how to rig a homemade power button

JBS181818

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Oct 18, 2006
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Here's my problem. The power button on my new case is broken. Its Jammed. Newegg told me I might be able to keep the damaged case, and they would also send me a new one. Don't ask. Something about an investigation with UPS to see what happened. I guess its easier/cheaper for them to forget about the case then worry about fixing it. The button is unfixable. Is there any way to rig a new power button? Even if its external. I googled it for a while and found nothing. But i'm sure that I could rig something from scratch. Buy some wire and a switch from a store somewhere and make it work. Any ideas on how to do it? What stores to buy stuff from? Thanks.
 

4745454b

Titan
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The power button on an old gateway case (don't ask about that either...) I have broke also. Its a special button, but that didn't matter. I cut the blue and white from the back of the switch, leaving the motherboard plug on the other side. Stripe the insulation off the wires, and buy a momentary contact switch from rat er... Radio Shack. Attach the wires, and your done. The hard part is finding a place to mount it. Incase your wondering, I didn't worry about +/-, so either it doesn't matter, or I got lucky.
 

fyter

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Jan 25, 2006
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Any 30 cent PBNO switch will work, and there is no + or - on one of those switches.

Also, this store is lovely for small parts:
http://www.jameco.com/
It's the only place I've been able to get potentiometers without paying a ridiculous amount for them.
 

Aragorn

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Feb 17, 2005
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A momentary contact switch doesn't worry about + and - because it is actually just closing and opening a ciruit there is only one wire and no need for a diode. You can safely ignore the +/- unless there is an LED in your switch (which would be pretty pointless since it would only light up when you had your finger on the switch).
 

3lfk1ng

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Jun 28, 2006
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which would be pretty pointless since it would only light up when you had your finger on the switch.

Correction: They stay lit while the computer is on. They turn off when the computer is off.

Please don't speak false information until you've done your homework and are 100% sure about the info your bringing to the table.
 

MCGTech

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Apr 5, 2006
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Here's my problem. The power button on my new case is broken. Its Jammed. Newegg told me I might be able to keep the damaged case, and they would also send me a new one. Don't ask. Something about an investigation with UPS to see what happened. I guess its easier/cheaper for them to forget about the case then worry about fixing it. The button is unfixable. Is there any way to rig a new power button? Even if its external. I googled it for a while and found nothing. But i'm sure that I could rig something from scratch. Buy some wire and a switch from a store somewhere and make it work. Any ideas on how to do it? What stores to buy stuff from? Thanks.

For a quick fix you could move your reset connector onto your mobo's power button pins. Then go track down a replacement. Also, some cases have an additional sleep button. This will work fine also.
 

Rick_in_Oregon

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Apr 14, 2006
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Correction: They stay lit while the computer is on. They turn off when the computer is off.

Please don't speak false information until you've done your homework and are 100% sure about the info your bringing to the table



if there was an led it would matter how it was plugged in +/_. If it was wired in in series it would only come on when the button was pushed. If it was wired in parallel then the switch would be bypassed as if it wasn't there, unless there is a much bigger voltage drop across an led than I remember.