Inspiron on/off switch

**bard329** · 12-20-2008, 04:36 PM

Hey guys.. quick question... the power switch circuit board on my inspiron 8100 looks like this

its the leftmost button. how would you recommend I wire this up so i can extend a wire to my dash to startup/shut down the laptop?

Or is a carnetix controller a better investment? i keep looking at all the power supplies and startup controllers and most of them have ATX connectors... are they also plug and play with laptops or would i have to do some of my own wiring to get it to work?

**WarDriver** · 12-29-2008, 03:57 PM

Check the link in my sig...it might help.

**bard329** · 12-31-2008, 11:12 AM

Thanks, but the switch you have in your link is different from what my laptop has. Any idea how i should wire this up? I tried looking for a dock, but i can't find any for this particular laptop just yet. Should i go for a universal dock like the Targus?

**WarDriver** · 12-31-2008, 03:41 PM

different switch but same theory - locate the physical switch, pull out the mulit-meter and check for connectivity - solder and fabricate from there. I would stay away from the targus universals. We had a few at work and I was not impressed - everything was pushed over USB - a normal dock would be a physical extension of the actual hardware.

**FusionFanatic** · 01-06-2009, 10:03 PM

the Dell docking station for Inspiron 8100 is model# PRX part# 7345U.

I have one that I already wired the power button on (my old carPC was a Dell Inspiron 8000, which uses the same docking station). I gave the 8000 to a friend, but I still have the docking station. I was going to put it on eBay, but if you're interested I'll sell it to you for $10 plus actual shipping cost. PM me if you're interested.

here's a pic of the docking station when I had it installed in my trunk (ignore the wire mess

)