Computer booting up when I turn on fan in other room?

Ascendant

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I have an ongoing issue with my computer sometimes booting up when other appliances are turned on or off. At my old place, when I would turn my fan on or off in that room, my computer would sometimes turn on. I thought it was an issue with the wiring in the house, so I wrote it off.

Since moving, I'm having the same issue. This time, it's with the fan in the bathroom. Same exact thing - sometimes when I turn the fan on in the adjacent room, the computer comes on. So, clearly something else is going on other than a wiring issue.

I tried replacing the surge protector the computer is connected to. Still had the same exact issue. I tried to disable any hardware that could "wake up" the computer when it is off. I also moved what outlet I had the computer plugged into. Nothing is fixing the problem.

Not sure if it's a factor, but I keep my computer in hibernate when I'm not using it. I use it for work, so I like keeping the tabs open and ready to go when I boot it up in the morning.

Open to any suggestions anyone might have to keep this from happening.
 
If you fully shut down that machine and turning on the fan doesn't turn it on then there is a PSU, cabling, or ground issue within the computer itself or peripherals attached to it.
 
If you fully shut down that machine and turning on the fan doesn't turn it on then there is a PSU, cabling, or ground issue within the computer itself or peripherals attached to it.
I'll have to try shutting it down completely after work today and testing that out. Not 100% sure, but thinking this only happens when in hibernate. Thanks for the info.
 
What could be happening is when the fan starts up it will draw a ton of power for a second or two and then your pc could detect that as a power failure, you could try turning the thing off where i boots up when you plug it into power
 
What could be happening is when the fan starts up it will draw a ton of power for a second or two and then your pc could detect that as a power failure, you could try turning the thing off where i boots up when you plug it into power
Fans or lights don't have a ton of draw, that would only be relevant if there was already a lot of draw on the circuit enough to cause a split second brown out to the other devices on that circuit. If this was the case, his PC might not boot back from hibernation but go through a full post then out of hibernation so it'd be obvious.

My educated guess is fluctuation in the circuit is causing a ground trip possibly for a USB peripheral telling the computer to wake up.
 
You can also try disconnecting your wireless and see what happens. It would help determine a possible cause.
I recall years ago when I did hvac work I was called out to someone that had his tv messed up anytime the fuel oil pump kicked on. The oil furnace was in the basement and the tv was on the first floor. Turned out to be a bad ground from the motor. Even a microwave oven or wireless phone could be sending a signal to your wireless. There is a setting to prevent the wireless from waking up the pc
 
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Thanks for all the info. After a bit of experimentation, I realized that the computer does only wake up when it's in hibernation mode. Based on how it's acting, I doubt it would be the wireless waking it up. Most likely a peripheral USB, possibly my mouse since I don't currently have many hooked up (still have yet to set some things up after the move). I might try experimenting a bit more later on to be sure, but if it is the mouse, I don't think there's much I could do. Pretty sure I already disabled the mouse's ability to wake the PC, but I am going to double check that. I have a gaming mouse that isn't particularly cheap though, so I'd rather just shut down my PC each night than to replace the mouse.

I really appreciate all the feedback here. This has been driving me nuts for quite a while now, and prior to moving, I really thought it was just bad wiring at my old place. Then again, some of the components in this PC are 8+yrs old now. I think I'm long overdue to build a new one instead of continuing to do upgrades. Just waiting for the covid stuff to blow over and prices to come down a bit first.
 
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