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Power button necessary or not?

D

Drugpickle

Junior Member
I was building my computer, and accidentally broke off the power button. I was too lazy to replace it at the time, so I've just been putting my computer to sleep a lot, and when I do turn it off I just use the power button on the motherboard to do it. Will this damage the computer?
 
No, that's completely fine. The motherboard's on board power button does the same thing as the case's power button.

Depending on your motherboard, you might have an option in the BIOS to enable power on with the keyboard. EDIT: I'm not sure about this one though.
 
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If the case was made by a company with a decent reputation I would bet they'll send you a replacement for free if you ask. (Replacement power button, not a replacement case of course.)
 
If your case has a reset button you could probably just plug that into the power button pins on the motherboard. Both buttons should be simple Normally Open momentary switches
 
Ditto to all, but also to observe that the little teensy switches soldered to the wires that come with a computer case are pretty ubiquitous. A Dremel and some Super Glue would assure "reconstructing" both the cosmetic and functional aspects of a power switch. Or you could go to MNPCTech and buy an "airplane" toggle switch to use with your new but slightly damaged case.

In the previous decade, I had "harvested" old computer cases for new builds and modded at least three or four of those old cases. I kept the power-switches in a little box of screws and fittings.

And as I said -- with Dremel and Super Glue -- you could find an old switch to integrate with the new case and the plastic button that sits on top of "the real power switch" -- the item that "does the switching."
 
That case must be cheaply built. I've recently restored a Dell case with Pentium 4, probably 10-15 years old and wasn't taken good care by its previous owner. Amazingly, the button on that case still works.

If you still insist on using that case, replacement is easy to find. Some light modding might be necessary if you want to replace the original switch
 
Through the bios, you can usually assign a keyboard command or mouse click to act as a power on signal. It works well with a PS2 keyboard, but I have had mixed results with USB devices.
 
The power button is just a momentary push switch that closes a circuit that tells the motherboard to tell the power supply to turn on. You can probably find one at The Source or other electronic store and put it in. you can also assign a key in the bios as mentioned but I would not trust that on it's own. It may not always work, such as after a complete power off.
 
A power button is nothing more than a doorbell switch and a light. I usually use a wireless keyboard on my computer and it just goes to sleep normally.
 
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