Laptop into a better alarm clock?

[Harsky]

I've been wondering this for a while. Wake up to alarm clock, hit off button, fall asleep within minutes again is my routine. BUT get my laptop to power on at a set time and the incentive of checking for new messages seems to be a better idea... in theory. I know that in some PCs, you could set the bios to make the PC turn on at a set time but when I checked on my Dell 1525 laptop, the setting seems to be absent.

Googling throws up a ton of programs that claim to do all this... for a fee. Surely there must be some really simple answer for this that I'm over looking?

 

[Harsky]

bump

 

[delta123]

i put my computer on Standby and use a program called auto power on and shutdown to turn on and off the computer at a specific time.

but if you want to shut down your computer at night then your best option is the bios. it is usually hidden very well. it actually took me a while to find the option but it is there. its usually in some sub sub option.

i have my macbook as my alarm clock, and i use awaken for that. it loads up itunes and then plays music from it.