Can i start a pc using a USB keyboard

[Zniff]

HI i got a ROG Strix z390-e gaming mobo

and im wondering if it is possible to start a pc pressing a key on the keyboard or on the mouse.

just want to end this wishful thought early

 

[Gorgon]

2 minutes ago, Zniff said:

HI i got a ROG Strix z390-e gaming mobo

and im wondering if it is possible to start a pc pressing a key on the keyboard or on the mouse.

just want to end this wishful thought early

 

No. You have to use the power button.

 

You can resume from Suspend or Hybernation using a keyboard press if your configured for that.

[narendb]

Not sure with your specific motherboard but usually it's like this: In your BIOS, you need to ensure that USB Wake Up from S3 is set to Enabled and Power On By Keyboard/Mouse is set to Any Key. These are under Power Management.

[ApolloX75]

I don't see any BIOS options in your manual related to Wake on USB. I have a Strix Z590-A and it's UEFI layout looks similar to your Z390. I'll take a look at it and see if I can find anything. It's not something I've tried to do in a long time, I remember it being present on older pre-UEFI boards.

 

*EDIT* I see nothing. There are no options for Wake On USB in these setups that I can find. There's wake on RTC which will let you set a time for it to start up and Wake on PCI-E, but none of the older options seem to exist.

[Zniff]

ok, yet i have the option on windows to choose startup but bios does not enable this option

[IkeaGnome]

It all depends on how jank you want to get. An added button on your keyboard could have 2 wires that run off it and along your USB cable, into the case and to the front panel wiring. 

[Zniff]

nah i dont think i care to do elaborate things but thanks for the suggestion. Just find it weird that USB keyboard does not yet have that option yet

[Lurking]

8 minutes ago, Zniff said:

nah i dont think i care to do elaborate things but thanks for the suggestion. Just find it weird that USB keyboard does not yet have that option yet

That's actually a very reasonable request. I have a switchable powerstrip on my desk and the PC behind the desk. So after turning on power, I need to go to the side of the desk to turn the PC on. Your idea of keyboard power-on would solve this 1st World problem.

[Zniff]

sigh indeed

[Holmes108]

I looked into this recently too. All instances I found seemed to be some support for waking over a PS/2 keyboard in the BIOS, but never found any help or support about USB.

 

Not quite as convenient, but I opted to have a widget on my android phone homescreen to wake via LAN.

[cmndr]

I want to say that some PS/2 keyboards had power on keyboards. You needed to enable it in BIOS. I suspect this is less of a thing these days. 

I have my mother's desktop set to wake on LAN via an android app. If I wanted to go a step further I could probably jump through some hoops with IFTT. 

[Thaldor]

On 3/22/2023 at 3:10 AM, Lurking said:

That's actually a very reasonable request. I have a switchable powerstrip on my desk and the PC behind the desk. So after turning on power, I need to go to the side of the desk to turn the PC on. Your idea of keyboard power-on would solve this 1st World problem.

Check if your MB supports "Restore AC Power Loss", at least in the past you could configure it to "Power On" after AC power has been restored. This does mean whenever you turn the powerstrip on, your PC will also boot every time but at least you don't need to press the power button.

 

Also if you know you will be on most days booting your PC at X o'clock, you could also go around this problem with the "Power On by RTC" option where the BIOS clock (that runs always, even when the PC doesn't have power it has the battery to run on) generates the Power On signal at a set time. This does require that your PC has power at that time to boot up so if you're using a powerstrip that is always off when your PC isn't powered on, this won't work.

[Mehcanic]

I use exactly this one to sort the problem you have:

https://www.deepcool.com/products/Accessories/consumerelectronic/2021/13682.shtml

[Lurking]

10 hours ago, Thaldor said:

Check if your MB supports "Restore AC Power Loss", at least in the past you could configure it to "Power On" after AC power has been restored. This does mean whenever you turn the powerstrip on, your PC will also boot every time but at least you don't need to press the power button.

