Turning on laptop without opening cabinet

[comatsu]

I acquired a cabinet with a failing neo-geo pcb.  I have removed that and will be connecting a laptop though a j-pac.  So far everything is working fine, however once all the remaining problems are solved, I was planning to have the laptop in the closed cabinet.  Any ideas as to what sort of setup I can rig to be able to turn on the laptop inside the cabinet without having to open it each time?

If its any help laptop is:http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&taskId=120&prodSeriesId=321850&prodTypeId=321957&prodSeriesId=321850&objectID=c00348514

[knave]

Set your power default to sleep and the buttons can wake it up.

[comatsu]

knave while thats a great idea, the cabinet will be disconnected from the mains for days at a time, and the laptop battery is pretty much dead.  Im afraid I will still need to open cabinet to switch on laptop every time I turn it on for the first time.

[Vigo]

If you are good enough with electronics, you can open the laptop case, solder wires on to the leads of the built in power button and close up the case again with the wires hanging out. Then you can attach the wires to an arcade button and mount it on the outside of the cabinet.

[comatsu]

Been testing stuff out, and it seems the laptop wont even come out of sleep.  Guess thats definitely out of the question then.
Vigo - Im an absolute beginner when it comes to soldering electronics etc. any resources which might help me figure out how to do that?

[GregD]

What type of encoder are you using?   I thought I read that the ipac has an option for a power button but I may be wrong.

[comatsu]

its a J-Pac.
Dont believe it has anything like that :/

[ark_ader]

You need to find the technical support manual for the laptop.  Or you could get adventurous and start disassembling the laptop to get at the mainboard.

There is only one problem.  Odds are the solder joints are too small to make any modifications without frying the board with noob soldering skills.

There is an alternative to your problem. 

Mount the laptop to the side of the cabinet, remove the display, or if it allows, bend it backwards (the switch I think is within the clam structure of the lid).

Drill a small hole in the side (or back if you want to) of the cab near the button that is nearly flush, and construct a dowl, spring and button casing and make an on/off button.  Basically extending the button to the outside of the cabinet.

I have this on all my laptop cabinet builds, when I am in danger of frying the laptop board with my noob soldering skills. 

Otherwise take the laptop to your local college/technician and ask him to solder a switch to the laptop for beer money.

[DaOld Man]

You know, I was thinking about your through the cabinet dowel, and wondered how a small cable like a bicycle brake cable would work?
If it would work, you can pretty much place the button anywhere you want.

[ark_ader]

You know, I was thinking about your through the cabinet dowel, and wondered how a small cable like a bicycle brake cable would work?
If it would work, you can pretty much place the button anywhere you want.

Or a cable release for a camera.

[knave]

Dowel idea seems the best to me.