Power on without button

Has anyone come up with clever ways to power the M13xR3 with the lid closed? At home, I use an AGA setup. And I don't use the laptop screen as a second monitor. Basically I'm using it like a desktop. So every time I want to turn it on, I have to open the lid, hit the button, close it.

Sleep mode is disabled so the machine only turns off when I want it. I don't like the idea of leaving the lid open so dusts accumulates inside.

I don't see any wake on LAN options in the BIOS (though mine may be outdated). I believe the Killer wireless NIC supports this functionality but I don't use Wifi, I have a wired connection.

Only thing I can think of would be a USB to Ethernet adapter with wake on LAN support - but I don't like this idea due to possible network performance versus the onboard connection.

Am I missing something obvious?

 

In the bios: "PS/2 Keyboard power on" is sometimes an option under boot>Devices , but it isn't in mine, but I am running the first version of the bios not the newest though. Have another look. (USB wake has to also be enabled)

 

I flashed my bios to the newest version on Dell's site, this time with CPU performance disabled to avoid bricking the motherboard (again). Anyways, USB wake support is enabled but still no dice. With laptop powered off, pressing keys on keyboard does nothing. Regardless if plugged into AGA or directly to the laptop. Anyone else been able to get this working?

 

I'm interested in this too anyone make any progress? I use wake on lan extensively on custom desktops but alas fewer and fewer off the shelf laptops AND desktops support this.

There is USB wake support here it is according to the manual:

http://www.dell.com/support/manuals...305161-39D0-48AF-96B5-8C35A3040949&lang=en-us

It notes that if powershare is enabled usb wake may not work. Makes sense. You wouldn't want the device you're charging while the system is offline to wake the machine.

 

I disabled powershare, still nothing. Based on other threads it seems the sleep option is disabled due to AGA, and I think without sleeping/hibernate, wake on LAN simply won't work. Correct me if I'm wrong. Further credence to this theory is that sleep is not an options in start menu, nor the power options in control panel.

 

If you don't mind soldering; solder a wire to each of the button's solder pads and briefly short the ends of those wires to jump-start it. That's exactly what the button itself is doing, so no harm in using this option (have done this countless of time on the mb-side). Could add a push switch to the wires to make it a bit more sturdy. Forced power-down is identical to the regular button; short or hold diy button down for x seconds and it'll turn off.

 

Yeah you're right when my AGA is hooked up sleep mode vanishes completely. Must be a compatibility thing Dell doesn't want to worry about. Also I'd imagine accidental disconnects are really easy to accomplish from sleep mode since it virtually appears to be off.

I don't think the USB wake support is for the full powered off state unfortunately.