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Author Topic: Hacking the power switch on a Dell  (Read 2985 times)

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gamecreature

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Hacking the power switch on a Dell
« on: June 23, 2006, 09:31:40 am »
So I was all set to hack the power switch on this Dell computer to connect it to a switch on the front of my cabinet. I expected to find a simple pair of wires running from the switch to a socket on the motherboard. What did I find? I found that the power button is well concealed behind a major bit of chassis that holds the drives and no wiring at all that appears to run from the front to the MB (except for the cabling for the drives). I'm guessing my next step is to try and disassemble that chassis and the front panel. But I figured I'd ask here for anything I might have missed that might make my job a little easier. Did I just happen to miss the leads that go from the switch to the MB and if so, how do I find them?
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KillerArcades

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Re: Hacking the power switch on a Dell
« Reply #1 on: June 23, 2006, 09:50:38 am »
without knowing exactly what model Dell you're working with, I'm only going to be able to talk in general terms, but PC MB's all have a set of pins for the PC speaker, reset switch, power switch, HD light indicator, etc and a bunch of plastic connectors that slide onto these pins, you want to find the PW SW connector and splice into those two wires and then just run your pair of wires up to your external ON/OFF pushbutton that you've added to your cab.

I wouldn't even bother tearing up the chassis, just open your case and do it more from the MB end, then just run your wires out of some holes in your case, etc.
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Re: Hacking the power switch on a Dell
« Reply #2 on: June 23, 2006, 10:13:01 am »
I agree. See if you can find the pinout on the motherboard. I've seen quite a few dells. The last one had a big block of wires that plugged into the mobo. You can simply unplug the block and start shorting the pin outs to find which two powers on the system.

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Re: Hacking the power switch on a Dell
« Reply #3 on: June 23, 2006, 10:17:06 am »
Most recent Dell's that I've seen have a small ribbon cable (like a small floppy connector) that connect to a daughterboard in the front of the case that has the front usb ports and headphone socket components, a smaller ribbon cable then goes from this daughterboard to a the power button and LEDs.

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Re: Hacking the power switch on a Dell
« Reply #4 on: June 23, 2006, 03:11:02 pm »
I have a dell gx150 in one of my mame cabs and I hacked the power button. I pulled off the very fron to the case to reveal the "daughter card" that the power button, sound, usb etc all connect to before going to the motherboard. I then followed the solder traces on the daughter card to where the power button was soldered to and then to the ribbon cable. I then spliced the ribbon cable and tied in a new, extended power switch. if i was home I could take a pic, but out of town for the next week.

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Re: Hacking the power switch on a Dell
« Reply #5 on: June 23, 2006, 04:00:37 pm »
Thanks for all of the suggestions. I'll start by pulling the front off and see what I find. Thanks again.
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Re: Hacking the power switch on a Dell
« Reply #6 on: June 24, 2006, 02:44:31 pm »
Okay, here's what I did:

Pulled off the side and front panel of the case - so far, so good.

Then I had to pull the HD and floppy drive. Finally, I pried off the plastic mount that was holding these in place (this was a bit tricky) There, mounted on the plastic frame was the daughter board.

There were two buttons on the board, one for power, one for reset. Make sure you know which is which, beacuse things can get turned around when moving and removing parts.

There were four terminals soldered to the board, but two are redundant. A little testing with a piece of metal will show you what contacts to use. Then solder your wires (make sure to allow for extra wiring to snake through the chassis), add some quick disconnect terminals on the other side and you have a remote switch for your PC!
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Re: Hacking the power switch on a Dell
« Reply #7 on: June 26, 2006, 09:47:22 am »
What I did will probably not be viewed favorably by some but it worked great.  I got a HAPP momentary button and mounted on the back right of my CP (you can't see it when you're standing at the front of the machine).  I ran a pair of wires down through the cabinet to the computer, they run into the computer case.  I soldered alligator clips to the ends of the wire.  I stripped just enough of the insulation off of the leads going from the mobo to the power switch so I could clip the alligator clips on there and have a set of the teeth touching the bare wire.  This was an HP box whose power switch was also buried like your Dell.

Works great and the power button the front of the computer case still works.  Plus when I switch out computers at some point the alligator clips should be easy enough to work into however that case is designed too.  Plus if I want to "fix" the old case I'll just slap some electric tape on the wires or hit it with a small amount of liquid electric tape.

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Re: Hacking the power switch on a Dell
« Reply #8 on: June 26, 2006, 10:09:03 am »
I have a funny story about this actually. I just moved into a new appartment with my girlfriend at the time and didn't have any tools at all. I was so hell-bent on getting the PC out, I lost my reasoning. I didn't care about the PC casing at all -I already decided to dump that anyway- so I went ahead and took an IRON (yes, the one you use for your clothes!) and BURNT out the entire front panel (with the power on/off buttton and the reset button!). Worked like a charm.  :dizzy: Don't know what I was thinking...but it was dead funny.

Every motherboard has a set of pins with -usually- 5v connections. It's a simple matter of hooking up the connections to the original switch. If you have a newer board, you needn't even bother. YOu can set is so that it powers up when you press space bar. All this is to be found in the motherboard's documentation.
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Re: Hacking the power switch on a Dell
« Reply #9 on: June 26, 2006, 10:31:57 am »
My easy solution was to put the computer in the rear of the cabinet with the power button facing the back of the cabinet.  I drilled a hole in the cabinet even with the power button.  I cut a pencil in half and push the pencil through the hole with the eraser pushing the power button on.  Works great.  No hacking.

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Re: Hacking the power switch on a Dell
« Reply #10 on: June 26, 2006, 11:01:25 am »
...I went ahead and took an IRON (yes, the one you use for your clothes!) and BURNT out the entire front panel ...

 :laugh2:

Okay, now I don't feel so ghetto, thanks for the laugh!!

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Re: Hacking the power switch on a Dell
« Reply #11 on: June 26, 2006, 03:36:02 pm »
Holy crap-an IRON? LOL!! I contract as a field support tech for Dell and I'd love to get a call to a house where they attacked the machine with an iron. My digital camera would get overtime that week.

Those Dell front panel daughterboards ARE a PITA to replace, tho, I hate those calls. The 8400 series is by far the worst, though the new Dimension line suck pretty hard, too. The old Dimension 3000s or so were great, just a little plastic retainer that pops right out.
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Re: Hacking the power switch on a Dell
« Reply #12 on: July 22, 2006, 07:45:12 pm »

For what it's worth, I have a Dell Dimension 4300 and the two wires I needed to tap into on the daughter board ribbon cable were the first two wires next to the end wire that is painted pink.  I did not use the pink one, just the two right next to that one.
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