Other Power LED Dimming

fminus

Cable-Tie Ninja
Original poster
May 14, 2016
225
123
Heyya,

I am running my machine right now as an HTPC. One of the things I would like to change is the power led. When the computer is on, it's not a problem, but just when it goes to sleep is the issue: It blinks.

In my perfect world, I would like it to either dim, or switch to another color. Is there any way to fix this?

I thought of perhaps running off the mobo USB port, and when it drops a certain voltage during sleep, it switches colors. (Or dims).

Is there anything on the market that does this...or perhaps something I can purchase and hack together?
 

Biowarejak

Maker of Awesome | User 1615
Platinum Supporter
Mar 6, 2017
1,744
2,262
What OS do you have? I believe there tend to be settings to control the behavior and at least turn the light off on sleep instead of blinking.
 

iFreilicht

FlexATX Authority
Feb 28, 2015
3,243
2,361
freilite.com
I could even just do something more basic...with just an LED plugged directly into a USB mobo header

That's good thinking, but it might not work. Some USB headers will supply power even when the PC is turned off. What's will work is using a free IDE or SATA connector from the PSU.

The LEDs inside PCs are designed to be ran off 5V with a 330Ω resistor, so you only have to re-wire the connector on the power LED an solder the resistor in. You can also use a stronger resistor or a potentiometer to set the brightness to the exact level you want.

Also take a look at your BIOS settings, there might be a way to change the behaviour of the LED.