The other morning, as I was enjoying my usual cup of tea, my wife told me that her PC wouldn’t switch on. At first, I thought it was the PSU (power supply), and I even tried numerous power cables because sometimes even these can fail. But then I remembered that the power switch had been behaving strangely, requiring two or three presses to get things going.
I had built the PC myself after buying a very nice Darkflash DLM 22 case a couple of years ago, so this was rather odd. The PSU checked out, and I was able to start it with an on/off power cable I use for such purposes by connecting it to the front panel motherboard pin-outs, so it had to be the case power switch button.
When pressing the button, I always noticed that it just needed a slight touch, unlike most PC power buttons, which have much more travel, so it had to be a microswitch. So I located the inside top panel controller, which houses the power switch, reset, USB, and audio, and managed to separate it from the case. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any photos of the panel, but the large button simply unclips and pops up through the top, following which, the microswitch was easy to pull out the same way.
I then connected the microswitch to the power pin-out of the motherboard and pressed the switch, but nothing happened, so I sprayed some isopropyl on the switch, blasted it with my handheld air blower, and the PC came to life. However, I’m a little dubious about the switch, even though it’s now working correctly, so I’ve located a shop that stocks them just in case.
If you’re wondering why I chose this particular case, it’s because the tempered glass side panel is hinged, making it easier to get at the interesting parts without having to remove four retaining screws and risk dropping the glass panel. That’s never happened to me, but there’s always a first time.
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Nice find Marc and thanks for sharing, Mindblower!