Turn on PC with Alexa or Siri if you have the setup!

[ctkidd]

Hello everyone, New to the forums and just wanted to share with you how I can turn on the PC with echo dot or Siri if you have an iPhone or Apple Watch and somewhere to run homebridge. I am always messing around with automation stuff around the house hence the reason I registered to see what you guys are up to and share my stuff. Don't know if I can post links to youtube videos here, so mods feel free to take it down if you must.  https://youtu.be/L05H88RWd2Q

[mike27oct]

My PC is never off while I am awake, and I just touch it to take it out of sleep mode on my way to get some coffee. so . . .

[ctkidd]

That's cool too. Everyone has different needs and situations in which they try to implement automation which in the end is not really necessary if you think about it. In my case this is my gaming computer which is not on at all times, I use a Mac for mostly everything. When I get ready to play I just turn on the PC with any one of my echos before I get to my room. But like you said if you keep your computer on at all times then this doesn't make any sense really.

[tuicemen]

I use wake-on-lan. Haven't tested with Alexa but I'm sure using the HA-Bridge it would be possible.

[ctkidd]

I used WOL for a bit with my raspberry pi sending the wake commands but I used to get a lot of unwanted wakes. I'd be sleeping and my PC would just turn on all of a sudden. Don't know if I had something configured wrong but I just got tired of it and looked for other alternatives.

[renegade600]

I have a wemo switch that turns my computer on/off.  no need for anything fancy. 

[ctkidd]

Yup that's what I use. In the video I just show how to setup PC Bios to work with the wemo because just plugging it in doesn't work.

[renegade600]

Yup that's what I use. In the video I just show how to setup PC Bios to work with the wemo because just plugging it in doesn't work.

that was all I did, just plugged it in.  did not have to go into the bios, did not have to go into power management. 

[ctkidd]

You must of had the setting enabled by default because just turning the switch on doesn't actually turn the PC power supply on if it's in a complete shutdown state. I tried just plugging it in and when I turned the switch on it did nothing.

[renegade600]

You must of had the setting enabled by default because just turning the switch on doesn't actually turn the PC power supply on if it's in a complete shutdown state. I tried just plugging it in and when I turned the switch on it did nothing.

I have wemo on three different computers and never had to change settings.  to me it was no different than using a surge protector to turn the computer on/off when I used to do that years ago.  Personally I would advise to try it without messing with any settings on the computer first.  then if they have problems try your suggestion. 

that a thought, what is your setting in the power management as to what happens when you press your power button?

[mike27oct]

I don't quite see how immediately giving a PC power also presses the actual ON switch of the computer.

[ctkidd]

I don't quite see how immediately giving a PC power also presses the actual ON switch of the computer.

That's what I don't understand from renegades's post. There is no way at least that I know of, where you can just plug in the computer and turn it on with a wemo switch. The wemo just cuts/provides power at the outlet, it does not actually turn the computer on. That's why I had to turn on the "restore from ac power loss" option on, put pc to sleep and kill power to the wemo with app or alexa in this case, then turning the wemo on with alexa which the computer sees as a restore from ac loss and turns it on. Don't know maybe I'm missing something.

[renegade600]

I don't quite see how immediately giving a PC power also presses the actual ON switch of the computer.

it is the same as a bulb.  if it is already on, the wemo switch will work but if you turn it off by the switch, then like the bulb, the wemo switch will not work. 

that was why I asked what their setting was in power management for the power switch.  maybe that is where the difference may be. 

as I already said, I done nothing extra to make it work.  the only thing different than (i think) you and most others here is I run linux mint. 

[ctkidd]

I don't quite see how immediately giving a PC power also presses the actual ON switch of the computer.

it is the same as a bulb.  if it is already on, the wemo switch will work but if you turn it off by the switch, then like the bulb, the wemo switch will not work. 

that was why I asked what their setting was in power management for the power switch.  maybe that is where the difference may be. 

as I already said, I done nothing extra to make it work.  the only thing different than (i think) you and most others here is I run linux mint.

Ahhh that might be it. I don't have a Linux box but maybe there is something in the way Linux manages power at the button itself. I run Windows for gaming and activating that setting in Bios was the only way for me to make it work. I tried keeping my PC on and then shuttign the wemo switch down but one, it doesn't receive a proper shutdown command and would give me the "windows did not shutdown properly" error when turning it back on, and two, it would not turn back on just switching on the wemo. So it's gotta be a Linux setting in your system that's doing it. Interesting!

[renegade600]

I don't quite see how immediately giving a PC power also presses the actual ON switch of the computer.

it is the same as a bulb.  if it is already on, the wemo switch will work but if you turn it off by the switch, then like the bulb, the wemo switch will not work. 

that was why I asked what their setting was in power management for the power switch.  maybe that is where the difference may be. 

as I already said, I done nothing extra to make it work.  the only thing different than (i think) you and most others here is I run linux mint.

Ahhh that might be it. I don't have a Linux box but maybe there is something in the way Linux manages power at the button itself. I run Windows for gaming and activating that setting in Bios was the only way for me to make it work. I tried keeping my PC on and then shuttign the wemo switch down but one, it doesn't receive a proper shutdown command and would give me the "windows did not shutdown properly" error when turning it back on, and two, it would not turn back on just switching on the wemo. So it's gotta be a Linux setting in your system that's doing it. Interesting!

I have not tried it with a windows computer yet.  may try later today.  personally as long as it did not try doing chkdsk after improperly shutdown,  I would ignore the improperly shutdown message  and continue.   It would be no different than when we used to use surge protectors to power on the computer.