Many thanks to everyone for the input. I appreciate the help very much.
I don't wish to appear to not believe folks, so please don't
misconstrue
as I went digging even further into the ATX PS specs,
and so those who have machines that are working are encouraged to tell
me I read it wrong <g>
It seems that most, maybe not all, but most of the WOL stuff only work
if the PC was shutdown from Windows, not from having its power pulled
from the wall. Near as I can tell, when windows shuts down the PS, if
it is properly configured to wake up, then it tells the PS, which keeps
a single power pin on the MB alive for the properly configured NIC to
stay awake, waiting for the proper packet to arrive and tell it to wake
up the PS. Basically, under these conditions, the PC is off, but the
power supply is still on. Can it get into this condition if the input
to the supply is cycled off and on, as in a power failure?
I think that as I read ATX v2.01 that a pin is now always live, so that
a NIC or a modem can be accessed no matter how the PC was shut off, but
I am not sure I have interpreted that spec correctly. We also don't
have any ATX 2.01 PS's for me to test with, so I am hoping someone may
offer a clue.
Now, I did not ask the question to get folks to answer so I could argue
I just asked, and then spent the day digging through the docs and
now am a bit confused and want to learn how this works.
Those who use the wake up feature, does it work if you pull the plug,
and simulate a power loss, or only when you properly shut down windows?
I am inclined to think the latter is the only thing that works, in that
if the power supply is cut off, the BIOS really has nothing more to say
until the PC boots again.
Can't say it enough, and will repeat it out of paranoia <g> I didn't
bring it up to argue it, I am just not able to try a dozen computers
to see how each one really works, so I am throwing out what I know, to
compare to those who are wiser, and may well be using this feature
successfully. Several folks said that they are, but does that include a
power loss at the input to a supply, as well as a windows shutdown?
Thanks a lot for the help,
Mark