Hi there,

Is there any way to program/set a certain key on an USB keyboard (BIOS excluded) - e.g Insert key - to turn on my laptop, when it's shut down, or when it's in hibernate state? My laptop operates on Windows 7 x32.

Thank you in advance.Almost certainly not. If it's shutdown/hibernated, the electricity is actually physically off. All that's on is the circuitry to the power button, which does exactly what you're describing -- to turn it on

Why use another key when there already is a key designed for that purpose?As I need more space on my table, because it's not a very large ONE , I thought to save some by placing the laptop under the table on a wooden support - a small improvisation attached to the table's feet, to say so. So, the height between the table and the wooden support assumes that the laptop's lid must stay closed.
If you say the electricity is physically off, I wonder how the power button on media keyboards work? Because, I think, it's not designed only for turning off the machine, am I right?
There's some technology called Wake-On-Lan which you can use to wake your computer over the network but only some network cards support it and you'd need another computer or some way to activate it.Quote from: secondsfromyourtime on October 09, 2012, 12:17:12 AM

If you say the electricity is physically off, I wonder how the power button on media keyboards work? Because, I think, it's not designed only for turning off the machine, am I right?

It would seem that you are using the laptop on mains power so battery life isn't an issue, and Windows can be set to leave a USB device powered permanently (instead of putting the ports to sleep) and in this case you can set the USB port/keyboard to be powered and should be able to resume from sleep or hibernation modes... maybe.

Use the Power switch...
Makes no sense you would need a keyboard switch for this...

Use the Power switch...
Makes no sense you would need a keyboard switch for this...

Sleep is a power-saving state that allows a computer to quickly resume full-power operation (typically within several seconds) when you want to start working again. Putting your computer into the sleep state is like pausing a DVD player—the computer immediately stops what it’s doing and is ready to start again when you want to resume working.

Hibernation is a power-saving state designed primarily for laptops. While sleep puts your work and settings in memory and draws a small amount of power, hibernation puts your open documents and programs on your hard disk, and then turns off your computer. Of all the power-saving states in Windows, hibernation uses the least amount of power. On a laptop, use hibernation when you KNOW that you won't use your laptop for an extended period and won't have an opportunity to charge the battery during that time.

Hybrid sleep is designed primarily for desktop computers. Hybrid sleep is a combination of sleep and hibernate—it puts any open documents and programs in memory and on your hard disk, and then puts your computer into a low-power state so that you can quickly resume your work. That way, if a power failure occurs, Windows can restore your work from your hard disk. When hybrid sleep is turned on, putting your computer into sleep automatically puts your computer into hybrid sleep. Hybrid sleep is typically turned on by default on desktop computers.

There is a mode called hybrid sleep which acts like hibernation but will wake up as if sleep was used. I assume that a key press will wake it up from hybrid sleep if the BIOS options are set appropriately also, maybe after setting the USB KB to be permanently powered.