a PC to start automatically from scratch?

Only some machines can be set to power themselves on at a particular time. I've set the BIOS power-up option in our office Dell Optiplexes to do this at 05:00 so they can be the recipients of data copied to them from our servers. There may be other machines which do this, but unlikely for consumer models...

weegie.geek

Some boards will do it. You might want to look into wake-on-lan as well. Depending on your router, your router might be able to wake the pc up.

robt_2

A low tech solution could be to see if your bios has an option to power on the PC when the mains is switched on, and use a passthrough timer plug socket.

Are we talking from actually being switched off, or from standby/hibernation etc? The latter would be far easier.

weegie.geek

robt wrote: »

A low tech solution could be to see if your bios has an option to power on the PC when the mains is switched on, and use a passthrough timer plug socket.

good thinking.

spud17

I have seen some BIOS with a resume power option.
I *think* it's to do with the action on restoring power after an unscheduled off.
It says something along the lines of
Option 1. Stay off
Option 2. Resume previous state.(i.e.if off, it will stay off, and if on will restart).
Perhaps this could be somehow used in conjunction with a timer a suggested previously.

thor

Thanks guys, you have given me a few options to investigate now.
Robt, I am wanting it to power up from a complete shut down. I am pretty certain I know how to do it from standby but that is not what I am after.

SimbaSimon

I had a bit of software to do this called Auto Poweron and Shutdown, and although my bios had no settings it handled it no problem. However it isn't free and costs $24

Link below: http://www.lifsoft.com/

weegie.geek

SimbaK2K wrote: »

I had a bit of software to do this called Auto Poweron and Shutdown, and although my bios had no settings it handled it no problem. However it isn't free and costs $24

Link below: http://www.lifsoft.com/

looks like it only works from sleep.

AHAR

If there's an updated BIOS for your motherboard you could look to see if it adds the timed startup function. You never know...

Pitchshifter

Imagine if this was possible from within software, you could get a virus infection that was able to swich your PC on whenever is wanted, do so nasty stuff, then shut itself down without you ever knowing!