Turning notebook on with lid closed?

I have an Inspiron 1720, and when I'm sitting at my desk I use an external monitor, keyboard and mouse. I'd love to be able to switch it on without opening it up, as opening and closing it just to turn it on seems bad for the hinge and a nuisance, and if I just leave it open it collects a lot of dust. The only thing I can find is an option in the BIOS to automatically turn it on at a specific time (whether I want it or not) each day. Anyone know of a way I could turn it on without opening it up?

 

I think you need a docking station for that.

 

theres an option to turn on the notebook by pressing specific combinations of keys, right click of mouse etc......i dont know the specific instructions on how to do it though...jus explore the BIOS!

 

hi i'm new to this forum, and i hope i'm even posting this right...i'm not a computer person, but i'm trying to learn........LOL.......anyways....i have an hp pavillion 9000 series laptop, and have had trouble with it, and i've recently had to take it to circuit city to have it recovered, because the disks they have you make from their site, had a corrupt file on it??.....anyways, long story short....i can't get the darn thing to go thru a backup, and when i close the lid, now, it appears to sign me out of messenger....should i have it in "sleep" , "hibernate" or "do nothing" when i close the lid, so that i won't get signed out??

 

whilst not really relevant to the problem, you should have it set on "Do Nothing" with the lid closed to prevent you getting signed out.

Sleep and Hibernate are both ways of the computer turning itself off, essentially, and will crash / sign you out of messenger.

referring to the TC's problem, the laptop's designed to open and close all the time, so i wouldn't have thought that it'd be bad for the hinge at all, though be wary of any heat from the laptop rising up into the screen ( especially if your laptop has fans in the top part near the screen, like my Fujitsu does).

only thing i can suggest is if you have a Express-card remote (one that clips into the side of your laptop) you might be able to get that to turn it on.. but even then, that's more hassle than simpley opening and closing the thing in the first place.

 

If you want to do this with the laptop closed at all times, the easiest way is with a docking station. However, if you don't mind it hibernating instead of powering all the way down, you may be able to change the sleep preferences to affect how it produces a "wake" command. (This would probably start with setting it to "Do Nothing" with the lid closed, and then setting the hibernate/sleep options to engage after a set amount of idle time.)

If you can't find a way to wake on mouse or keyboard action with the default settings and existing software, there may be a 3rd party software option to expand your options. But if you want a hard power down and a full reboot, you'll need a docking station or content yourself with opening the lid.

 

1720 can't use a "docking station" there is no port connector for it. You could use a bluetooth mouse/keyboard combo and the VGA connector though. That is assuming you have BT or want to buy a dongle.

I also wouldnt recommend just shutting the lid and forgetting about it. That will allow all the thermal buildup (that is rising from beneath the keyboard btw) to land smack on the screen. While LCD's are durable I can't imaging what constant heat being applied to them would do to the internal micro transistors over time. You might just flip it all the way open as far as you can and just lay something soft over the screen instead.

 

I would just hibernate it or put the laptop to sleep if you have issues with the startup time. Especially hibernate. Your laptop will resume just fine if you unplug the battery and plug it back in.

 

Thanks all, I turn everything off at the wall at night, so I don't really want the PC to be using any power or come on unexpectantly.

No fans on top, only fan is underneath. I've stuck some cheap stick-on feet to the original feet, which picks the notebook up a little bit, I found this allows MUCH more air in and keeps the notebook very cool (I run I8kfanGUI as well). I'll devise a more elegant solution to lift it up a bit later I figure.

I'll look into what docking options I might have, although that might be excessive just to turn it on. They should just have some kind of option where a media button on the front could turn it on, or plugging it into the AC adapter, or something. It seems to have a IR port window at the front, anyone know if anything is behind that? I don't suppose that could turn it on anyway.