Slowly clawing my way up to the surface of sanity after the Trojan attack.. Here's what I need help on now. I use two modems: 1) A Zyxel 2864I ISDN fax/voice modem with DRAM, on my ISDN line for stand-alone use when the computer is switched off. When the computer is off and a fax comes in, the fax goes straight into the DRAM then hangs up again. For this to work it must be attached to the COM port and, under Modems..Properties, it _must_ be set to COM (not TAPI) or it won't work as it should. It's worked fine on every system since Windows 98SE, including XP Home. 2) My broadband Modem on my broadband (ADSL) line. I needed to re-install XP and since then the darn computer starts up (boots) when a fax comes in. Very annoying when I get up in the morning and find the computer on AGAIN because a fax has come in! - Telephony under "Services" is switched off - Modem is set correctly - Modem's configuration manager to pick up faxes and store them then hang up, is set correctly. I checked all the saved S-switches and they're all ok. - Under System..Modems.. the modem's Power Saving settings box re. "Allow this device to startup the computer etc" is _not_ checked - In BIOS: (according to BIOS page: Bios Version 1.16 (09/08/05) - latest Medion download version is called bio7187r.exe) I do not have a "wakeup on LAN" or "wakeup on ring" setting anywhere in BIOS, neither in Powersaving nor in Advanced Chipset. I do have "Wakeup by PCI card" which I have disabled. - I also disabled all the wakeup on keyboard and wakeup on mouse settings - The onboard modem, (which I neither need nor use), is deactivated under Services - before deactivating it, I also made sure that the "allow this device.." setting is not checked. But the computer STILL boots when it's switched off and a fax comes in. Where else can I look ? What else can I check ? Thanks for any help.

Have you always had this problem since the Zytel modem was installed? If not, when did you first notice it - e.g. after you installed what? Technically a broadband "modem" isn't a modem in the way that a conventional modem is - it's just been given that dubious label. I'm not all that familiar with XP yet, but I have never heard of a broadband modem waking up a computer, or any setting in a motherboard bios or in XP that would allow that. If there is such a thing, remove the power from the broadband "modem" whenever you shut down your computer - easy enougn to do if you are already using a power bar e.g. to turn off your monitor, or other things - that would eliminate one of the two possible triggers. I had this same situation with an Epox EP-MVP3-G5 motherboard, with Win98SE. I had a Zoom 56K external faxmodem connected to a Com port at the time. I noticed it was waking up the computer, not just when I got a fax (any fax to me would have been by accident at the time), but sometimes when I got a regular phone call while the computer was off. I could have just turned off the power to the computer when I wasn't using it in my case, but I wanted to solve the problem. I tried changing settings in the software that came with the modem, disabling a few, then later all, the ACPI/APM settings in the bios, then disabled ACPI/APM in the bios altogether. Nothing worked. Eventually I found the solution - I turned off both the LoadPowerProfile lines in MsConfig - Startup. I didn't want to use wake on lan, wake on modem (or whatever), etc., in the bios anyway. I still have it set that way with my broadband "modem" - I can still set my hard drive and monitor to turn off after x minutes in Control Panel - Power Options, and the computer wakes up fine if the times are exceeded. If you have always had this problem since the Zytel modem was installed, you could try: - sometimes ACPI problems are corrected in newer drivers - install the latest main chipset motherboard drivers. - turn off everything in the bios to do with ACPI, power management, try that for a while. - sometimes ACPI problems are corrected in newer bios updates, but flashing your bios is always a risk - don't do it for that reason alone if you don't see anything in the release notes on the bios updates pages. If none of that helps, sometimes the ACPI of the mboard and the OP system support for it just don't work properly with some mboards - whatever the cause. Other than that, since I had that problem with the Epox mboard, I didn't want to have to go through all that trouble again to turn off ACPI when I move on to faster mboards and computers I have, with Win XP going to be installed on them. I did a bit of research on the subject of turning off ACPI in XP. So far the only sure thing I have found is you can NOT load ACPI support when you first run Setup on a clean install - it will NOT work to re-run setup "overtop" - the ACPI support will not be removed from XP. "Fresh Install with no ACPI (updated)", and lots of other XP tips to get rid of annoyances here: http://www.logan.eclipse.co.uk/xp%20hints%20&%20tips.htm

