Built a gaming PC back in 2018 (windows 10, GTX1080, i7, eset security).
For the past year or so it wakes up every now and then and for a few months it started waking up to my logged in desktop screen. Hasnt happened for about a month or so but it still eakes up even with my mouse and keyboard disconnected. I don't do any tormenting or anything sketchy. It's a really clean machine built for gaming, YouTube, office work stuff. I don't visit any "low brow" sites (that's what my tablet (not connected to the PC) is for). It didn't start happening after any specific download that I can remember.
Anyway, I can't find anything relevant online that helps me so I figured I'd ask here if anyone knows what this is about.
https://superuser.com/questions/955262/pc-waking-from-sleep-for-unknown-reason
It is windows, so your deep debug/fix options are limited. I've had some luck with the 'powercfg' commands disabling sleep/wake for some sources.
The other suggestion, wake timers, is probably your problem, since windows wants to stay out of your way, and in their mind that means to wake up at 3am to take updates.. what could go wrong?
It isn't a huge issue but I just wanted make sure it wasn't some weird virus or something that snuck its way in on a mod or something
Is there any risk to messing with the powercfg?
Unlikely a virus, but not impossible. Just more likely to be microsoft up to their normal tricks.
You can certainly make trouble with powercfg, but doing 'powercfg /lastwake' is entirely informational.