 

Also if you know you will be on most days booting your PC at X o'clock, you could also go around this problem with the "Power On by RTC" option where the BIOS clock (that runs always, even when the PC doesn't have power it has the battery to run on) generates the Power On signal at a set time. This does require that your PC has power at that time to boot up so if you're using a powerstrip that is always off when your PC isn't powered on, this won't work.

I didn't find anything like that. I have the Gigabyte B650M DS3H I looked through all settings remotely named for startup ur USB, but didn't find any. 

i noticed they have a much different way of naming features (my other MB are 6+ year old ASRock). 

 

[Thaldor]

4 minutes ago, Lurking said:

I didn't find anything like that. I have the Gigabyte B650M DS3H I looked through all settings remotely named for startup ur USB, but didn't find any. 

i noticed they have a much different way of naming features (my other MB are 6+ year old ASRock). 

 

This

was the closest I found to reference (surprise Gigabytes own manual for your MB is shite when it comes to BIOS settings). If you can find that page from your BIOS settings, that AC BACK is the setting you are looking for. Referencing to ASUS settings; it should have "Always Off" as default, "Last state" which will return the PC to the power state it was when the AC power was cut (if off, then no boot, if on then boot) and finally "Always On" which will boot the PC everytime AC power is reconnected.

[Lurking]

1 hour ago, Thaldor said:

This

was the closest I found to reference (surprise Gigabytes own manual for your MB is shite when it comes to BIOS settings). If you can find that page from your BIOS settings, that AC BACK is the setting you are looking for. Referencing to ASUS settings; it should have "Always Off" as default, "Last state" which will return the PC to the power state it was when the AC power was cut (if off, then no boot, if on then boot) and finally "Always On" which will boot the PC everytime AC power is reconnected.

My Bios doesn't have a Power button. This is just an internet picture, but shows how my BIOS looks like:

[sam_nya]

How about using one of these

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=external+power+button&_sacat=0

[Thaldor]

1 hour ago, Lurking said:

My Bios doesn't have a Power button. This is just an internet picture, but shows how my BIOS looks like:

It can also be that your MB doesn't support such functions. But if it would be somewhere it would be under Settings -> Platform Power. For double-triple check you can also go through the Favorites tab and check what you can add there, probably fruitless but my trust in Gigabyte software is on such a level I wouldn't be surprised if there was some settings that are missing from normal listings and can be found only by adding them to favorites.

[TattooPhreak]

I remember years and years ago I set a BIOS password and there was a setting to power on with password, and that would power on my PC when I typed the password on the keyboard. 

 

This wasn't even a USB keyboard if you want to know how long ago it was. 

[Lurking]

3 hours ago, Thaldor said:

It can also be that your MB doesn't support such functions. But if it would be somewhere it would be under Settings -> Platform Power. For double-triple check you can also go through the Favorites tab and check what you can add there, probably fruitless but my trust in Gigabyte software is on such a level I wouldn't be surprised if there was some settings that are missing from normal listings and can be found only by adding them to favorites.

i found it! Under Settings you can set to Ac Power on and it actually starts up once I turn the power strip on.

 

It has settings for keyboard any key, or mouse wiggle or double-click. but that didn't seem to work. I first had keyboard and mouse on my monitor (it has a USB hub). But even plugging the keyboard directly into the PC didn't work. but I also noticed it doesn't seem to work well if you power on too soon (for experimenting) and the PSU still may have supplied a voltage before i turned it back on. I have to observe that a bit more. But in real life, there is enough time between power off and on. This PC is just at a temporary setup and a standing desk, so i didn't want to experiment with pluggin the peripherals into the PC directly (cord too short when desk is in up position). i may test more once th ePC is at its final location. 

 

[Thaldor]

2 hours ago, TattooPhreak said:

I remember years and years ago I set a BIOS password and there was a setting to power on with password, and that would power on my PC when I typed the password on the keyboard. 

 

This wasn't even a USB keyboard if you want to know how long ago it was. 

 

42 minutes ago, Lurking said:

It has settings for keyboard any key, or mouse wiggle or double-click. but that didn't seem to work. I first had keyboard and mouse on my monitor (it has a USB hub). But even plugging the keyboard directly into the PC didn't work.

