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Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: Kowalik on September 26, 2011, 04:48:20 pm

Title: Central Power Switch Control Question???
Post by: Kowalik on September 26, 2011, 04:48:20 pm

Hi everyone have a question regarding a cab I am building.
I am retrofitting a small caberet cab which I want to put a central switch ontop for my power.
was planning on pulling the switch of a power strip putting a new control on top of the cabinet which will turn on the PC, Monitor, lights etc...
Since the cabinet doesn't really have room for a keyboard or mouse without opening the coin drawer (Awkward) can i set Gamex to just open up when the PC powers up? and is it bad for the machine to just turned off at end of night without booting down?

I'm sure some experts know, its my first cabinet and want to keep things simple.
will send photos of build

Robert

Title: Re: Central Power Switch Control Question???
Post by: Jammin0 on September 26, 2011, 05:02:44 pm

Generally speaking newer computers won't suffer a ton from hard turning off the machine but it definitely isn't recommended or intended by the OS.  The biggest risk is if your hard drives were performing a write function and something became corrupted it probably wouldn't cause any irreparable damage but you run a slight risk of corrupting your system files.

I am a school teacher and moderate a few of the older Mac labs and because I'm inpatient I will routinely hard turn off all the machines and I've never had anything bad happen so far; however I know there is a risk.  I figure that's what you get for expecting me to use 10-15 year old equipment.

Title: Re: Central Power Switch Control Question???
Post by: BobA on September 26, 2011, 05:16:01 pm

Use a smart strip power bar to turn your equipment on and off when the computer turns on or shuts down.   You can get gamex to start by adding it to startup and you can probably get gamex to turn off your computer when you exit it.   Some combination of keys can be assigned so a KB is not needed.   You can set your computer to power on or off with the power button as well.  That way a single button at the top or back of your cab can control your computer as long as you connect it in parallel with the computer on/off connection at the motherboard.

 

Title: Re: Central Power Switch Control Question???
Post by: equlizer on September 26, 2011, 07:12:33 pm

What he said :)  I use "hold down player 1 button and player 1 joystick for 4 seconds