Alternative to Power Button on 24" iMac?

[Paulyboy]

Hello everybody,

I just got a new 24" iMac and love it. The one downside is the power button being on the BACK of it (bottom left-hand corner on the back when facing it from front).

This is an issue because I'm disabled and can't reach around to press it. My Dad and I can probably rig a mouthstick I use to do the trick but I'm wondering if there's something better?

I can reach the power supply button, which turns everything on my desk off but I think I'd still need to press the iMac power button to turn the computer back on after turning the power supply back on. Plus I know turning it off that way is not the ideal thing to do.

I very rarely shut my iMac down, only when there's no other way out of a freeze. So it's not a huge deal although it would be nice to be able to get out of such rare freezes on my own.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

-PN

 

[Photo Monkey]

You could just send it to sleep at night, which uses very little power. A nice shortcut for this is Option+Cmd+Eject.

For starting up, you could tell your Mac to start up at say, 3 pm each day. Just Spotlight "startup time" and open Energy Saver to see how.

Hope that helps!

(Just re-read your post and it seems my answer probably isn't all that useful, but I'll leave it here anyway)

 

[Paulyboy]

You could just send it to sleep at night, which uses very little power. A nice shortcut for this is Option+Cmd+Eject.

For starting up, you could tell your Mac to start up at say, 3 pm each day. Just Spotlight "startup time" and open Energy Saver to see how.

Hope that helps!

(Just re-read your post and it seems my answer probably isn't all that useful, but I'll leave it here anyway)

Thanks for tip. Not exactly what I'm looking for but nice to know regardless.

-PN

 

[decksnap]

Any reason why you need to turn it off and on? You can just put it to sleep or let it go to sleep when you're done. It won't harm anything to let it stay on all the time.

Edit: OK I guess I should learn to read as well. sorry. If you're having freezes though, you've got a whole other problem. Your Mac should seldom if ever freeze to the point where you have to restart it.

 

[orangemacapple]

i believe you have an option under energy saver: restart automatically after power failure.

that way you could use your accessible power button to shut it off and on.

 

[Paulyboy]

i believe you have an option under energy saver: restart automatically after power failure.

that way you could use your accessible power button to shut it off and on.

Ahh now that sounds like it might work.

Thanks so much.

-PN

 

[Paulyboy]

Any reason why you need to turn it off and on? You can just put it to sleep or let it go to sleep when you're done. It won't harm anything to let it stay on all the time.

Edit: OK I guess I should learn to read as well. sorry. If you're having freezes though, you've got a whole other problem. Your Mac should seldom if ever freeze to the point where you have to restart it.

Well it actually hasn't froze once yet. My previous Mac, a G4 1 gig (Firewire 800), rarely had freezes as well in the four years I used it. I just wanted a way out of a freeze should one happen when I'm alone. It sounds like the energy saver suggestion above should do the trick.

-PN

 

[orangemacapple]

Ahh now that sounds like it might work.

Thanks so much.

-PN

i had often wondered about that setting. why would anybody want their computer to come back on after a power blip, because where there's one, there's usually one or more right after it and it would really screw things up.

now i see the reason for it. so, thank you, paulyboy

 

[tominated]

macs have always had the function to be turned on and off by the keyboard. you can probably find a keyboard with a button for it or something to put on an existing keyboard.

 

[Paulyboy]

macs have always had the function to be turned on and off by the keyboard. you can probably find a keyboard with a button for it or something to put on an existing keyboard.

I suppose the Apple keyboard that came with the iMac can't do this? If not, what keyboard can? Thanks.

-PN

 

[Paulyboy]

i had often wondered about that setting. why would anybody want their computer to come back on after a power blip, because where there's one, there's usually one or more right after it and it would really screw things up.

now i see the reason for it. so, thank you, paulyboy

I'm not certain that's *the* reason for it but it should suit my purposes anyways.

-PN

 

[LastLine]

Ahh now that sounds like it might work.

Thanks so much.

-PN

Agreed I was just going to suggest this - just be aware that it won't do your computer any favours so only use in an extreme yeah?

 

[mkrishnan]

macs have always had the function to be turned on and off by the keyboard. you can probably find a keyboard with a button for it or something to put on an existing keyboard.

I don't think that has been true for rather a long time... but anyways, probably the best thing to do is to keep it on and sleep it, as discussed above, with automatic restart on power loss... although you might indeed need a backup plan eventually....

 

[plinden]

You can use the remote to put it to sleep - press and hold the Play/Pause button.

 

[m-dogg]

I suppose the Apple keyboard that came with the iMac can't do this? If not, what keyboard can? Thanks.

-PN

Not sure if the computer would even respond to this in a freeze-up situation anyway...