I am considering the Comet Pro KVM to allow a group of remote Win 11 PC’s (mix of desktop and laptop models) running surveillance software with some locations experiencing repeated power outages.
I understand that the so-called Windows WoL functionality (even when the PC motherboard BIOS allows start up power adjustments) does not work to start a PC after a power outage.
Literature indicates that a Comet Pro on a PC equipped with the GL ATX card for desktops or the Fingerbot device for laptops can remotely restart a PC that has been shutdown by a power outage once the power is restored,
Could someone with greater knowledge and experience confirm or correct this understanding?
Usually the BIOS settings include a setting for power outage (On, Off, Prior State). That is entirely separate from WoL. Among other things, that is how you can use a wifi switch to turn a PC on.
The problem here after talking to several ASUS techs is that their laptops offer virtually no power settings (other than battery-use mode) either in the BIOS or the Win11 settings. The stock answer is that the battery will power the laptop after a power outage - no thought given to an outage that drains the battery. That’s why I ended up locating the GLinet KVM device.
Is there a way to use your wifi switch suggestion in this circumstance where no power setting options appear to be available.
I missed the part about laptops. Some business class laptops with docks will wake on AC restore, but most laptops don’t. In my limited experience, wifi cards don’t WOL either. You might be able to do something with a SwitchBot.
Are you able to just move to a mini pc instead of using a laptop?
You could add a UPS system or a battery unit (like a Jackery) as the power input source so that the mini can survive power outages that might solve your issue.
It would also have the added benefit of BIOS options to turn on power loss.
To the point of Asus, their support tech is frankly useless and always has been. They are only there to write warranty tickets since their product quality assurance has never been good.
I bet that your laptop does have power on ac state in your bios. I don't have an Asus laptop anymore but I am certain it is there. Feel free to DM me screenshots of the laptop bios and I can help you identify it.
ASUS techs have confirmed that their laptops do not have any power settings in the BIOS or even in the Win11 system; apparently they consider batteries sufficient.
In my case, some of the remote locations with laptops is the the power outages can last for hours, well beyond laptop battery life. So what happens is a power outage shuts down the ATT Gateway, NAS and other equipment, and the laptop runs out of power in a few hours. When power is restored, the Gateway, NAS and other Linux items automatically restart but the plugged-in but dead battery laptop requires a manual restart.
I understand that the Comet Pro with Fingerbot will allow a remote restart of the dead battery laptop. I was wondering if you know of any other alternatives.
Since the laptop cannot be fitted with an ATX board, the finger bot might be the only solution.
However, I must emphasize that Fingerbot requires you to stick it onto your laptop . Unless you plan to use the laptop remotely all the time, this might be hard to accept.
Wait–if we are talking about a few hours there could be a way of waking a laptop from sleep using Task Scheduler. My laptop can remain in sleep for several days. If I put the laptop on a UPS it could be in sleep for weeks. Task Scheduler could wake it at particular times.
For example, you could set Task Scheduler to wake the laptop every morning at 6am. Then, you could have a PowerShell script that checks whether AC power is restored, and if it is not, then have the laptop go back to sleep. As long as there was enough power to maintain the sleep state through each outage, you could recover remote access.
Thanks, elorimer, much appreciated. That sounds worth pursuing.
I’ve not used Task Scheduler before, but a brief scan shows a number of power-related options in the Create Task>Conditions tab.
In the Create>Actions tab, would I use the Programs option for the daily power check? What programs or other choices would be used for AC power checks and sleeping?
Also, how would this daily check be coordinated with regular AC power on usage? If I leave the laptop on AC power for normal remote access most of the time, when an outage occurs, I assume that the laptop would switch to battery power and continue to operate until the battery was drained (assuming AC outage outlasts the battery life)? If so, would an hourly task to check for AC power and if not, sleep and recheck in an hour be appropriate?
Thoughts and suggestions will be appreciated. Best
Thanks for the input, chessset5. I agree with both of your comments: ASUS tech support is pretty low grade, and what I should be using for these systems is a Linux mini-PC that can auto-restart after power outages. I’ve looked at UPS systems but the life span after outage specs seemed too short. Best,
Minmie, the Fingerbot does seem like the best solution for Win11 laptops. The ones in this role are stationary and used for remote access to several Win11-based programs, so I’ll give it a try.
The idea would be that you would want to access the laptop remotely only when it is on AC, and reserve the battery (and UPS) to sustain it in sleep until AC comes back on. If the battery is dead, nothing in W11 or BIOS will save you. You could go the fingerbot route, which would make it work like a desktop. That is not expensive.
So you have a three step process:
W11 knows if the laptop is on AC or battery. So you set the power profile to never sleep when on AC (or sleep after an hour, etc). Set it to sleep the screen after a minute and the OS after five minutes when on battery. As long as you have AC, you have remote access. If you are on battery, you probably can’t wake it up, but if you can, you can use it that way.
Set the Task Scheduler to wake up the laptop on a schedule. As long as the battery lasts, W11 will do this. The schedule determines how long you can eke it out on battery during an outage.
Set up a powerscript that runs when the laptop wakes up. The script checks if it is on AC; if it is, it exits, because you are in step 1. If it is not on AC, it sleeps the laptop after five minutes or so. During that window you can connect and change it up if you need to. AI will generate that script for you.
I have computers in two locations that I do not have physical access to. In one location (US), when the power goes out, it usually is out for a week or more. The power is filthy, with many outages of a second or so, so it is on a UPS. With no physical access I need to plan for the worst. In the other location (Iberia), the power is rock steady and outages have been a maximum of 10 hours (the cold start period). Most are desktops and it is straightforward to manage that. The others are servers and IPMI takes care of that. But if they were laptops, I could see changing the #1, #2, #3 parameters differently. If I had physical access to one place or the other, the plan could be different.
Thanks, chessset5. I’ve been through all of the Asus BIOS settings - nothing on power.
There are limited power settings inside Win11 Start>MyAsus, but they are just battery use adjustments.
What I’ve found generally with Windows is that it is constantly changing things so that by the time a problem and solutions are listed online, new changes void those solutions.
Since a QNAP NAS is running surveillance cameras at the remote locations (and can be remotely accessed through the QNAP cloud system and recovers automatically after power outages), I think a better approach might be to scrap the Win11 laptops (which primarily run a few other Win11-based programs such as powerline light and switch controllers) and just install a Win11 VM into the NAS to run those other programs.