Downside to Smartstrip Power Option

[FrizzleFried]

Here is a little somethin-somethin I didn't even consider when I put together my cocktail cabinet....

I set up the cocktail cabinet with a SMARTSTRIP and set the BIOS to power up at return of the loss of power.  I wired up a Happ button under the cabinet to the ATX power switch.  When I push the button,  the cabinet powers up,  as does all peripherals and the external amp I use (the cabinet is a jukebox as well).  When I shut down,  all peripherals (and the amp) shut down... great!   

The other day I walked in to my arcade and the cocktail cabinet was sitting there running...the amp was on... I had not been in that room for about 36 hours...I was working on a Donkey Kong Jr in the main garage area.   

Then it came to me...the friggin' power had gone out for about 10 seconds the day before.  Upon the return of power,  the cocktail cabinet fired up.  DUH!

I had turned off the screen saver because I use a screen saver built in to my front end.   Lesson learned.   I now have my "windows" screen saver set for 2 hours just in case this happens again.  I also learned to check the cocktail cabinet when I have a power outtage.   Doh!

[2600]

That's not the best way to use the SmartStrip.

I'm not sure of your particular requirements, but there are better ways that won't have your side affects.
Is there a reason you have the BIOS set like that and a reason you have the Happ button set to the ATX power switch?

[WLVRYN]

I was just going to post the same thing.  If you are using the Smartstrip, I didnt think that you need to have the BIOS set to turn the computer on after a power loss.  You just plug the computer into the blue outlet and turn it on and off through Windows (or via the pushbutton if you choose to/can do it that way - my particular BIOS wont let me power down via the button, it has to be through Windows).   Everything else powers on when you turn on the computer via the pushbutton.

Am I missing something?

[SavannahLion]

That's not the best way to use the SmartStrip.

I'm not sure of your particular requirements, but there are better ways that won't have your side affects.
Is there a reason you have the BIOS set like that and a reason you have the Happ button set to the ATX power switch?

I concur with 2600 on this. It puzzles me why everyone does funky stuff with their power control schemes when wiring a momentary push switch to the MB control switch would be the best solution in 90% of the designs I've looked over. Replacing the existing momentary switch or wiring in parallel to the existing switch to the motherboard should pretty much negate any need for tweaking the BIOS. There should be a setting somewhere in XP to power down the PC when hitting the power switch. If not, a keyboard shortcut to powerdown would be the next easiest solution in my eyes.

The power up after loss of power is meant for computers with server duties, such as a home, printer or network server.

Killing the power at the ATX side instead of a proper shutdown puts the computer at greater risk for all sorts of problems. The most obvious being a hardrive head crash. Newer drives are better equipped to handle sudden shutdowns "floating" the head to the appropriate sector (usually 0) before parking the head, but you still don't want to take the risk.

I mean, each builder configures their own system however they want. It just puzzles me why a lot of people choose to wire into the ATX and modify the BIOS rather than wiring/configuring it the other way. It just seems to me a much easier and safer solution.

[SavannahLion]

Killing the power at the ATX side instead of a proper shutdown puts the computer at greater risk for all sorts of problems. The most obvious being a hardrive head crash. Newer drives are better equipped to handle sudden shutdowns "floating" the head to the appropriate sector (usually 0) before parking the head, but you still don't want to take the risk.

This hasn't been an issue in over a decade.  Harddrives have a spring in them that pulls the reader back in when power is cut.  I haven't had to "park" a drive in a long, long time...

Meet Murphy. I had a 13GB Seagate purchased in '97 (IIRC) that had destroyed sectors after a power failure. To be fair though, I do have the same model, later year, HDD that has this horrid grinding noise from the spindle motor. Might be that particular model line. I've been meaning to tear it apart just for ***** and giggles.

To be honest though, why take a chance when you don't have to? Far better to play it safe than gamble with data on a HDD. I don't know about you, but I'd rather play the games or make improvements to a cab than to spend time and money making repairs that could've been avoided.

Edit: Wow, it catches ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- but not *****? Interesting.

[leapinlew]

To be honest though, why take a chance when you don't have to? Far better to play it safe than gamble with data on a HDD. I don't know about you, but I'd rather play the games or make improvements to a cab than to spend time and money making repairs that could've been avoided.

I guess thats one way to live your life, but damn... I don't consider a hard drive head crash a risk.

Meet Murphy. I had a 13GB Seagate purchased in '97

Perhaps the problem with your 10 year old drive that crashed was that it was 10 years old...

[SavannahLion]

Meet Murphy. I had a 13GB Seagate purchased in '97

Perhaps the problem with your 10 year old drive that crashed was that it was 10 years old...

