Can I power on my T42 without a keyboard?

[TimsT61]

I picked up a T42 for a good price and I'm using it for a project. This is a bit of bad planning on my part though, since I didn't notice that I'd have to have the keyboard plugged in to turn on the power. Is there any way to turn on the laptop (not including wake on lan) without the keyboard? I wouldn't mind making some kind of jumper to plug into the keyboard plug, but I don't have any idea if this is possible, or how to do it. The search function on the site frustratingly blocks "common" words like keyboard and power, so I haven't had any luck searching for answers. I would really appreciate any help someone could offer. Thanks!

[Mike Blake]

The search function on the site frustratingly blocks "common" words
like keyboard and power, so I haven't had any luck searching for answers.
I would really appreciate any help someone could offer.

The search engine accepts * as a wild card, so you could enter the search as keyb* powe* to force it to look for those words.

But! There's a reason those words get ignored. You're slowing down the board while it digs up over 600 hits. You could narrow the range by only selecting a few of the sub-forums, like this one for your model, the general hardware forum, etc.

Or use the Thinkpads.com search via Google, and put the burden on their servers -- they can take it!

http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q ... as_qdr=all

[billp117]

Plug it into a dock and use the on switch.

[TimsT61]

Thanks for the search tips. Turns out the question has been asked a few times without much good answer.

I'm now looking for the pinout/wiring schematic for the docking port and/or docking station (a port replicator should work too, right? Or is there no difference between the two?).

Just plugging into a port replicator won't work - I want a bare board and as low a profile as I can get. I'd also rather not have to spend money on a port replicator. Worst case scenario, I guess, ebay to the rescue. I'm searching now, but if anyone has taken one apart, or knows where to find the schematic, I'd appreciate knowing about it.

If anyone else has any good ideas, I'd love to hear them.