I found a person asking this question over yahoo answer, how to turn on computer without using power button?
As an IT Engineer, I use this method since 5 year ago when I learn how to assemble computer on my 1st job. Most people sure curious how to turn on computer if without power button? This is not hard, as long you have some technical knowledge over motherboard, and able to identified the power switch location.
Please bare in mind, do not test this if you do not have any basic technical knowledge, or consult some professional before you do it.
Most of the motherboard have a sticker like above, the PC assembler have to stick this sticker behind the CPU casing, you can found this sticker around the CPU casing. This sticker indicate the location of the power switch.
Power button, Reset button, Hard Disk LED , Power LED on the casing all are connected to this section. Most people found that their power button spoil, or broken, they will have difficulties to turn on their computer.
See the above picture, power switch (SW), reset switch (SW) and etc, all this are connected to the motherboard from the power button, reset button over the casing. When you see closer to the switch (SW) you can see it connect into the motherboard, the SW will insert and connect to 2 metal pin in the motherboard.
In the easy way to describe, when you press the power button, this 2 pin will be electrically connected to each other, and send the motherboard a signal to power on the system.
To start the computer without using the power button, take out the “Power SW”, make sure you identify which 2 pin belong to the power button (refer to the labeb behind), use a test pen or any metal surface to touch the two pin, it won’t have any electrick spark, just allow the electrict signal from 1 pin sed to another pin, your computer will be start without pressing any power button.
My name is Calvyn, from PENANG, an IT Engineer, Malaysia LIFE tech blogger. I am an IT Engineer who blog about my LIFE working Experience, such as Technology, Computing, Networking and also my hobbies, Photography.
By |1f34|-|1r3 on Feb 13, 2009 | Reply
haha..this post sure bring back memories during my university years…back then…i learned a lot about computer hardwares and this is one of it…maybe next time you should show them how to reset the BIOS in case someone forgot the BIOS password
By alone on Feb 15, 2009 | Reply
uhuh. i heard about this. just don’t wanna explode my CPU. hehe.
yea.h i agree with life4hire =D
By b-to the D on Sep 1, 2009 | Reply
well how to reset bios password easy take out the cmos battery
By Madhu on Feb 25, 2010 | Reply
Well,this method will be helpful only for powering on system at critical situations such as power button failure.
but i want to know whether there is any alternate way of doing it without touching those power pins so that i can use it all the time to boot my system.
By calvyn on Feb 26, 2010 | Reply
U can try to use the Power Over Lan setting…
By isham on Jul 23, 2010 | Reply
this is cool
.. iam gonna try it when i get home… because my power button is broken.. Thanks man 
By rahul on Aug 10, 2010 | Reply
I want to know how to start without touching that metal pin.
means if one of the two metal pin fails or have some loose connection then what to do..
is there any alternate method such as , one pin of reset sw with another pin of power…
reply.. whoever know the answer/solution
By Zeeshi on Aug 18, 2010 | Reply
i want to start my pc without pressing power button means to say that power was lost accidentally and if i’m not home but when the power comes again then the pc starts itself not do anything with the wires of power sw it starts itself???
By Bdubs on Nov 9, 2010 | Reply
Zeesshi, that is an option in the BIOS. Often under a power tab in basic Box type computers. You can tell the computer to stay off after a power failure (sometimes called SOFT-OFF).
If you want it to boot back up after a power failure you’d select it to start or to return to previous state.
However, you should NEVER have you computer plugged in during a storm (EVEN if you use an Uninterupptable Power Supply. A near or direct hit and it could fry everything. Those “guarantees” are useless for you data, it’s gone!
By Brad on Nov 21, 2010 | Reply
Hey, how do I know where the switches go? I mean I know what block of pins they go in, but I have no idea which order they go in, and there is no writing on the board, or documentation left for my puter… So could you let me know how to put them all in there? I have heard that order isn’t really important… is this true? email me if you can: bradleyvoorheesjams@gmail.com
By gupta on May 18, 2011 | Reply
Hahaha.. This one i tried long years ago. nearly 8 years back. But without jumber settings there is any option i am asking.
Thanks
By anil kumar anmol on Aug 27, 2011 | Reply
when i switch the power button of ups
cpu starts automatically but it doesn’t show display on monitor. What type of problem can be in it?
I want to solve this problem myself.
Pls suggest me.