Thread: Need help with X31 port replicator power switch

Hello everyone, I got a quick hardware issue that I need some help with...

I've been using my ThinkPad X31 as a carpc and now that I have everything hooked up, I'm thinking of keeping it as a semi-permanent box rather than building a new mini-itx box for the car. I purchased a port replicator for it that gives me pretty much everything I need to make the box "removable" (which is a plus), but it brings up the problem of switching the box "ON"

The port replicator has serial/USB/audio/keyboard/mouse/etc ports in it, so all I really have to do is "jack" the laptop into it and that's it... I figure if I secure this in the trunk well enough, I can move everything back there (XM Direct, USB hub, etc) and just run power/audio and the lilliput video/USB cables into the trunk and call it a day.

The problem that I have is that the port replicator has an on/off switch that I need to use to power the laptop on. Powering off is taken care of by either Windows or manually via Frodo, but to turn the box on I have to hit the power switch on the port replicator itself. I took the whole thing apart yesterday thinking that I'd wire a momentary switch from Radio Shack into it, but I found some kind of 5-pin looking power button in place instead of just a simple setup.

I can take some pictures of the thing later on today and see if anybody can help me out here... it's got 3 pins at the top and 2 at the bottom (numbered, 1-3-4, 2-5 IIRC), so I'm not really sure what kind of wiring shennanigans would have to take place so I can run a couple of wires to a temporary switch in the front and use that to power the box on/off.

Any ideas? I don't necessarily want this to power on automatically with the car (but I could live with that), but anything is better than having to turn the laptop on by hand. I've looked at the options as far as controllers and what-not from the power supplies folder, and while attractive, I don't really need/want to buy any extra hardware... all I want is just to wire a switch into the existing switch so I can power the thing up from the driver's seat.

Thanks in advance for any ideas... I'll have the pictures up this afternoon.