Solved Powering Down A HTPC

[seekermeister]

For convenience, I have a couple of remote controls next to my bed, so that I can easily shutoff the computer and everything connected to it, when I get tired of viewing.

One remote simply puts the computer to sleep, which works fine, so far as it goes, but leaves the TV/monitor, DVD player, etc. running. So I put a remote controlled electrical switch in the outlet that the cable that powers all of these is plugged ito.

Unfortunately, when I shutoff all power, that defeats the sleep function, and after turning power back on, I have to turn the computer on at it's own power switch, and Windows thinks that there was a problem, and displays the boot options menu.

I was thinking about setting it to go into hibernation, instead of sleep, but that tends to create locked files on the hard drive, that I would rather not have.

I really don't care about whether anything is saved, or that it can continue where it left off, I just want an easy way to control it as I nod off, or want to wake to a movie. Can this be done without using hibernation?

 

[Zepher]

You should have gotten one of those power strips with a master control feature.
It turns off the slave outlets when the master outlet powers down, like when you put the PC to sleep.

here is one,
http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Conser...UMQ2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1308013563&sr=8-1

 

[Britton30]

Plug the HTPC in another outlet?

 

[seekermeister]

I think that both of you have misunderstood. The question is not about how to switch any of the hardware either on or off, it is about how to switch it on remotely, without having to go to the computer itself to do so. Yes, I can remotely put power to the PC, but that doesn't turn on the computer. I can not turn the computer on with the remote after it has had the power shutoff, because it no longer can recover from sleep. If I use the PC's own power switch, obviously I can't do that remotely. The idea is to be able to power on the hardware and reach desktop simultaneously remotely.

 

[Sbrideau]

Maybe I didn't understand either, but I think Zepher's suggestion would be the best here in the sense that I understand that as if you plug the computer in the master one, when you put it to sleep, it shuts power down to everything else (slaves), and when you use your remote control to get your computer out of sleep, it gets power back to everything else.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[seekermeister]

No. It appears that this isn't going to go anywhere, because I really don't know how to explain any better than I already have. It seems clear enough to me, but obviously I'm wrong, and if I continue to explain, all that it will do is to make the question even more unclear. I appreciate the efforts made to help, but unless someone can decipher my question, I will consider the thread dead.

 

[Britton30]

LOL. Here how I understand it:
1. You can sleep the PC via remote.
2. You can power off all devices via remote, which defeats sleep since all are connected to a remote-controlled switch.
3. You want to power on everything remotely.
A. Powering off is not an issue.

I suggested a different plug for the HTPC so it would not turn off, and would resume from sleep, assuming you were waking it via remote too. A wireless mouse could wake it up.

If you don't care about data loss, configure your power setting in BIOS to Power on after a power outage i.e., turning it off. It would then turn on when power is turned back on.

 

[MacGyvr]

I think that both of you have misunderstood. The question is not about how to switch any of the hardware either on or off, it is about how to switch it on remotely, without having to go to the computer itself to do so. Yes, I can remotely put power to the PC, but that doesn't turn on the computer. I can not turn the computer on with the remote after it has had the power shutoff, because it no longer can recover from sleep. If I use the PC's own power switch, obviously I can't do that remotely. The idea is to be able to power on the hardware and reach desktop simultaneously remotely.

In almost every BIOS is a setting as to what should happen when power is applied after a power failure (which is in essence what you simulate when you turn off the power strip). Set this to "on" and the computer will automatically turn on when you turn the power strip back on. This will not work for a hibernate or sleep situation.

Steps:

1) Shut down PC
2) Turn off power strip
3) Turn on power strip
4) PC comes on automatically based on BIOS setting

 

[CreepinJesus]

You can't power the PC on remotely unless it has power in it supplying the IR/Bluetooth (whatever you're using) receiver. In almost all cases (this one included, it seems) when the PC is off (shut down) all the power is cut, so the 'power on' signal from your remote will not be received.

You can leave it in sleep mode for this purpose, which should leave the receiver powered on and able to receive the 'power on' signal from your remote.

It's the same with a TV - put it on standby and you can use the remote to turn it back on; turn it off at the switch on the TV itself and the power is cut, so the remote won't work.

As for turning everything off at once, have a look at Logitech's Harmony remotes - they're universal remotes that can control everything in one go. They have a steep-ish learning/set-up curve, but once they're working well they're a real time saver.
Harmony Remotes

 

[Zepher]

No. It appears that this isn't going to go anywhere, because I really don't know how to explain any better than I already have. It seems clear enough to me, but obviously I'm wrong, and if I continue to explain, all that it will do is to make the question even more unclear. I appreciate the efforts made to help, but unless someone can decipher my question, I will consider the thread dead.

Using that Power Strip that I linked to above will allow you to press the sleep button on your remote that controls the PC and put the PC to sleep and turns off all of the other devices.
If that remote can wake up the PC, then it will wake it up and when the PC turns on, the rest of the devices plugged into the slave outlets will turn on.

I am not sure why you are confused with what I said, I answered your question exactly as you asked it.

