Power

[JoeBooToo]

I have set the power options in the bios to On for "After Power Loss".  My understanding from reading the manual (link below) is that this should allow me to use a power strip to turn everything on at the same time.   The problem is that this only works if there is a power failure (or I just kill the power strip with Windows still running).  If I do a graceful shutdown of Windows, turn the power strip off and then turn it back on the PC doesn't turn back on automatically.  This machine is not giong to be networked so Wake on LAN is not an option for me.  Am I missing something here or did I misunderstand the manual?

https://support.hp.com/ca-en/document/c00812871

[mdklassen]

> If I do a graceful shutdown of Windows, turn the power strip off, and then turn it back on, the PC doesn't turn on automatically. 

The motherboard keeps track of its "status", namely either "powered-on and running", or "Windows has told me to do a power-off".

So, if you cut the power, while the computer is running, the motherboard knows that the computer was not "off".

Thus, it responds to the restoration of power by honouring your request to power-on.

But, if the computer was off, and power was cut, then the restoration of power is noticed by the motherboard, but the motherboard chooses to stay in the "off" mode.

It seems like the motherboard is "just too smart".

Within BIOS SETUP, can you "schedule" the computer to power itself on, every day, at a specific time?

For example, if you start work at 8 AM, schedule it to power-on at 7 AM, so that it will be ready when you start.

[JoeBooToo]

Scheduling an on time isn't really an option as this machine won't get daily use, it is a game machine that might be on like once or twice a week.  So flipping the switch was looking like a great option but I guess it is not to be.  I might just hack the power button and reroute it to another button that is more convenient to get at.

[mdklassen]

> I might just hack the power button and reroute it to another button that is more convenient to get at.

Some computers, within BIOS SETUP, have an option to enable a touch of any key on the keyboard to "wake" the computer.  What's more "convenient" to access than your keyboard? 

[JoeBooToo]

Ya I was looking for that feature too but didn't see it in this one. 

[JoeBooToo · Accepted solution]

Quite by accident I have figured this out.  It seems that even though the switch on the power bar was set to off, it was still receiving enough power for the motherboard to recognize it was there.  I unplugged the power bar to move everything but when I plugged it in again at the new location, everything fired up the way I wanted it too.  I thought that perhaps I hadn't shut down Windows grafecully so I tested it again and it worked like a charm.  Frankly to me it makes no difference if I unplug the power bar or if I flip the switch so this will work just fine!

Thank you all for your thoughts and suggestions.