How to power-on motherboard?

[shawshank]

I am finishing my cab.I just installed my ASUS motherboard and ATX power supply. I cannot seem to power my board even when I turn on my power supply? Do I need to jumper some pins or do I need some sort of hack in order to power my board?

[AmericanDemon]

You hook a power switch up to the pins on the motherboard?

[shawshank]

That's it? Does Radio SHack sell these or do I  need to buy a whole case just to have the power switch?

[Thenasty]

just get a momentary switch and hook it up to the mobo pins.
If you have a case that has a reset switch, use that.

[rchadd]

i had real trouble to get the connector to attach to the motherboard pins - did consider getting a CD audio connector

in the end I ripped out the power switch from a friends old case.

only PCs with AT type PSUs can be power on with single switch

[SirPeale]

If you wire the power up right to all components in your cab, you can have the motherboard auto power on in one of two ways.

1) go into your BIOS and select "resume after power loss" so it'll turn on after you cut power.

2) take a jumper, remove the small metal piece.  Get a capacitor, 10uf/16v and place the legs in the jumper.  Get your multimeter, and take a reading on the power on pins to find which pin is negative.  Then place the capacitor on the pins, making sure to get the negative on the right side, or it won't work.

[shawshank]

I got it working! Thanks for all the help. I bought a SPST momentary normally-open  mini push button switch from radio shack. Connected wires from the switch to the power pins on my motherboard. Works everytime. Thanks again!

[AmericanDemon]

More than welcome

[paigeoliver]

If you wire the power up right to all components in your cab, you can have the motherboard auto power on in one of two ways.

1) go into your BIOS and select "resume after power loss" so it'll turn on after you cut power.

2) take a jumper, remove the small metal piece.  Get a capacitor, 10uf/16v and place the legs in the jumper.  Get your multimeter, and take a reading on the power on pins to find which pin is negative.  Then place the capacitor on the pins, making sure to get the negative on the right side, or it won't work.

Peale what exactly does #2 do? Can you elaborate on the technique? Also, will the negative pin have continuity to ground?

[AmericanDemon]

Peale what exactly does #2 do? Can you elaborate on the technique? Also, will the negative pin have continuity to ground?

Yeah me too.  You could also use a small wire and jump the two pins.  This is often done by people using a watercooling set up.

[shadowdrak]

The cap trick is pretty clever.  Current flows through the capacitor at first, shorting the jumper.  As the capacitor charges up, it resists the flow of electricity which opens the jumper again.  It needs to be a small capacitor though, otherwise it will short the jumper for more than 4 seconds, causing it to turn off again.  Then you just power the computer on by turning on the surge strip.

[SirPeale]

Peale what exactly does #2 do? Can you elaborate on the technique? Also, will the negative pin have continuity to ground?

Read the post directly above this one.  Set your multimeter for DC voltage, and take a reading on those two pins.  If it shows a negative number, reverse the leads.  Whichever black is on (negative) is the one the negative lead on the cap should be on.

[SirPeale]

Yeah me too.  You could also use a small wire and jump the two pins.  This is often done by people using a watercooling set up.

I'm guessing you mean on the ATX power connector, and not on the motherboard pins.

This may or may not work.  Sometimes this can screw up the POWER_GOOD signal, and the board won't boot (which is where this whole brainchild came into play).  It wouldn't be an issue if you just wanted to use an ATX PS without being connected, but there *may* be issues.  With the cap trick, there aren't any issues, other than shutting down from Windows.

[AmericanDemon]

Yeah me too.  You could also use a small wire and jump the two pins.  This is often done by people using a watercooling set up.

I'm guessing you mean on the ATX power connector, and not on the motherboard pins.

This may or may not work.  Sometimes this can screw up the POWER_GOOD signal, and the board won't boot (which is where this whole brainchild came into play).  It wouldn't be an issue if you just wanted to use an ATX PS without being connected, but there *may* be issues.  With the cap trick, there aren't any issues, other than shutting down from Windows.

Yeah thats exactly what I meant w/ an ATX powersupply.  Watercooling setups routinely use this to prime the pumps and make sure the circulation starts before the PC powers up.    Good stuff none the less.

[GodSin]

when I finiahed my CP I had a few arcade buttons left over so I just used them for the power and reset button

figured what the hell ... beats spending more cash on a stupid switch from the Over Priced Radio Shack