Testing a MDD logic board on the Bench

[GrizzlyKiwi]

I got given a dual 1.25ghz G4 MDD that has been through the wars and the case is all bent.. basically its stuffed but the insides might still be good. Is there a way I can power on the system on the bench without a power button? can I short some pins on the logic board like you can on a standard PC? The power supply is stuffed as well so I had planned to convert an atx one to do the testing.

 

[dust bunny]

I have done this, using an MDD power supply, I found a PSU pinout online and identified which two pins I need to bridge to switch it on. As long as you have an ATX power supply with the right converter cable, or the PSU's had it's cable modded correctly, it should work fine!
If your planning on powering it up with processor card installed, and a GPU installed, remember to have the CPU heatsink resting in place (with thermal paste), and you can hook up a hard drive on the bench for a full boot (I did).

 

[GrizzlyKiwi]

Thanks mate that's great to hear i will give this a go! Do you just bridge the ps on and ground?

 

[carbide]

Couldn’t you also power it up with an appropriate keyboard with power button? Or is there something there that would ordinarily require the hardware button present?

 

[dust bunny]

Thanks mate that's great to hear i will give this a go! Do you just bridge the ps on and ground?

Yes, exactly that.
Only tricky bit, was finding which wire was the ps on wire, but I found a pinout online.