question about shutting down Windows XP

[BurgerKingDiamond]

I want to know wheter it's ok to just turn off my MAME computer without shutting down Windows XP first. I have a seperate ATX PSU with the pins jumped so that it turns on when I turn on the Power Strip that it's plugged into. This seperate PSU (when I first built the cab I had an extra and didn't feel like decasing my PC to use it's PSU) powers my marquee light, and coin lights. Now I want to trim down some of the components in my cab, so I want to get rid of the extra PSU, and decase the PC and use it's PSU to power marquee/coin lights in addition to PC itself. When I jump the certain pins to make the PSU come on when ever it's plugged into power, the PC will boot up, correct? When I want to shut eveything down I want to just turn off the Powerstrip so that everything turns off at once. Will it harm the PC to do this repeatedly without shutting down XP first?

[ahofle]

Yes that's probably not a good idea.  You can end up with a corrupt hard disk that way (if it happens to be in the middle of a write when you pull the plug).  It's much safer to press the momentary power switch to safely shutdown windows, or use the start menu.

[RayB]

Just to be clear, you can end up with corrupt DATA. It won't physically damage the harddrive, and the keyword "can" means there is a risk but most likely nothing will actually go bad.

What you could do is make a backup image of the drive, and then you don't have to care at all. If it corrupts and stops working, re-image with the backup and you're good to go again.

[BadMouth]

Get a smart strip.  It will shut off power to everything else after the computer shuts down completely.
Under power management, you can configure windows to shut down when the power button is pressed.
Not sure about other front ends, but Mala has the option to shut the pc down on exit.

[mattmayhem]

I rewired the power switch to the motherboard to a pushbutton switch, and within windows I have mine setup to when I push the "power switch/pushbutton" it safely shuts down windows and turns the computer off. I also wired everything up to the PC power supply except the TV power button which I also added a pushbutton to control the power being on and off. The TV and PC both are always in standby mode with a very small amount of power going to them. The pushbutton just connects a 5v circuit that signals them that its time to power up. I suggest taking the 2 wires that lead to the pc power button and remotely wiring them to a pushbutton hidden somewhere on top the cab, its easy and a great solution.

[javeryh]

I rewired the power switch to the motherboard to a pushbutton switch, and within windows I have mine setup to when I push the "power switch/pushbutton" it safely shuts down windows and turns the computer off.

Me too.  I plug everything else into the SmartStrip.  When I press the button, XP shuts down safely and then everything else turns off.  Same thing happens when I turn it on.  It works great.

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

Doesn't anyone else just put their machine into standby mode?
Leave mine 'asleep' and with a tap of the power button hyperspin is up and running before the screen finishes warming up.

[markronz]

yeah I have to agree with the others. Extending the power button on the PC and getting a power strip is the way to go.   I made two arcade machines before I figured that out.  I couldn't figure out why my default.cfg file for MAME kept being reset.   Well, it was because it was in use when the power was just cut from the computer.   That and it eventually made my PC have bootup problems due to drive corruption.   So yeah, I wouldn't recommend just shutting off your PC.

[severdhed]

I rewired the power switch to the motherboard to a pushbutton switch, and within windows I have mine setup to when I push the "power switch/pushbutton" it safely shuts down windows and turns the computer off.

Me too.  I plug everything else into the SmartStrip.  When I press the button, XP shuts down safely and then everything else turns off.  Same thing happens when I turn it on.  It works great.

+1

[BurgerKingDiamond]

Cool. That's easy enough. Thanks everybody. 

[mattmayhem]

This might be just on my system but I did however notice that when I hit the power button while a game is being emulated, it kind of crashes the game and glitches the system up a bit before shutting down windows, but if your in your front end or game selection screen, when you press the button it safely exits the program then safely shuts down windows and powers off. Could only be my setup, but keep that in mind.

[jasonbar]

+1 for the Smart Strip.  Well, actually, I had trouble tuning the Smart Strip to perform consistently.

I ended up using a Sears Craftsman similar product--smaller than the Smart Strip--intended to turn a light on when you turn on your drill press, and such.

-Jason

[Smeghead]

You have to park your hard drive to keep it safe when its off
Use  DPARK.COM












  ok ok im kidding that was SOOOooo 1980s remember? old farts?

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

actually I was thinking about head parking just the other day with MFM hard drives came up in discussion...

[ark_ader]

Yet RLL had auto parking.....  Ahh those daisy chained Full height 5 mb drive hooked up to my 4.77 XT...

You can down Xp without worry to any corruption.  I have been cutting power to my arcade PC for like 5 years and it still work fine.

With today's tech Sleep mode is the best option.

[Thenasty]

I think if you just really want to cut off the electricity to shut everything off, you could use a small UPS that will communicate with the OS so when power is off, ti will shutdown the PC for you. YOu may need to open the UPS case and yank that BEEP NOISE 

[Gray_Area]

It's a lot cheaper to buy a cheap power strip and modify it with a relay than it is to buy a Smart Strip. 

Time and effort are resources, too. It depends on how much of it you want to build yourself. I posted recently on a Cyberpower unit that was $20, and no 'tuning' nonesense.

I can't see turning a machine off in-game. It seems a no-brainer to me to wait until exit to the FE.