What Should the Default Action of Hitting a Power Button Be?

[Rob Williams]

While working on a couple of projects on my PC last week, one of my cats decided it'd be as good a time as any to hop up onto the chassis and rest his foot on the power button. The chassis I use, Cooler Master's CM Storm Sniper, is quite good in many ways, but if I could change one thing, it'd be the top-mounted power button. Not long after the cat jumped up on the PC, it was turned off... and some work was lost.

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Read the rest of our post and then discuss it here!

 

[Doomsday]

Lol! Well the HAF-X has a slider to cover the power/reset buttons! w00t!

Remember when keyboards had the power/reset button thingy? It was such a pain in the butt, i or some friend always used to end up shutting my PC down!

 

[Psi*]

In your case to avoid further cat-tastropies, maybe sleep mode? Or would that be cat-nap?

 

[Optix]

The Cooler Master Ammo 533 had it right all along...

 

[DarkStarr]

Meh, Windows XP for all who have forgotten HAS a prompt. Windows Vista and 7 lost it to become more "sleek".

 

[TheCrimsonStar]

Meh, Windows XP for all who have forgotten HAS a prompt. Windows Vista and 7 lost it to become more "sleek".

but nevertheless if you hold down the button it WILL shut the power off regardless of the prompt.

 

[DarkStarr]

That's something controlled in the bios I believe.

 

[Kougar]

Haha, sorry Rob! Sounds like a typical feline trying to be helpful though... or maybe it was mad at you for not paying it enough attention.

That had to be my single-largets peeve with the HAF 932 case. The top mounted power button was incredibly easy for anything to press and just pressing a corner would be enough to trigger the button. I've had a few unintended power offs that way. As Doomsday said, that's exactly why the HAF-X has a cover over the panel now!

That's something controlled in the bios I believe.

Yep. The button can be configured from the power options menu, but it can be fully disabled from the BIOS too. When my brother was a toddler he loved electronics and could spot buttons and controls a mile away. He especially enjoyed testing them to see what they would do...