Auto power on

[bishmasterb]

I know this has been a persistent topic of discussion, but I've not found a good solution searching the board.

I've got a new eMachines system, supports WOL (Wake on LAN) and will power back on in the event of a power failure, but won't (as far as I can tell) power on in the event of a legitimate Windows shutdown.

Is there an easy method that newer systems support for simply powering on anytime there is AC power present? I've read about some people building relay circuits to achieve this, but I'm looking for something cleaner and easier, if such a thing exists.

This will be for a kiosk in use in a hospital environment (not an arcade cab, but this is the best place to ask nonetheless).

thanks
-bish

[SirPeale]

I have found that if you take a small capacitor (<10uf, 16V) and put the leads on the power button pins on the motherboard, it will power on the motherboard.

I took an old fan connector and pushed the legs of the cap into it, then pushed that assembly onto the pins.

You must take care to get the polarity correct on the motherboard.  Take a multimeter, set for DC voltage, and with the motherboard plugged into the power supply, read the voltage on the pins.  If you get a negative number, that means your positive lead is on the negative pin.  A positive number means that the negative lead is on the negative pin.  Make sure you orient the negative lead of the cap onto the negative pin.

The board *should* power up every time now.  I've heard of people who didn't get this to work, so perhaps there are difference in boards that won't allow this.  YMMV.