Eli5: How does a computer turn on with a press of a button if it’s supposed to be completely powered down? How does it get a signal or something that tells it to turn on?
In: Technology
The computer is still connected to electricity, so when the button is pushed, the hardware will start running again. A computer is never “completely” powered down unless it isn’t connected to any electricity.
Even if the computer is powered down, the motherboard still receives electricity from the PSU (considering the PSU is on). When you press the power button, you actually just short 2 pins, and this action tells the motherboard to power on the computer.
When you “turn off” your computer, or your phone for that matter, it isn’t truly off.
If it was truly off, it wouldn’t be able to respond to you pressing the power button again.
The computers enter what’s called a sleep or deep sleep state where they use very, very low power. The only things kept online are the critical components of the computer
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