What gave you the idea that it crashed this year?

[leapinlew]

Meet Murphy. I had a 13GB Seagate purchased in '97

Perhaps the problem with your 10 year old drive that crashed was that it was 10 years old...

What gave you the idea that it crashed this year?

Hard drives that were built 10 years ago aren't as reliable as hard drives built today. A hard drive that old possible needed to be parked. PinballJim was saying it hasn't been an issue in over a decade and you counter with a hard drive thats a decade old. Nice. 

I agree that shutting down a computer improperly can cause some issues, but I disagree that the most obvious is a "harddrive head crash". More than likely, you can corrupt some files.

[ahofle]

Hard drives that were built 10 years ago aren't as reliable as hard drives built today.

Not that this has anything to do with your argument, but I would have to disagree with this, at least based on my experience.  It seems like the number of harddrives that I've had fail or die in recent years is exponentially higher than about a decade ago.  My old 200Mhz Pentium Pro from 1996 has two drives in it, both of which still work fine.  Likewise, my old P2 450Mhz still has its original drives.  Seems like in the last few years I've had several drives go bad in their first year!  I hear similar stories from friends.  Could just be my luck, but they sure seem to be less reliable than before.  I had just figured the higher drive capacities (and companies' neverending cost cutting) were the reason. 

[FrizzleFried]

Damn...I am a dumbass.  I have my two stand up cabinets set up to power up with the re-start of power because I use a toggle switch to turn them on and off (as a normal arcade would)...you are all 100% correct that this bios setting isn't necessary with the way I have the cabinet wired up with the smart power...duh.

I guess I just got so used to doing things one way...

 

[Zeppo]

Just to throw this out there since I wasn't aware of it until a few months ago, and maybe I can help some people that don't know either but...:

If you want to turn off your MAME cabinet and you are using Mamewah as your front end, instead of worrying about your BIOS turning off the cabinet when you press a button, if you hit the 2 Player start, then go to the bottom where it says Exit Mamewah and hit P1, then you can go to the bottom of the next menu that will exit Mamewah and shut down the computer.

Just an FYI.

[crashwg]

my particular BIOS wont let me power down via the button, it has to be through Windows
...
Am I missing something?

Right click on your desktop
click "properties"
on the "screen saver" tab click the "power" button at the bottom
on the "advanced" tab select "shutdown" in the drop-down menu
(or one of the other options if they suit you better)

Does that answer your question or did I misinterpret?

[WLVRYN]

my particular BIOS wont let me power down via the button, it has to be through Windows
...
Am I missing something?

Right click on your desktop
click "properties"
on the "screen saver" tab click the "power" button at the bottom
on the "advanced" tab select "shutdown" in the drop-down menu
(or one of the other options if they suit you better)

Does that answer your question or did I misinterpret?

My "Am I missing something" comment was more directed at Frizzle for changing his BIOS when he's using the SmartStrip, but your suggestion is pretty helpful to me.  Apparently with the Dell that I'm using you cant power down through Windows by hitting the power button (or so they said on the Dell forums).  It would shut down the computer just like pulling the plug, then I would get the blue screen and the computer would do the disk checking procedure when I fired up the computer the next time. 

I followed your suggestions, and the best I can do when I push the power button is get the prompt for the restart/shutdown/logout options, which is fine with me.  Thanks.

[shorthair]

I guess it depends on the Dell?  Mine shuts down properly when I press the power button. I think my recent free computer does so, too.  I thought this was a general Windows feature. No?

[leapinlew]

 

[WLVRYN]

I guess it depends on the Dell?  Mine shuts down properly when I press the power button. I think my recent free computer does so, too.  I thought this was a general Windows feature. No?

Yeah, I guess with some of the older Dimensions (mine is an 8100 - about 5 years old), I guess the BIOS doesnt support power off via the power button.  At least that's the line they fed me at Dell's forum (and I tried the suggestions above and no dice either).  No big deal, its only one more button press to get it shut down.  At least I finally figured out how to wire that stupid controller card to get an external power button.

[Smoker]

It wont shutdown properly because of some incompatibility with ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface)

Most hardware is now at a point where everything is compatible. but in days of old, some vendors would have bugs in their bios that they couldn't even patch because some component on the motherboard wasn't compatible with something else.Wasn't too uncommon for one dell to work fine and another to crap its pants at shutdown (blue screen) because at some point in the production they decided to use a different chip for the network port or some other thing.
they find out they screwed up, cant release more than one bios update for the same model line and decide to go back to the old chip. meanwhile you have a system that will most likely never shutdown completely properly.