 

[seekermeister]

I think that both of you have misunderstood. The question is not about how to switch any of the hardware either on or off, it is about how to switch it on remotely, without having to go to the computer itself to do so. Yes, I can remotely put power to the PC, but that doesn't turn on the computer. I can not turn the computer on with the remote after it has had the power shutoff, because it no longer can recover from sleep. If I use the PC's own power switch, obviously I can't do that remotely. The idea is to be able to power on the hardware and reach desktop simultaneously remotely.

In almost every BIOS is a setting as to what should happen when power is applied after a power failure (which is in essence what you simulate when you turn off the power strip). Set this to "on" and the computer will automatically turn on when you turn the power strip back on. This will not work for a hibernate or sleep situation.

Steps:

1) Shut down PC
2) Turn off power strip
3) Turn on power strip
4) PC comes on automatically based on BIOS setting

Thank you very much, based on this, I have solved most of the problem. I had to delete the password on the primary account, and delete a secondary account, so that it would not require a login or choosing an account, but it works very well.

The only loose end remaining is due to the fact that I'm powering down by putting the computer to sleep (it seems prudent to shutdown more gracefully that a hard shutdown), the boot options window appears on power up, delaying everything for ~ 30 seconds, which it would be nice to eliminate, but I doubt that is possible. In any case, I consider the problem solved.

 

[seekermeister]

No. It appears that this isn't going to go anywhere, because I really don't know how to explain any better than I already have. It seems clear enough to me, but obviously I'm wrong, and if I continue to explain, all that it will do is to make the question even more unclear. I appreciate the efforts made to help, but unless someone can decipher my question, I will consider the thread dead.

Using that Power Strip that I linked to above will allow you to press the sleep button on your remote that controls the PC and put the PC to sleep and turns off all of the other devices.
If that remote can wake up the PC, then it will wake it up and when the PC turns on, the rest of the devices plugged into the slave outlets will turn on.

I am not sure why you are confused with what I said, I answered your question exactly as you asked it.

I apologize for having been so dense. Upon reading this post, I thought again about what you suggested, and realized that I had jumped to an unfounded conclusion. I now realize that your idea would have worked, but I will use MacGyvr's idea, simply because it doesn't cost anything.

 

[MacGyvr]

I think that both of you have misunderstood. The question is not about how to switch any of the hardware either on or off, it is about how to switch it on remotely, without having to go to the computer itself to do so. Yes, I can remotely put power to the PC, but that doesn't turn on the computer. I can not turn the computer on with the remote after it has had the power shutoff, because it no longer can recover from sleep. If I use the PC's own power switch, obviously I can't do that remotely. The idea is to be able to power on the hardware and reach desktop simultaneously remotely.

In almost every BIOS is a setting as to what should happen when power is applied after a power failure (which is in essence what you simulate when you turn off the power strip). Set this to "on" and the computer will automatically turn on when you turn the power strip back on. This will not work for a hibernate or sleep situation.

Steps:

1) Shut down PC
2) Turn off power strip
3) Turn on power strip
4) PC comes on automatically based on BIOS setting

Thank you very much, based on this, I have solved most of the problem. I had to delete the password on the primary account, and delete a secondary account, so that it would not require a login or choosing an account, but it works very well.

The only loose end remaining is due to the fact that I'm powering down by putting the computer to sleep (it seems prudent to shutdown more gracefully that a hard shutdown), the boot options window appears on power up, delaying everything for ~ 30 seconds, which it would be nice to eliminate, but I doubt that is possible. In any case, I consider the problem solved.

I would have to say that putting the computer to sleep and then pulling the power is not 100% safe. It's better than pulling the power with the computer in use, but still not great. Is there any way you can perform a shutdown rather than sleep? Either way, glad it's working for you!

 

[seekermeister]

Not without getting out of bed, and going to the computer, and that was the entire point of this question...full remote control. I think that I could set it to go into hibernation, instead of sleep, but don't really want to, because of the locked files that it creates on the hard drive. Just how risky do you think that sleep is?

 

[Sbrideau]

I don't know what programs you have that would create locked files on hibernation, I use hibernation several times a day and never had any trouble with locked files.

 

[seekermeister]

Really? Have you ever used a program such as O&O Defrag, and check out all of the black blocks on the hard drive? If you use hibernation, you have locked files (actually, you have locked files whether you use hibernation or not, such as system volume information and other system files). This may not be a problem as far as normal use of the computer, but it is a problem, as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Sbrideau]

I use Defraggler, but I thought it was normal to have those locked files, and it is always the same amount of blocks that is locked. It stays the same whether I do a full shutdown and start the next day or the hibernation.

 

[seekermeister]

Regardless of the size of the files, since they remain locked in place, they hinder proper defragging. It is SOP to disable hibernation prior to defragging, and if Defraggler has the ability to do an offline defrag, you should do so, because then it can move the other locked files as needed to get the best defrag.

 

[Sbrideau]

Thanks for the advice (even if this is kind of thread hijack).