turn on PC upon power on automatically

[hijacker]

Hello fellows,

I would like to know if it is possible and if possible how to configure the BIOS so that it remembers the state it was left before a power outage occured.

A real life example is:

linux box with no UPS, serving to connect multiple LAN PCs to the internet. Power fails, then after short period of time, power comes back on.

I would like to achieve the following:

When the power is back on the computer should realise it was left in ON state and should turn itself on, thus allowing the LAN PCs access the internet as soon as the power is back.

My ex router managed to do that perfectly well. It was an intel 440 LX motherboard. I do not remember explicitly setting that option in the BIOS configuration menu. It just behaved like that.

Now that I have a new motherboard - Intel Corporation 82815 815 Chipset Host Bridge and Memory Controller Hub (rev 04), if the power goes down, and then comes up again, the computer will not automatically start.

Can anyone let me know is there a way I can have it start by itself upon power up?

Thanks,
-Nikolay Kichukov

[PrntRhd]

Nikolay,
Linux OS usually does not work like that, there is no Scandisk in the normal Linux distributions, so if the power is lost while writing to the HDD bad things can happen. I have experience where a proprietary version of Linux was set up to copy a second boot on the other end of the OS file so if one was corrupted the OS reboots a second time and runs the second copy of the boot file.

A battery that holds configuration settings is something engineers design into some devices, the CMOS battery to hold BIOS settings is an example.

I always recommend a UPS to keep the power constant and protect the PC.

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Other than setting the server to awaken in some way, the only other way I can think of offhand is an older AT powered pc. Those were push-on, push-off power supplies and if disconnected then reconnected such as a power failure, they would turn the computer back on but hopefully nothing was damaged in the server pc nor any hooked to it.

Safest way however has already been said. Use a UPS

[hijacker]

Thanks to those who replied.
Fruss, so what you say is that this does not depend on the motherboard, but rather the power supply? If so, I will definately try and exchange my new power supply with the one that I used to have with the old box.

I will definately try this, as it seems logical. But is it possible, the power supply tells the PC with means of voltage, "Okay, I have power again, turn on you lazy computer?".

I know UPS is the best choice, but it is way too costly at this stage for me.

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Keep in mind networking is not my strong point.

Costly is a matter of perspective. If your processor overheats or some other catastrophic event happens with your system, the old AT PSU's weren't designed with safety in mind and you could be left 'holding the bag' with nothing more than burned out parts. The older AT computers had processors and memory that wasn't so prone to overheating and therefore in a way was more safe. Chances are that the older AT power supply couldn't be made to work with an atx computer anyway.

If all you want to do is build a LAN server and you want the auto-on as you describe, one suggestion would be to just use a working AT computer for it.

Found some ideas here (http://www.faqfarm.com/Q/Why_would_your_computer_automatically_restart_afte r_being_turned_off) the last answer being quite funny! :p

The one mentioning a change in the registry string sounds like it may work.

I'm still looking thru Google and will reply if I find anything more.

[hijacker]

Hello ;-),
Your post brings me to the idea of enabling (if existent) Wake up on LAN ;-)

Will have to check that;_)

Will mind that AT supplies may be dangorous.

Thank you.
-nik

[rond36]

My BIOS has a setting on the power tab under Advanced APM that tells the PC what to do when the AC power resumes after a power outage, it has 3 choices

1)power off (default)
2)last state
3)power on

Your BIOS may have something similar