BIOS problem

I cannot speak for modern BIOS/UEFI systems. It's gotten nuts. But if they still support the old methods, BIOS had included a power-reset vector that could be modified. Info was stored in the clock chip, which had a tiny amount of unused battery-backed RAM in it. When the BIOS restarts, it first looks in that location to see what to do. It was used primarily for the 80286, because the 80286 couldn't exit protected mode without a complete hardware reset to the chip. This allowed programs needing access to protected mode memory addresses to go into protected mode, access/move stuff around, then reset and go back into real mode and run some more. Slow, but transparent to the user. If that is still supported and if all of the system memory can be retained during a power fail/restart, it might be possible to arrange things to survive it and come right back.

Jon

Use some common sense, idiot.

YTou are not going to find a battery powered device that has that as a "feature" because it would NOT be.

If you have a brain that actually functions, you might get recognized as a man before you die.

There are devices that do what you need without buying a computer, ITX or otherwise.

This one is real good...

Another nice one...

And the best one, that is run ready... The Pogoplug.

You would not be disappointed with the Acer Revo. It has 14 USB ports, puts out via both HDMI and VGA port.

It comes with a mouse and keyboard. The Bios has restart after power fail settings.

The Revo is run ready. An ITX solution requires that you put it together.

The biggest problem with the ITX form factor is the LACK (complete lack) of power supply development that is worthy. I found ONE 300W unit from RaidMax, and it barley does the job. The ITX form factor is sadly in neglect by the industry. Zotac makes the best units. Mine has dual WLAN, and an eSATA port. It is way better than the others and they cost several tens of dollars more, if not twenties.

$200

Change the RAM to 4GB, another $100.

Change the HD to a 7200 rpm/flash hybrid drive. another $100.

That makes it able to do DB level video streams. You could likely with the base unit.

It pains me to give you valid, proper responses considering how much of a complete asshole you are in this group.

You can rest assured that it is valid info, however. Just like the cat that bit me, which I, in turn, did not respond in kind.

The cat should consider itself lucky. As should you.

Since you are AlwaysWrong, I'm optimistic I can find what I want.

Ooh, pink! That's adorable.

But as I noted, I want to run XP.

John

Look in the mirror much?

Nice snippage of the remainder of the post, dimwit. The computer I describes comes with XP, dumbfuck.

You obviously do not know much about Linux. It also runs XP.

And no, Johnny, I am not now wrong, nor have I "always" been so in the past. You just got a few "wrongo" points yourself, dumbfuck.

Now man up and admit it. Oh... that's right... I have to remember how your affliction was perfectly described not long ago. You cannot progress from criticism. You are stuck as a dumb 6th grader mentality ditz. The funny part is that you do not know just how transparent you are.

On the surface, the laptop looks like a simpler solution, but a mini- itx is a vastly easier box to maintain. Fixing laptops is a pain.

My mini-itx performs like you want, but it seems like too complicated a solution for your task. The PC is set up to be used as an "car PC". That is, it can run off of unregulated DC. The supply is sophisticated enough that it sends a start pulse to the mobo, just like somebody hit a start button.

I would call these people and explain what you want. I've been to the facility and they seem to know what they are doing.

I haven't done this, but it seems like you could make this PC use a large gel cell for battery backup. Just thinking out loud here, you drive the PC with a voltage higher than a charging gel cell. Use diodes to do the power switchover.

Download the manual on this power supply,

Note this line: If J6 is connected to the motherboard, M2-ATX-HV will also send a gratuitous =93ON pulse=94 to the motherboard right after power is first applied.

When I run this as a desktop, I don't have any start switch. I just apply power and it boots. My mobo is a dual core Atom with nvidia ion, probably overkill for what you need. The folk at mitxpc will probably know which mobo will boot like you need.

I can recommend this one:

We've shipped close to a thousand of them in our industrial PCs. Very low failure rate from the field. Uses a 965GME mobile chipset and CPU. They do have the power on after power fail option.

Many motherboards will not power up properly when you force the power on by grounding the PS-ON at the ATX connector. A work-around that we've used is a 555 that runs from +5SB that continuously pokes the PWR_ON pin on the motherboard until it sees +5V. I could send you our schematic if you want it. So simple you probably don't even need it...

No shit. Look at the ATX specification, dumbfuck.

Don't you mean "retarded sub-standard hack"?

I sure hope nobody was stupid enough to buy anything from you that got used in anything mission critical.

Oh boy!

Ya think!?

Oh, that's right... shit for brains can't think.

We've used mini-ITX mobos in embedded systems, and they work great. I'd prefer to habe the keybosrd and monitor all in one hadget, but I'll go with an ITX cube if I can't find a laptop or netbook with the auto-powerup capability.

Thanks. I will.

I don't actually want backup. I want auto restart when power is restored!

I've also heard of people hard-grounding the PS control line. An ITX box can do this.

Yup, that's probably what I'll do. Mini ITXs usually have real serial ports, which is a plus for me here.

John

Short the power on button. Put a 100uF electrolytics on the RESET line. Here you go.

Vladimir Vassilevsky DSP and Mixed Signal Design Consultant

All of the ASUS MOBOs I have owned have the option to restart after AC loss. That's how I have them all set, so you can kill the UPS or power center and have them reboot when you flip the switch, WITHOUT having to touch any switches on the system.

Hey, those Logicsupply people are good. A real person answered all my questions, have what I need, offered additional help, and the price is excellent. They do have a fanless system that will autoboot on powerup...

John

I seem to recall in the old days fitting a cap across the reset switch, which made the PC power up on its own when mains was applied... Is that an option for you ?

Don't know if that will work, and I'd have to invest in hardware just to find out. It's looking like an industrial Mini-ITX box is the way to go, with external keyboard and monitor.

John

Any Mac laptop I've seen has the option, too; they used Open Firmware, and now use EFI, rather than a BIOS, and the option is in the OS System Preferences pane for 'Energy Saver'.

You can buy a Macbook and put Windows on it. Ick. I don't know if the Windows has the software hooks to enable this feature, though.

Yea, we get the 9803's from them too. We never had a problem with LogicSupply, but MSI has discontinued the 9803.

I have a jetway board that I need to evaluate. Hope some one else comes out with a i7 dual lan ITX board.

Cheers

o d e

I'll second Logic Supply as a good vendor. I know someone with half a dozen of these in field use running knopix.

You're an idiot. It is not form factor specific, idiot. It is BIOS specific, AND POWER SUPPLY specific.

If they are fully compliant with the ATX spec, it will NOT perform as you state, and maybe your POS worked that way, but that does not mean that all ITX 'boards' do.

If you were any more stupid, I'd swear that you were Roy's little brother.

Learn to READ, you stupid f*ck. LAPTOP.

Yet another overpriced, underpowered total POS.

You will not, nor can not beat the Acer Revo I posted about.

It is $189.00 all day long, and has everything you need. and more.

The new ones are even better, albeit a bit pricyer.