User`s guide

Frequently Asked Questions
B-6
Q: What is ATX Soft Power On/Off and Momentary Switch?
A: The Soft Power On of the ATX specification means to provide a standby current for special circuit to
wait for wakeup event when main power is off. For example, Infrared wakeup, modem wakeup, or
voice wakeup. Currently, the most simple usage is to provide standby current for power switch circuit
so that power switch can turn on/off the main power through soft power control pin. The ATX power
specification does not mention anything about the power switch type. You can use toggle or
momentary switch, note that ACPI specification requires momentary switch for power state control.
All the AOpen ATX MBs support momentary switch and AX5T/AX58/AX6L support modem wakeup
(Modem Ring-On).
Soft Power Off means to turn off system through software, Windows 95 Shutdown function can be
used to verify if your mainboard supports soft power off. AOpen AX5T/AX58/AX6F/AX6L support soft
power off.
Q: What is the Modem Ring-On?
A: With the help of ACPI OnNow and ATX soft power On/Off, it is possible to have system totally power
off (The traditional suspend mode of power management function does not really turn off the system
power supply), and wakeup to automatically answer a phone call such as answering machine or to
send/receive fax. You may identify the true power off by checking fan of your power supply. AOpen
AX5T/AX58 implement special circuit for Modem Ring-On through external modem or internal
modem card such as AOpen F34I.
Q: How to use "True" Modem Ring-On?
A: The Modem Ring-On discussed here is to wakeup from true power off (identified by fan of power
supply is off), the traditional green PC suspend mode is not discussed here.
AOpen AX5T/AX58 ATX mainboards and F34I Modem card implement special circuit to detect ring
signal from telephone line and then, turn on system power. It is recommended to use Internal Modem
Card (AOpen F34I), since Internal Modem Card consumes no power when system power is off.
For Internal Modem Card (AOpen F34I):
1. Go into BIOS setup , Power Management Wake Up by Ring, select Enable.
2. Setup your application, put into Windows 95 StartUp or use Suspend to Hard Disk function.
3. Turn system power off by soft power switch.
4. Connect 4-pin Modem Ring-On cable from F34I RING connector (it is CN2 on the evaluation sample)
to AX5T/AX58 connector WKUP.
5. Connect telephone line to F34I. You are now ready to use Modem Ring-On.
For External Box Modem:
1. Go into BIOS setup , Power Management Wake Up by Ring, select Enable.
2. Setup your application, put into Windows 95 StartUp or use Suspend to Hard Disk function.
3. Turn system power off by soft power switch.
4. Connect RS232 cable of external box Modem to COM1 or COM2.
5. Connect telephone line to external box Modem. Turn on Modem power (you must keep Modem power
always on). You are now ready to use Modem Ring-On.
Q: What is the Suspend to Hard Disk?
A: This is the same as Notebook. You can resume your original work directly from hard disk without go
through the Win95 booting process and run your application again. Suspend to Hard Disk saves your
current work (system status, memory image) into hard disk. If your memory is 16MB, normally, you
need to reserve at least 16MB HDD space to save your memory image. ACPI OnNow is possible to