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    Looking for Laptop with WOL and/or Poweron options in BIOS

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by mudtoe, Dec 22, 2009.

  1. mudtoe

    mudtoe Newbie

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    Hi folks:

    I'm looking for a reasonably priced laptop that a good wake on lan capability, and/or a fully configurable BIOS that allows you to set power on options after a power failure. I know that the latter is somewhat unlikely in a laptop considering that they have a battery in them, but the former should be available.

    I'm looking to replace an aging IBM Thinkpad A31p that I have in a vacation home. That model has full wake on lan capability. I use the laptop as a backup location for files in my main home, as a backup email server cache, and as a proxy server. I have an internet controllable power strip that allows me to reset the laptop if something goes wrong, or the power goes out (I leave the battery uninstalled, but there is a small UPS there because of the wild voltage swings in Florida during the summer thunder storms). I can wake the laptop remotely from a powered off state following a power outage.

    I tried a very reasonably priced HP dv4 model that they had on sale at Best Buy the last time I was down there ($450 for a 4gb model with a dual core processor), but unfortunately the bios was a joke and had virtually no configurable settings, and although the ethernet nic supposedly supported wake on lan, it would only work if the laptop didn't fully power down (i.e. a soft shutdown where the power wasn't interrupted). If the power was interrupted the nic would not come online afterward (i.e. no link lights on either the nic or the router it was connected to). The A31p worked fine in that regard, but I'm having some other issues with it that may cause me to replace it, as it's from 2002 and probably not worth putting money into.

    I know I could get a desktop model, but the space where all the equipment is sitting is on the floor in the bottom of a small closet behind the wall with the TV on it, and I don't think there would be room as the amp and DVR for the TV are in there too; also heat could be an issue in a confined space like that, and the laptops tend to produce less. I don't care what O/S would be on the laptop as I'm going to replace it with linux and vmware server anyway.

    Suggestions welcome.

    mudtoe
     
    mudtoe, Dec 22, 2009
    #1