Pc starts up alone (in sleep mode), how can it be prevented?

I have a problem with my computer - maybe someone can help.

When I put my gaming computer into sleep mode, it regularly happens that it turns on by itself at night, which I only notice in the morning. That costs electricity and is unnecessary…

Why don't I shut it down? Well the thing is, I use that thing almost every day - sometimes twice a day for an hour or two. It really doesn't have to be that I always shut it down completely. Maybe you understand.

So, do you have any idea what gets the computer out of its "sleep" at night? I also have to say, this computer is not connected to the internet - so hacking is most likely impossible.

My smaller everyday computer that I use much more often (a laptop on the power cord) has never had any problems with sleep. So why the big tower then?

Just out of interest: Why do you not shut down the PC completely if you only use it twice a day for 1-2 hours, which is not that much? Compared to energy saving mode, this saves even more electricity.

The real problem: Is the so-called "Wake on LAN" activated in your BIOS?

You, I haven't thought of the BIOS yet… Please explain briefly to me what the Wake on Lan is all about. I have little experience with the bios. Basic knowledge.

Well, just because a normal start-up takes longer than start-up from sleep, I prefer that. There are just several reasons.

There are several ways to "wake up" the computer, also with the mouse or keyboard. And you know that a mouse can react very sensitively and so the Compi is woken up by shock (even less).
If a signal comes from the router or the internet to the network card, it wakes up the computer (wake on lan).

A tip, if you haven't already done so: If you have some spare money, consider getting an SSD in order to at least install the Windows system on it. SSDs have significantly faster access times compared to classic HDDs - and so your PC boots up very quickly from a completely switched-off state.

Regarding Wake on LAN: Wake on LAN is actually a function that enables a PC to be brought out of sleep mode via the network or even to be started from a completely shutdown state. So, if everything is configured correctly, you can send the signal to your PC from another device via your network that it should start up - and then it does that.

The question is whether your PC is just not connected to the Internet or whether it has no connection to any network at all. Nevertheless, you can try, if Wake on LAN is activated, to deactivate this, as there are isolated cases in which PCs start up incorrectly without an actual "Wake-on-LAN signal".

That is of course also an essential point. The slightest vibration can, depending on how sensitive the mouse is, lead to a sufficient signal so that the PC starts up from sleep.

However, I assumed that no one would move around the PC room at night or touch the desk, so that even the slightest vibrations should actually be excluded.

Since we don't know and don't want to know his apartment, he should think about it, especially if he has a cat as a pet.

I'll check that out.