An Unusual Support Case - The Ghost Computer That Wakes Up at Night!

Hello everyone, this is Alexis from AlexIn.Tech! Today, I’m going to share with you a support experience that left me perplexed. Imagine a computer that, like a ghost, decides to turn on by itself every night. Yes, you read that right. Every. Single. Night.

As soon as I heard about this issue, my sysadmin instincts immediately led me to suspect the motherboard. And, as often happens, my intuition was right! The culprit was an MSI X299 Raider motherboard, which had a hidden option called “RTC Wake Up Call S/4 S/5.” This option, despite existing, was nowhere to be found in the BIOS settings of the motherboard. Strange, isn’t it?

The key to solving this mystery lay in a special key combination: F6. By using this key, I was able to access the motherboard’s optimized settings. And, surprise! Upon activating these settings, a message appeared, indicating that the “RTC Wake Up Call S/4 S/5” option would change from “Enable” to “Disable.” That was it—the reason behind the computer’s nightly awakenings!

Without wasting any time, I applied these optimized settings, hoping to put an end to this mystery. And what a relief when I found out that it worked! No more unexpected startups in the middle of the night.

This experience reminded me of the importance of having an in-depth knowledge of the products we use, as well as keeping a curious and open mind to sometimes hidden solutions.

I hope you enjoyed this article and learned something useful. Feel free to share your own incredible support experiences in the comments. See you soon on AlexIn.Tech!