Sawtooth and later power-on from keyboard?

[Schmoburger]

Quick question pertaining to AGP Powermac towers... Was the ability to use a keyboard power key removed from Mac towers when they started shipping with Pro Keyboards? I went to power on my Sawtooth with the power key on my lime keyboard instead of reaching down to hit the power button, however it was entirely unresponsive to it, and also is unresponsive to the ctrl+cmd+power key-combo that restarted older Mac's. It doesnt even flash up a shutdown dialog when booted (although that may be a case of Linux not recognising that function). It's like the power key doesnt exist.

I can't imagine Apple releasing a machine with a non-functional power key on the OEM keyboard, however in having said this, I am pretty certain the Sawtooth was released as one of the first machines to ship with a Pro Keyboard instead of the old compact keyboard that shipped with the B+W G3, Yikes G4, trayloader iMac and and the early slotoader iMacs. So in this case it would make sense for it to not need to recognise it... but did they really  go to all that trouble to design the Sawtooth board without it? It seems odd... Do the Sawtooth and subsequent models actually have no keyboard power-on functionality, or is my keyboard broken?

 

[SuperToaster]

Hi. I use a graphite keyboard from an iMac on my Sawtooth and the power button on the keyboard works to power on the machine. Kind of odd that they removed the feature later in its life.

 

[sstaylor]

My recollection from the time was that there were issues with powering usb with the computer off, or some such thing.  At least, that's what my Apple rep told me.

 

[rsolberg]

The power key feature breaks USB specification compliance and may have made Energy Star certification difficult for Apple due to increased consumption when "off". I can't remember which machine was the last of the line to support the button, but I do remember that it could function intermittently or not at all depending on the PRAM battery condition on some machines.

 

[Schmoburger]

The power key feature breaks USB specification compliance and may have made Energy Star certification difficult for Apple due to increased consumption when "off". I can't remember which machine was the last of the line to support the button, but I do remember that it could function intermittently or not at all depending on the PRAM battery condition on some machines

Ah that does make plenty of sense, and if PRAM battery charge is a contributing facctor to the functionality of the power key, well I am going to assume this is where my issue lies, as I believe the battery I put in is dead... only put it in temporarily to boot the machine and install Linux on it, as many New World machines wont power on without a PRAM battery installed (even if it is a dead one... so long as there is a battery there)

 

[unity]

I was going to ask about the PRAM battery.