Yeah, that’s how I do it every morning.
Sometimes, when the ol’ 'puter is cranky, I have to press the reset button, which is really small, and it’s difficult to hit it with my toe (I have to do some tricky nail work, not for beginners), but I’ll be damned if I ever reach down and use my fingers.
When I was younger I had a computer where the front fell off and stripped the wires from the button.
To turn it on and off I had to hold the wires together, felt like I was hot wiring a car every time.
When I bench tested components at a PC shop, I’d use my smallest screwdriver to short the pins on the motherboard to start up the caseless computer.
Kinda the same here but one day I noticed it also worked by simply touching the case with one of the wires and that’s how I did it from here.
SW In ------/ ----- GND ---- Chassis | \ / 10Kohm \ / +5v
Wasn’t this built so the front wouldn’t fall off?
Well, Its not very typical, I’d like to make that point.
Well how is it untypical?
We’ve towed it outside of the environment.
Perfect prelude to playing GTA
I have a server that’s a motherboard in a shelf that I stick a screwdriver into to power cycle
You Monster! Why would you power cycle a server?
Still do.
Its a matter of principle.
Mine had the power button too high, so I would accidentally turn it off with my knee
I can still hear/feel the gradual effect followed with the iconic “click”
And all the loud noises of the giant components used to be in such PCs 🤭
Has something changed?
In 2025 I don’t turn off the computer.
Smaller power buttons and often on top rather than in front. Also feel like hard and clicky is more popular than soft and linear now
I don’t get it why though. The one on mine feels very cheap, specially with it having a fulcrum on one side, making it not go down straight, while using the design language of something that would go down straight.
The crap buttons are cheaper. If your product was optimised for price it will have buttons that cost the least
They’re on the top because most users find that more convenient
They’re clicky or linear depending on taste
The old ones were heavy, clunky, and certainly expensive
That, on top of the new boxes being more expensive.
They are just increasing their margins as much as possible.Unfortunately, that was the only model on the market with a good enough airflow, without a glass/acrylic panel.
I really need to DIY some of this.
The real off-button is usually down at the back, on the PSU.
switch, not button
You are technically correct, the best form of correct.
I still do it lol.
It’s also how we accidentally shut them down before saving our work
For a very long time it’s been possible to set what the button is doing and it’d only cause a hard shut down if you hold it down for like 5 seconds.
The cat might manage 5 seconds, or even the 11 seconds that usually overrides any settings
Now that’s my cat’s job. Never again will I buy a case with a top mounted power button.
She knows the power she holds.
I had to disconnect power button from mobo because my room mate’s cat would just shut it off, luckily I had a case whose side panel was very easy to open with a hinge, so I tied two cables near the latch and to turn it in, I’d turn the latch open the case, quickly short the cables and close the panel and latch.
Thanks for reminding me of that. Also I swear that cat knew what I did and kept trying to open the latch for a few months before giving up.
Same with me but I have a toddler. Windows has a power button setting that I switched to do nothing when pressed.
I was on Linux mint XFCE at that time and even though it had a setting to decide what to do when power button is pressed but it was broken and would reset itself every few hours.
I almost did, but instead connected one pin from the reset button and one from the power button to the power header, then bridged the other two connectors making it so I have to push both to fire it up. Easy for me to operate, and he’s still not figured it out haha.
That is genius, I wish I was that smart.
You could install a second power switch inline with the first. If both are momentary contact then you’d have to press both at the same time to turn it on(or hold one, etc).
I’ve never actually needed on of these but they keep showing up in movies/games…so I’d vote this. Toggle it on then press the normal button. You could leave it on to keep the regular button working or toggle it off and disable it.
I’ve never actually needed on of these but they keep showing up in movies/games…so I’d vote this
Sounds like you need a small electrical project then!
We used to call those missile switches. Probably still do
Ed. A search on my local electronic components shop’s site returned nothing on a search, but scrolling the 211 items in category “switches” found a missile switch cover (to suit toggle switches) as #86, so yes, we still do
Ed the second. Thingiverse shows many printable missile switch covers for diverse switch types
I’ve had that issue in several ways. Of course what you said, had an extension cord with a switch below my desk and I kept accidentally hitting that switch in the same way, lived in an apartment some years ago that had some shitty electrical work done by the previous tenant and if I had enough lamps on while my computer and screen where on and I tried to plug in my phone or turn the TV on the circuit popped, and most recently I’ve been playing games via cloud streaming (Shadow) and my Ethernet cable has lost the security tab thingy on both ends and I keep accidentally moving other cables so they touch the Ethernet cable and it falls out. Most of the time I can just put it back in an reconnect to the cloud computer but sometimes it just refuses to do that so the cloud computer shuts down before I’m able to get it working. Lost several hours of progress in various games throughout the past couple of years, but I never buy anything new unless it’s absolutely needed so I just live with and accept it '^^
I remember our family computer having an actual switch instead of a button.
Still did the toe thing though, down for on and up for off.Ah, the “it is now safe to turn off your computer” days
True, that’s the last time I saw it!
I wish that they’d had a startup screen that said “it’s now dangerous to turn off your computer”.
SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED
Ah yes, Microsoft installing a ton of updates without informing me first. Like I don’t have anything else to do (which is probably why I’m turning off the computer, to not go do those other things.)
Back when I still rode airplanes, I used to never shut my notebook off except when I was about to leave for a flight. Then I had the pleasure of watching Windows install 957 updates while the cab was honking outside.
Are you a Kids in the Hall fan?
I’m squishing your head!
Right from my body and onto your plate.
My absolute favorite though was Girl Drink Drunk.
❤️
Oh and having to type
PARK
Before doing turning it off :)
ctl-alt-defeet
Power button on top sucks balls, I preferred it on the front
Much safer from cats
Oh tiny piece of cardboard save us from the demons of fur and claw
I use a tiny translucent toy turtle. It’s cute, and I can still see the LED of the power button.
Not all painted toe nails though
Just the big toe
The classy ones have white tips
The classier ones have a coke nail.
I still turn my computer like that most of the time.
so true
I still do it bro
Do people not still do this? People must still have towers, and they must have on buttons, right?
I’ve not built a tower in a good few years now so maybe I’m out of touch and they’re all voice activated now or use DNA scanners from Gattaca idk xD
People tend to have laptops these days, only gamers need towers but gamers don’t want their PC to be Vacuum cleaner neither.
I have a tower but it’s on my desk (and the button is on the top facing the ceiling) so using my foot to turn it in would be a slight issue lol
Flexibility training.
Never put your PC on the floor unless it’s your company’s shitty workstation tower that really needs to be replaced.
I got one of those Mac minis and the button is on the bottom!
Apple is pretty shitty at design though especially for a company so renowned for design haha.
I have a bunch of mini Linux computers too and they have mostly normal buttons but they are tiny. Probably too tiny for toes.
People learned that computer cases shouldn’t go on the ground, unless you want them to be a dust magnet (especially if you have a case with intakes on the bottom for the GPU).
