Optiplex 3070 motherboard pinouts e16 - External Power Switch Project

Question

I am trying to figure out a way to install an external power switch for a Dell Micro 3070 (or any MICRO model to be honest).

I've been scouring the motherboard and there is nothing labeled Power Switch. On small formfactors and desktops, the power switch is on the front panel and there is an easy header that the front panel switch and light go to. Not so much on the Micro.

There is the obvious board mounted switch that has been mentioned several times. But there is a set of 4 pads right behind it. Ideas anyone?

I've also posted the picture of e16. It oddly says "ROM RECOVERY" next to it, but I believe rom recovery is ther removal of the jumper in the middle of the JMP1 header.

The JMP1 Header. Has a couple other pins there. Anyone know what those are for?

I doubt these are useful, but on the right side of the pcie slot there is a set of larger pads with a + next to it. Also the Intrusion Detection pads which don't seem to be installed on the 3070 model (probably only a 7070 feature)

Lastly is p12 in the back left. No ide on that one either, but if anyone has information, we can all share, know and go Oh.... uh huh... and move on with our day.

As you can see in one of the pictures this is for a VERY important Enterprise project....Getting a Batocera Linux Arcade machine going. :D. Yes, i can shut it down from inside the system, yes, i can set the BIOS to power on when power is enabled, but hey, if you can build a power on switch into it, it's just that much more fun.

So have at it fans, geeks, and testers... I have spent 4 hours today searching for this and now it is time to go play some games.

Help if you can. Comment if you'd like. Throw rocks if you have nothing better to do.

Michael in NOVA

redxps630 · Answer

in this motherboard pic of 3070 MFF at bottom right it says POWER BTN which stands for button. it is also shown on your last pic.

The system LED is integrated on the Power button.

if I understand correctly the new MFF button is integrated on the oem motherboard, like those pwr button on ASUS board that user can directly press to turn on board. there are no pw +/- pins to wire an external sw.

ahoffman79 · Answer

I wanted to have an external switch for long time. Finally had some time to look into it as there's no pinout for an external switch and the main PW is fixed. I had a Optiplex 3070 micro laying around and was looking at the mainboard.
The pins at your arrow with questionmark don't do anything.
So I have removed the mainboard from the housing (by removing CPU cooler and so on).
I have turned around the mainboard, connected power and kept CPU fan connected. Then using the multimeter and testing with a external power button. When it turned on ofcourse disconnecting powercord because I don't want to boot it up or keep it on too long without any cooling.

Then I found out the pins to connect the external power switch while keeping the original fixed one working.
It means soldering two wires and having the pins connected to the external button. This way you can also disconnect the external button while keeping the wires soldered onto the mainboard.

So you need two female - mail jumper cables and a power button.
And equipment for soldering the cables to the mainboard.
The cable can be stowed under the mainboard (or above) and go out through one of the holes on the rear of the housing.

ahoffman79 · Answer

@ahoffman79​ By the way. Something I need to test; the other connectors probably are the + and - for the power LED so that would be nice to check out and connect aswell because my external power switch has a power LED.I will test that later.

Optiplex Desktops

Optiplex 3070 motherboard pinouts e16 - External Power Switch Project

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