anyway to boot pc without the actual power button?

[katuuuz]

hey i heard you can boot your pc by pressing spacebar..  is this true?  i went up and down through the regedit, power management, etc and can't find anything on it.  i searched far and wide on google too.  i'd like to know because i don't want to hardwire a microswitch to the motherboard if i don't have to.  i'd think setting power on to the spacebutton for example and then have on of my pushbuttons marked as space would do the trick.  if there is a way to do this, please will you let me know?

[Steve B.]

This is not a Windows function, it is a motherboard function. If your motherboard supports this feature, you would go into your BIOS settings and specify which key you want to turn on the computer.

-Steve

[katuuuz]

i accessed the bios by pressing f12 upon startup.  went to power management and couldn't find anything.  is there anywere else to access the bios?  also, if my motherboard doesn't have this function, there's no programs or other soloutions for the problem?

[edge]

In order to power on a PC from off state, that functionality has to be in the BIOS. 

Your motherboard most likely has a few pins in the bottom right that hook up to your internal case speaker, power button, reset button etc.  You can run a power button to a convenient location on your cab?

[miles2912]

The on off button on your pc is just a momentary relay switch.  Tap into that - extend the cable to where ever you want and use a normal push button.

I wanted to turn the whole cab on at once - fans - monitor and PC.  My pc has a wake on power feature so I enabled it.  I extended the on/off switch from a power strip to a toggle switch that I put in my CP.  Problem solved.


Don

[katuuuz]

yeah, unfortunately i think i'm going to have to break open the pc again and hardwire it from the power button...  shiiiit.  i did so already to power my coin lights off my floppy disk drive with the molex connector, but the way my cab is set up i have my pc behind a wooden board behind the coin door... the board is there for stability because the cab was a little wobbly, but my dumbass made the board too big so to actually take my pc out i have to unscrew it and i'm trying to not do that unless i absolutely have to.  so if anyone knows a way around that, i'd paypal you like $40.

katuuz

you think the "press spacebar to boot" option would be availible in the program tweak gui, but unfortunately it isn't.  i'm betting there is a way to do it, but google isn't what it should be with this issue.

[MKChamp]

There's no way to physically turn on your pc with your keyboard since the keyboard doesn't have any power to it to recognize any keystrokes while the computer is off.
Just do what so many other people have down.
What I did was splice into the power button on the pc and connected the wires to a push bottom installed on the top of the cab where the original on/off switch was. Go buy a smart strip. Plug everything into that with your pc in the 'control' slot. When I push the button on top of the cab to turn the pc on, the power strip then turns on the monitor, speakers and marquee lighting (coin lights are connected to the power in the pc)...this makes it turn on fairly 'authentically' like a real arcade. Another simple push on the button does the reverse and turns everything off.
So, go ahead and summon up the energy to pull your pc out. You'll be glad once you're through!

[katuuuz]

k bro, it looks like that's what i'm gonna have to do.  i was just wondering how exactly to splice into the power button the pc.  how many wires are in there, what one is the ground, and which parts of the microswitch do i hook the other wire to?  i'll do it right now if you can explain a little more in detail.  thanks.

(ps i purchased a 'mini power minder' off of amazon.  it connects to the pc via usb, and when the pc is powered on it turns on my marquee, speakers, and tv.  so luckily i don't have to construct one of those.

[youki]

Some PC have in the BIOS a option to power on the computer when power is supplied.  (i mean just when you plug the plug on the power the PC Starts).

A friend have this type of motherboard.  So he just put a "multiple plug" device with a on/off switch  , and he plug the PC and his cabinet on it.  When he switch on the "multiple plug" device both cab and pc are power-on and Start.

Obviously, if you have a old kind of PC with just a "on/off" switch (not with a temporised) relay switch) you wouldn't need to have the special motherboard feature to do the same thing... 

[Hoopz]

There's no way to physically turn on your pc with your keyboard since the keyboard doesn't have any power to it to recognize any keystrokes while the computer is off.

Not true.  I have several computers that I only boot by pressing the space bar.  One keyboard is connected via PS/2 and the other vis USB.  Everything is dependent on the BIOS as almost everyone has stated.

Katuuz, before you doing anything rash, you need to find out what kind of motherboard you have.  Google doesn't tell you much until you know that.  If you don't know, download Belarc Advisor from here:
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

If you install and run the program, it will give you details on your hardware (and software). 

