# Turning on a Mac Pro from keyboard



## dbonsall (Sep 25, 2006)

I just bought a Mac Pro.  The keyboard that came with the system does not have a power button on it, like my previous Macs.  Is there a way to turn the system on from the keyboard, or will I have to push the button on the front of the computer every time?  I already found out that pressing the control and the eject key will allow me to bring up the dialog to choose between shutdown, restart, and sleep.  Is there some similar sequence to turn the computer on?

Thanks,

Dennis


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## eric2006 (Sep 25, 2006)

Any keystroke will wake up your Mac, if properly configured. However, I don't think that you can turn it on from the new keyboards. They simply are not built to do it. If it really bugs you, you could try looking for an old keyboard with a power button on eBay.


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## simbalala (Sep 25, 2006)

eric2006 said:


> Any keystroke will wake up your Mac, if properly configured. However, I don't think that you can turn it on from the new keyboards. They simply are not built to do it. If it really bugs you, you could try looking for an old keyboard with a power button on eBay.


I doubt that would work.

When the machine is well and truly off there is no USB power and the old keyboard would need to be connected via an ADB to USB convertor. If I'm not mistaken it was an ADB feature which allowed the keyboard power up.


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## eric2006 (Sep 25, 2006)

The old (not ADB old) Apple USB keyboards with power buttons did turn on the computer, granted you had a compatible mac. Seeing as they do not make those USB keyboards anymore, it's doubtful that the new macs will support the feature (but worth a try if you have one lying around..). Apparently, you needed some kind of special circuitry. 
The computer still draws a small amount of power when it is off, enough to recognize that the power button was pressed and do something about it. The Macs that boot up with a keyboard must have also provided enough power to the keyboard so that you could also start up from that.


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## dbonsall (Sep 25, 2006)

I did try the older USB keyboard, but no dice.  I have to assume that the circuitry missing in the iMacs referenced in your link are also missing from my Mac Pro.

Seems like Apple keeps removing power control and reset features from its keyboards.  You used to be able to force a reboot by pressing the Control-Command-Power keys on the old ADB keyboards.  Even the Mac SE (maybe SE/30) could be turned on from its keyboard.

Oh, well.  Its not that big of a deal; I'll get used to it.

Thanks for the responses.

Dennis


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## Lt Major Burns (Sep 26, 2006)

why are you turning it off, if you don't mind me asking?


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## dbonsall (Sep 26, 2006)

It's not that I'm turning it off on a regular basis.  But, eventually it will be turned off for some reason or other.  I was just suprised when I first tried to turn it on from the keyboard and could not.  I figured out the trick for bringing up the shutdown/restart/sleep dialog box; I thought there might be a similar trick for turning it on.  I was not expecting that Apple had removed that capability - it's been a feature on Macs dating back almost 20 years.

Dennis


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## fryke (Sep 26, 2006)

I guess there's only _one_ reason why Apple has removed this feature over time: They expect us to let the machines sleep instead of shutting them down. It's probably a "gentle force" decision. "If the power button's out of the way, they'll put the machine to sleep instead, because waking it up again _can_ be done from the keyboard." This is, of course, environmentally bad. Reminds me of Greenpeace's push of today: http://www.greenpeace.org/apple/ ... I hope they're sued by Apple because of the obvious copyright infringement.


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## Lt Major Burns (Sep 26, 2006)

i hope now that apple actually listen, it is quite shocking how short a life an ipod has.  if 14m ipods were sold last xmas, and they all have about a years life, then that's 14,000,000 ipods being chucked away... it's quite bad when you think about that.  when you hear about how much power electronics take up when they're on standby, it's hard to justify leaving my mac to sleep overnight, every night.  it's more through convenience than anything else... i think apple should concentrate on a way of turning the power completley off, an intellingent shut-down, a much quicker boot time, perhaps using flash memory to boot from etc, i'm not sure....  but just a departure from sleep mode into something far more 'off'.


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## eric2006 (Sep 26, 2006)

Sleep mode might not be so bad for power usage..

Apple iMac G5 w/built in 20" LCD screen

Copying files

*110 watts*

Computer sleep

*3.5 watts*

PCs use much more power on sleep.. but there's always room for improvement

http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/computers.html


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## chimpanzee (Oct 24, 2006)

http://adesso.us/product_details.asp?dept_id=107&pf_id=KA33AKB-805MAC

This Adesso USB keyboard for Mac has a Power key.  Try it & see if it works.

I have an Adesso USB keyboard, & I can powerup my desktop G4/667.  I'm waiting for my quad G5 to come back from repair, to see if this keyboard will also power it up from the keyboard.


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