Turn on mobo without a case

[tgxiii]

I've looked but only found how to turn on just the PSU without a mobo. What I need to know is how to turn on an entire system without a case. No case = no switch plugged into the mobo. What can I do to turn on the system without putting it in a case or buying an ATX power switch replacement?

[John Prophet]

easy, you just short the two connectors together where the power switch plugs in...I use a spare hard drive jumper for this..or a screwdriver.

[RedFury]

Remember when you do this though, to remove the jumper, or the screwdriver as contact with the two pins will result in a shut down after a few seconds......all you need is momentary contact.

[John Prophet]

yeah, I like using a little jumper with a long "handle" on it..and yes you just have to momentarily touch the jumpers together....then if u want to shutdown you could either actually put the jumper on for 4 secs or hold it on for 4 secs.

I am not sure if the mobo is off and then you put the jumper on would it cut on and then off again in 4 secs?? (I am too lazy to check, lol)

[tgxiii]

Thanks John and RedFury. Before I try this, are there any safety precautions I need to take, or is it safe to just remove the jumper with my bare hands or with a pair of tweezers?

[John Prophet]

no real precaution needed...and you probably wont be "removing" the jumper cuz you actually dont ever need to put the jumper 'all the way" on the contacts....you simply touch the jumper lightly to the contacts and it will fire up then..so you never actually place the jumper all the way down as you would on a hard drive etc.

When I have been unsure of the correct two connectors I have just shorted the different ones together two at a time, lol...never had any bad results yet...but if you get a flashlight and look at the writing on the board it should clearly say which ones are for the power switch....it'll usually say "pwr s/w" or maybe just "pwr".

Same for the "reset" connectors.

If you were really into mobo testing you could just rig up a little "momentary" switch on the end of some wire....or just pull the switch out of an old defunct case etc. That way you just have to press the button as opposed to looking for the right 2 connectors every time

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Id DEFINITELY scrap the idea of tweezers....you could end up dropping them onto the board while its powered on and short/blow something....as opposed to the fact that you could probably put your bare hands all over a running board and still be ok.



Either way you may be putting too much thought into this whole thing....its very easy to just lightly touch the jumper onto the 2 pins...nuttin to it.

[HeadBand]

if you are going to be doing this alot you might want to hook up a little button that you can get at radio shack for like $2

[DallasDon]

Most test benches are a simple setup with "known good" mobo,cpu, ram, and video.

You replace the good component with one you want to test, then see if if will fire up.

Two second contact with a screwdriver is the simplest way to boot up or reset.

I think I just repeated what everyone else said, lol.

[tgxiii]

Thanks, everyone. The method worked. Too bad the mobo is bad...

[RedFury]

Too bad. At least you didn't go through the trouble of putting it all together, only to rip it all apart again