Towards the top left, you will see something like this:

Main Circuit Board b
Board: ASUSTeK Computer INC. A7A266 REV 1.xx

If you can post that info here, we can help you.  If we know your mobo type, we can find the instruction manual online and help.

Missed seeing your posts on GameEx and here!   

[headkaze]

Yeah katuuz seemed to disappear for a while there. Anyways, I suggest you go to your motherboard manufacturers site and go to the support section and type in your motherboard Eg. Intel.com and type D865PERL.

Download the latest BIOS and install (some older m/b's unfortunately need you to install through DOS, which means you boot using a floppy and use a command line util like awdflash.exe with the latest BIOS file as the first parameter). Most new BIOS's can be updated through Windows though.

That being said, even with the latest BIOS update you can't be certain it will have "boot on keypress" option or whatever it's called.

[katuuuz]

k i just read almost everything on byoc about hacking the power button on a pc to a microswitch and unfortunately am not going to mess with it.  i really really really want to, but i've come so far with my arcade that the last thing i need is not to be able to turn my pc on.  i didn't really find a step by step explanation on how to do it, a lot of "test the pins" and usually when i test i wreck.  if anyone can walk me through it, i still do want to do it, but don't have enough info on it yet.

[Hoopz]

You can PM me if you want to go over it.

Are you interested in trying to see if your BIOS supports powering the computer on by the spacebar?

[edge]

katuuz -

here's an example of what you need...
http://www.arcadeinabox.com/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=18

One side hooks directly to pins on your motherboard.  The other side has a push button to turn your PC on & off.

If you need to lengthen it, you can splice in more wire.

[MKChamp]

It's really simple to splice into the wired that turn your pc on. There are only 2 wires....the red is hot and black is ground. I don't think it really even matters since all your doing is created a loop when you press the button. So, just splice into the 2 wires and hook them up a a pushbutton like your would for any other connection on your control panel. Very very very simple. Yes...it's that simple ;-)

[katuuuz]

yeah seems simple, but i have a ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- ass dell and my power button seems to be powered by a ribbon.

[katuuuz]

    Board: Dell Inc. 0G8310
Serial Number: ..CN1374056N0870.
Bus Clock: 800 megahertz
BIOS: Dell Inc. A04 02/09/2005

those are my mobo stats. hope this can narrow down a result.

[SirPeale]

http://www.pealefamily.net/tech/newmame/captrick/

[zelony]

You could do what I do.  Simply put your system in Standby instead of shutting it down.  Then any mouse movement or keyboard press will wake it up.  I actually set my power button to be standby as well.  That way I could have a switch that powers down everthing at once, but it is really just asleep.  No need to wait for the system to boot, load up GameEx or anything.  It is just ready to go.

In order for your monitor to power down too, you will need to have an actual PC Monitor, that is why I replaced my 36" Medium Res with a 36" Gateway Monitor, that and the better resolution.

You PC and Monitor will use about 1 to 3 watts of electricity while in standby mode.  You can set these settings in Windows by going to the Power Options control panel.

Good luck,

Jeff

[Havok]

You could do what I do.  Simply put your system in Standby instead of shutting it down.  Then any mouse movement or keyboard press will wake it up.  I actually set my power button to be standby as well.  That way I could have a switch that powers down everthing at once, but it is really just asleep.  No need to wait for the system to boot, load up GameEx or anything.  It is just ready to go.

In order for your monitor to power down too, you will need to have an actual PC Monitor, that is why I replaced my 36" Medium Res with a 36" Gateway Monitor, that and the better resolution.

You PC and Monitor will use about 1 to 3 watts of electricity while in standby mode.  You can set these settings in Windows by going to the Power Options control panel.

Good luck,

Jeff

I don't think that would work for a marquee, though - do you have any additionally powered/lit devices? Also, I wonder if a smartstrip would detect the power drop and shut off other devices plugged in?

[katuuuz]

yeah i just ended up changing my power option to boot after ac power is recovered... now i shut down the computer, and when it's off, i click the switch on the power strip which is in between the arcade and the wall off, so when i click i t back on everything pops on.  i would've liked to wire a cherry switch to a button on the back of my cp, but i figured the safer the better since there wasn't a clear cut example for my pc.  thanks anyways guys, i do actually recommend this method now that i have it going.  later on.  katuuuuz