I have a HP pavillion that has a light up power switch that grabs my 2 year olds attention usually resulting in unwanted power downs. Question is, if I remove the cover, can I disconnect the power switch and just use the shutdown procedure within XP? I'm assuming the little switch does'nt have 120 going through it so I figured I could bypass it with no ill effects. Am I correct?

better to cover it with a piece of tape or something, this way if you need to do a manual shutdown, it will be there. Besides, once you shut it down the first time, how are you going to turn it back on????

Ya, know turning it back on simply had'nt occured to me I'm sad to say. I would have realized my delima and have had to hook it back up. Of course my problem would have been solved, he would'nt be able to turn it off if I can't turn it on.

You are lucky that he is just playing with the power switch. My three year old has figured out how to open the cd-rom drive so that he can put in his own games... I am on my third drive now, he keeps breaking the "drawer". LOL

Johnyreb-
If you're comfortable going into the BIOS setup, you should be able to set the power switch for delayed off, meaning you have to hold it in for 4-6 seconds before it will power down. The Power LED may plug onto the motherboard independent of any other connector; ONLY in this case would I suggest disconnecting it.

With XP you can actually change the settings on the button in control panel under power management.
I usually set it to ask me what I want to do, I can still hold it for 4 sec and it will force it off though.

Or another option..Teach your child not to mess with it....I taught mine not to answer the phone when it rings and now that they are teenagers I can't get them to answer a ringing phone..it's 6's either way.
Good luck

My 2 year old twins do not touch the computers, but are always turning off the TV. Looking at one of those plexygalss gaurds. If it is not one thing it is another.

Good Luck!!

Thanks Bullcube that did the trick, at least now it asks me before it shuts down.

Cool. Anytime.
I love Windows XP.

You could also go into bios and set "power on password" --enter simple password-like one letter for a password....like your first initial. Then like bullcube mentioned going into power management.."what you would like the button to do"...select standby. This way you never have to reach ALL the way down to that button-ever..period! (boy...I must be getting lazy) And if your two year old touches then...of course you would just tap any key on your keyboard and the screen/system would pop right back up.