Computer must self-reboot after power outage

[perpetuum-mobile]

I need my security camera system PC to self-reboot after the frequent power outages (which can be longer than what a battery-backup can handle).
I had a motherboard which did that, but it kicked the bucket.
It was a BIOS controlled option on that motherboard, but none of my other PC's have this option in the BIOS.
Is this a certain BIOS specific or a motherboard specific feature?
Either way, which brands/models I should look for?
Googling the title of this post did not help.
Btw what is the "official" name for this feature?
Thank you

[wige]

There really is no set name for this function, although it is often referred to as auto power on. Many motherboards do not offer this functionality. Although most motherboard BIOS come from the same American Megatrends or IBM BIOS, this particular feature is very hardware dependent, as the motherboard needs to have a way to tell the difference between a power failure and the computer being shut down, crashing, or being reset.

Typically, I would recommend checking with the motherboard manufacturer. Manufacturers that make motherboards intended for business and server applications should have a few models that have this feature, and their support personnel should be able to point you to the appropriate board. I would start with IBM (my last IBM board had the option) and ASUS.

There is another, hardware based, alternative. You can hack the system to force it to always boot if there is power. Note, however, that this could cause the system to never be able to be shut down. What you would do is ground the green wire (pin 14) from the power supply. For most ATX motherboards, this will constantly try to boot the system. You can learn more here: Auto restart after power outage. Note that any such modification to the power system is inherently risky, and may damage the system, the operator, or the person making the modification, so this should only be attempted by someone who is fully qualified to service computer and electrical hardware.

[explorador]

Back in the old days, the on-off button was not a single push, it was mechanical so a computer turned on would always be on even if the lights went off and on again.(It would automatically be on again) Now the buttons are digital, so it won't work again.

Depending on your hardware... check for any on-off software. You could set a list of ON options for each hour. If the computer was already on nothing would happen, but if it was off, it would turn on.

I tried this with a Macintosh, it turned on for some task including backups and then turn off (on weekends) but on weekdays would turn on and stay on so I would come to work finding the OS already booted.

Other than that you would have to hack the hardware.

[wige]

explorador, the method you are mentioning, which is software driven, I believe would not work in this case. From the implementations I have seen, those software applications actually prevent the computer from shutting down completely, putting the system into standby (in Windows Vista this would be called Hibernate or Sleep mode). This might be done at the kernel level, or at the OS level. Basically, when you shut down the computer, the OS would log off the current user as normal, copy its data to RAM or the hard drive, and disable the monitor, hard drives and most of the components and enter a low power state until the time came to enter a running state to perform the backups. In these cases, if the power was lost, the system would not automatically turn back on. This requires a hardware setting.

[explorador]

Wige, yes it would require hardware hacking.

Aa for the Macintosh example, it was the days of the Power PC hardware. The Macintosh were truly off (like a TV with remote control, that kind of stand by) but no hibernation.

The OS was off. When power on the mac had to load the whole OS again, not waking up from sleep or hibernation... it was fully off just as your tv. No idea on the pc world, never had that need again.

While I have no experience in the following, why not "wake up on lan?" your UPS (just like mine) could shutdown or put to sleep the machine and then a signal from the network could turn it on. There is a function called wake on lan (WOL). You could set up a computer to send signals via network to wake it up.

Also, check this: lifsoft dot com, it mentions rebooting and shut down, along with hibernation (not only one option).

[edhan]

I do believe that most motherboard (as far as I can see) have the function to boot up after a power failure in the CMOS setup. Yes, you can use the Wake UP on lan when the signal comes from the router. I tried it a long time ago, it works.