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Hacking a power button on a PC
mrracer:
Can anyone please advice on how to hack a Dell Dimension 4550 power button to an external switch I want to mount outside my cabinet. I had a compaq in the cabinet before, and that was easy cut the power cable connected to the power button and connect it to the external wiring. With the Dell it seem to be using a signal cable, and I dont know which cables to use as the power source. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
SirPoonga:
Do you know what motherboard Dell uses, should be marked somewhere on the board. Get the manual for it to see where power switch plugs in.
Stobe:
Like SirPoonga was saying. I would find it odd if the motherboard didn't have the standard 2 pin power header for the power switch.
Then if you have an old computer somewhere, you can rip the 2 pin cable from wither the power switch or one of the LED cables (IDE activity, etc).
If not, you can grab a LED ehader cable from radio shack. Then just extend it to whatever switch you want to.
Hope this helps,
Stobe
mrracer:
I'm new to this, I've attached the layout of the motherboard, I'm still not quite sure would that be the "configuration jumper (JH81)"? It seems everything is coming through the "front panel switch connector (J9H2)". Again any help is greatly appreciated, I'm just not sure were to grab the power from...
sc1103:
Dell uses a proprietary connector, which makes it a pain. If you open up the front of the computer, there will be two tiny microswitches, and the power one can have the headers extended and attached to a pushbutton. Alternatively, but dangerous (I fried my mobo :() you can find the pins through trial and error then solder onto the bottom ***I THINK***. Saint's "adopted beta page" also has some ignition switch you can buy to do this for you I believe.
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