For my efika board i am using an pico 60w psu. Most times after it has been powered down it refuses to powerup again. It does not even get to the 'bios' screen. Sometimes it helps pulling the power adapter from the outlet and in again sometimes i also need to plugout end plugin my usb devices to. Also this does no help alltimes and when you are about to give up it decides to work again. Any ideas what could be the cause? Once it has powered up everything works correctly.

My setup is:
Efika board
Ati 9250SE
Usb keyboard with usb hub with usb mouse
Usb Drive
Western Digital 80GB
Pico60W PSU

weird, i use a 120W picopsu here and it works like a charm. Did you try by removing your usb hub and plugging your mouse and kboard only on the efika usb ports ?
tries the minimal hardware setup to make sure there's not a faulty device there.

maybe it' s nothing but your power switch ?

Oops now i feel a litle stupid, i have not (yet) added a powerswitch. The outlet i am using has an powerswitch. The efika does work without one. But i think you are right that it does need one and i feel confident that when i add one my problem will be solved.

Before I made my own switch. I use any metal stuff i can get my hands own. A screw driver, key, etc to short the two header.

But it does feel more comfortable to have a nice switch especially with a graphic card seating on top of Efika.

There is a firmware variable which controls how the Efika acts on power supply changes. It's set by default to 'copy' the previous power mode it was in (turned off or turned on) but you can force it to turn on every time you flick the power switch on the other end.
Soo...
Will make your Efika boot whenever it has power.

Having a real power switch though, is always useful, and a little less hacky than a screwdriver or set of keys (my previous switch)

_________________
Matt Sealey

I've had my Efika for quite a few weeks and just managed to aquire all the other parts I need. Should I expect to see anything if I just turn it on without any USB devices or hard drive plugged in (ie: graphics card only)?

Also, I didn't have a proper power switch on hand so I jumpered the connectors on the Efika motherboard thinking this is the equivalent - is this so? Or is only a brief connection required to powerup an Efika/pc motherboard?

The powerswitch connectors should only be shortened
for half a second or so. If you jumper it the PSU will
think it's time to force poweroff - just as you do on
a normal ATX computer when you hold the powerbutton
for a few seconds.

You should see the SmartFirmware prompt with only
a graphics card and keyboard connected.

Thanks for that - I've gotten as far as the firmware screen so I know all is well with my Efika, gfx card & etc.

I bought a usb to ps/2 mouse & keyboard adaptor thinking I could save a few bucks and reuse some stuff I have on hand - no luck there. So I got a new XSonic usb keyboard and found that pressing one of the multimedia keys (I forget which one) triggers a powerup - nice!

I tried that adaptor cable on my laptop and it seemed to work - windows saw it as a Human Interface Device. If, after installing linux, I tried it on my Efika again is it likely to work?

You really need to be lucky to make such adapters work with Efika. Use real USB keyboards and mice. Look here:

http://www.powerdeveloper.org/forums/vi ... php?t=1265