"Why the hell has my PC taken to rebooting itself in the middle of the night? It started a couple days ago and I'm figuring there has to be a setting that got changed with an update or some such ridiculousness but how do I make it stop!?!... I shake my fist at you in anger Microsoft."
Since I took the time to answer it, I figured I may as well post it for future generations (and page hits):
Symptom: PC rebooting itself in the middle of the night
OS: Windows XP, SP2
Hmmm... "PC rebooting itself in the middle of the night"? That's usually not a good sign... but before getting you all paranoid, there are two things you can check:
1) Windows Update - I also suspect that Windows Update may have set a schedule for itself. Its helping, y'know. To check this: Click on Start > Settings > Control Panel > Security Center. The last item in this window should be "Automatic Updates". Click this and a new window will open... In your case "Automatic" should be chosen, with the option to set the frequency and time of day. Change this to your preferences. My preferred option is "Notify me but don't download... blah blah blah", because I like to know when/why things are being downloaded onto my computer. Click "OK" to lock in your new settings.
If that wasn't the case you can check Scheduled Tasks:
2) Scheduled Tasks - To check this, Start > Control Panel > Scheduled Tasks. In the window that opens, you will see things that are scheduled to perform automatically. In your case, you should see something interesting, and a schedule that matches the behavior you are noticing. If you want to delete an item from this list, right-click on that item and choose the "Delete" option.
If you want to edit it, double-click on the item and a window will open with three tabs: "Task" describes the item. Don't change that. "Schedule" is where you can edit the schedule (uh, duh...). The "Settings" tab lets to add some more conditions to how/when the task runs. Click OK to lock-in your changes.That should remove the ghost in the machine. However, if *neither* of these seem to be the cause of your PCs new late-night activities, I strongly recommend running a complete anti-virus check of your system with an up to date anti-virus program. If that doesn't pick something up, you may want to also run some anti-spyware app too.*
If you found this information helpful, or have something to add, please leave a comment! [SS]
*When it comes to battling spyware, I always recommend Spybot Search and Destroy from www.safer-networking.org
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