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Wake a laptop without opening it?

D

DrNic2032

Weaksauce
Joined
Jul 5, 2007
Messages
125
I recently setup an old Dell Latitude D605 as a HTPC running WinXP. I'm trying to find any way I can that will let me wake and/or turn on the machine without opening the top.

I've looked at the possibility of remounting the power switch on the side of the machine but that doesn't seem like something I have the experience to pull off. I've tried both RF and bluetooth mice, neither of which seem to wake the machine from sleep mode. Inserting/removing an old USB thumb drive doesn't wake the machine from sleep mode either. A friend of mine suggested pulling the battery from the unit, setting the bios to boot on any power, then use a power strip as an on/off switch. Unfortunately the bios doesn't have a suitable option for this.

If anyone has any thoughts/suggestions on how I might be able to pull this off please drop me a note/reply.

Thanks!!
 
SlowCobra said:
What? What does this have to do with the OP's question? Are you just spamming to get a higher post count?
Click to expand...

yep just ignore him.

@ OP, is a usb keyboard a possibility? Why are you trying to accomplish this, is it a docked laptop? If so I think the usb keyboard should work... should being a keyword.
 
Shadowssong said:
yep just ignore him.

@ OP, is a usb keyboard a possibility? Why are you trying to accomplish this, is it a docked laptop? If so I think the usb keyboard should work... should being a keyword.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure this works. I do the same thing with the bluetooth wireless keyboard on my HTPC (although it's not a laptop).
 
Does it have a docking station? Could turn it on through a power switch there
Also, if it's attached to an Ethernet cord, you could use Wake-on-Lan packet to wake it from sleep
 
Yea, pretty much wake on lan sounds like the solution you are looking for.

If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch there are some iPhone applications for this that might do the trick.

I've never used it but this one looks pretty easy to use. http://www.appstorehq.com/poweron-wakeonlan-wol--iphone-57572/app

PS. You may have to make changes to the NIC card settings to allow wake on lan to function (BIOS and windows).
 
The reason I want to do this is two fold. One, the hinge and screen are in rough shape on the unit. I was going to just trash the thing when it occurred to me to use it as an HTPC. I had to connect it to an outside monitor for the setup and now it's connected to the TV full time. The second problem is space. Things are a little crowded in that room and I have very little free space (it's kind of a dumping zone for all my crap) At the moment I have it in the VCR slot of the media cabinet. So it becomes a pain to pull out the laptop and open it every time I want to use the machine.

I've tried a number of bluetooth devices, mice, keyboard, headphones, even a bluetooth remote, but nothing seems to wake the machine from sleep mode. I poked around in the bluetooth card settings but didn't see anything about waking the machine.

I don't have an ethernet cord running to that room, and I can't get wake on lan to work with the wireless card either.

Thanks for the suggestions though!
 
heh, howbout a little foam padding on top of the switch when the screen is closed? when you want to turn it on, just push down in that area on the top of the laptop, lol.
 
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