 

That is called "Power On by PS/2", as in you basicly need PS/2 mouse and/or keyboard for it to work and IIRC just some USB to PS/2 adapter and just any USB keyboard doesn't work.

 

I would guess the first requirement is that you actually use the PS/2 port, if it's bundled with some USB ports they may be wired to same controller and they might also work, and secondly you need a keyboard that doesn't communicate through the USB. Like the keyboard can be USB and not communicate through the USB, there was a time every keyboard came with USB to PS/2 adapter, but modern keyboards do so much more through the USB that they do not send the key presses as "raw data" that could be passed through the PS/2 port but they send packages of data that are handled by the USB chip and the PC drivers. I would say anything with software controllable RGB doesn't work, pretty much any keyboard that Windows identifies (as in when you plug it in or check the devices there isn't "generic keyboard" or something but like "Logitech G815") most likely communicate with USB data rather than with raw data that could be handled through PS/2.

Spoiler

And before someone asks the PS/2 port is "hardware" port, it is directly connected to the chipset and CPU, as in the "Pause" button that very rarely does anything today used to send "stop" signal directly to the CPU which would stop whatever it was doing at the moment. There isn't any "data" moving through PS/2 but basicly you press a key and it just sends the signal through certain wires that the chipset/CPU then translate into a pressed key, like your power button doesn't send any data but just connects two pins on the MB together. This is why it can be included to the always on systems of the chipset like the RTC, it doesn't need any processing or any translating, just sending a tiny bit of current and notice if that current goes somewhere else, just like the power button on the case.

 

[Lurking]

1 hour ago, Thaldor said:

 

 

That is called "Power On by PS/2", as in you basicly need PS/2 mouse and/or keyboard for it to work and IIRC just some USB to PS/2 adapter and just any USB keyboard doesn't work.

 

I would guess the first requirement is that you actually use the PS/2 port, if it's bundled with some USB ports they may be wired to same controller and they might also work, and secondly you need a keyboard that doesn't communicate through the USB. Like the keyboard can be USB and not communicate through the USB, there was a time every keyboard came with USB to PS/2 adapter, but modern keyboards do so much more through the USB that they do not send the key presses as "raw data" that could be passed through the PS/2 port but they send packages of data that are handled by the USB chip and the PC drivers. I would say anything with software controllable RGB doesn't work, pretty much any keyboard that Windows identifies (as in when you plug it in or check the devices there isn't "generic keyboard" or something but like "Logitech G815") most likely communicate with USB data rather than with raw data that could be handled through PS/2.

  Reveal hidden contents

And before someone asks the PS/2 port is "hardware" port, it is directly connected to the chipset and CPU, as in the "Pause" button that very rarely does anything today used to send "stop" signal directly to the CPU which would stop whatever it was doing at the moment. There isn't any "data" moving through PS/2 but basicly you press a key and it just sends the signal through certain wires that the chipset/CPU then translate into a pressed key, like your power button doesn't send any data but just connects two pins on the MB together. This is why it can be included to the always on systems of the chipset like the RTC, it doesn't need any processing or any translating, just sending a tiny bit of current and notice if that current goes somewhere else, just like the power button on the case.

 

The MB, to my surprise, in 2023 came with a combo keyboard/ mouse PS2 port. I just have a simple keyboard. So it may be possible... But I refuse to use old standards, lol. I just de-cluttered my setup by using the monitor as a USB hub for my peripherals. And the PC  turning on by just turning on the power strip is even better. I can't think of many scenarios where I want to turn on my monitors, but not my PC.

 

Thanks for the help. This makes my life easier. Need to check my other PCs now if they offer the same 

[Markosjal]

I have an old Acer Revo RL 80 circa 2014 and although I have not found a wayobturn it o. With keyboard I can turn it on with WMCE RC6 remote. That is installed the internal IR header. . Seems odd to me however that no matter what I try I can not turn it on from keyboard/mouse