Thanks for the reply, Tubes It isn't the broadband modem (or router) which is waking up the computer but the 2864I modem which is the fax modem. The fax modem is connected to my COM1 port and Winfax is set to this modem as COM1 - I may have mentioned that it *must* be set to COM and not to TAPI, otherwise it won't work properly. The problem started with this new computer (purchased 5th Jan 06) - I never had a problem on my old computers not even my last XP machine. I only noticed it after the re-installation of Windows on 15th Jan (maybe no faxes came into that number between the 5th and 15th so I wouldn't have noticed it if it was the same before the new installation) In XP, the standby mode and the other power saving mode (forgot the name) are set to "never". In BIOS all the powersaving wakeups are set to "disabled". Under Startup I don't have anything like >both the LoadPowerProfile >lines in MsConfig - Startup. The only things that are listed there are programs and peripherals such as Norton Antivirus, Hewlet Packard, Logitech, Lavasoft (firewall) etc. There is nothing like it under Services either. There are two lines (under services) pertaining to RAS. This is soooo annoying !! We had a guest sleeping on the sofa last night and the computer started up at 5 a.m. when a fax came in, and woke him up.

It is very frustrating. I have come across several computers that don't handle Standby properly, but Windows 98 and up eventually turns Standby off if it detects your mboard cannot handle it properly - this wake up thing is a lot more annoying. It's a more common problem than you might think - I searched this site for wake, wakes, and similar - there are lots of posts about others having the same problem. I searched all over for how to turn off ACPI in XP by changing or removing a setting or service in XP - there doesn't seem to be anything that works anywhere. There were a few posts that mentioned there might be a wake on lan setting somewhere in the properties for the modem you could turn off, but that certainly wasn't true for my Zoom modem, and I found nothing about that on the manufacturer's site. I've also read that recent mboards do not need to be connected to even an internal modem anymore by a cable in order for the wake on lan to work (or malfunction in our cases). The only thing I know of that will work for XP is "Fresh Install with no ACPI", and lots of other XP tips to get rid of annoyances here: http://www.logan.eclipse.co.uk/xp%20hints%20&%20tips.htm

You know what I just realised, Tubes ? It's not waking on LAN - it's waking on COM !! This fax modem which is waking up the computer isn't attached to my network card, but to COM1, with the phone wire going to the wall socket, not on the computer. So there must be something somewhere about monitoring COM / Serial ports for an incoming something.. Under Services I can see the following to do with COM.. (the English names may be slightly different) - DCOM Server Process Start - COM+ Event system - COM+ System utility. The only other control I have over the COM Port seems to be the EPP/SPP/ECP/Normal etc.. setting for IRQ4 (COM Port) in BIOS. It is currently set to "ECP+EPP) I really couldn't face installing Windows XP again - that would be the third time since 5th January....

Found temporary fix as follows. It's obvious that the COM port is being powered by COM cable from the fax modem when a fax comes in. Seeing as this never powered up any of my older computers, I can only presume that COM ports on newer/ XP compatible machines are different to COM ports on older machines. Or more of the pins of the COM port are "read" than they used to be when less wired pins also made a com port work fine. So I tried the following: I dug out an old com switch box from my attic. Fix the fax cable to IN A and a cable going nowhere on IN B. The OUT cable goes to the computer. Results when the computer is switched off: When the Switch is set to B (cable to nowhere), a fax comes in, rings once, does not wake up the computer, the fax is saved to the modem's DRAM and hangs up again. When the switch is set to A (the fax modem), any incoming faxes switch the computer on... Strange, huh ? Dane