PC Power Down Home Edition Software

Download and install your software

If you have not already done so, you must download the PC Power Down Home Edition software. Click ‘Download Now’ and follow the on screen instructions.

Activating your software
Your software comes with a 30 day trial licence. For it to continue to work beyond 30 days, you must activate the software.

To activate your software, you will need your Activation Key that can be found on the label attached to your power block.

When you start PC Power Down, the following screen pops-up. You can also access this screen by right clicking on the PC Power own icon in the bottom right of your computer screen and selecting License. Then choose the Enter License option.

On the following screen, enter your email address and Activation Key into the boxes. Click the Activate button. This will send the information to our server and open a page on our web site that provides you with your Unlock Key (your Unlock Key is also sent by email to the email address you provided). Enter your Unlock Key into the box and click the Unlock button. Your software is now unlocked.

Using your PC Power Down software
Getting started
PC Power Down automatically starts when you switch on your computer. When it is running, the PC Power Down icon appears in the System Tray of your computer (usually at the bottom right of your screen).

If you place your mouse over the PC Power Down icon, the time of the next scheduled power down will be displayed. To open the main screen, left click on the PC Power Down icon.

Your PC Power Down Home Edition software is used to power down your computer at a set time each day. The software is set to power down each day at 23:30hrs. First, you need to set your schedule. To start PC Power Down, click the PC Power Down icon in the bottom right of your computer screen. This opens the main window.

Scheduling PC Power Down
Click the button labeled Schedule power down (you can also access this by right clicking on the PC Power Down icon in the bottom right of your computer screen and selecting Schedule power down), this opens the main scheduling screen. You can either set your computer to power down each day at the same time or set different times for each day of the week. The initial set up is for your computer to power down each day at 23:30hrs (11:30pm). If you want your computer to power down each day at a different time, simply select a different time using the drop down list.

If you want to set your computer to power down at different times each day, first click the box labeled Set different power down times for individual days of the week. This activates the tick box and time box for each day. To change the time for a specific day, select a new time from the drop down list. You can exclude a day from the schedule by clicking in the tick box. In the example shown, the tick box for Thursday has been clicked. This would mean in this example that your computer would power down at 5:00pm on Wednesday, the next time it would be scheduled to power down would be 8:00pm on Friday.

When you have finished, click the OK button. You can change the schedule whenever you like simply by repeating the process outlined above. At any time, you can quickly check when the next power down has been scheduled for by hovering your mouse over the PC Power Down icon in the bottom right of your computer screen.

Scheduled power down
Fifteen minutes before any scheduled power down, a window will pop up on you screen alerting you to the fact that your computer will power down in fifteen minutes and starts a countdown. If you are working on your computer, you have four options. First, you can click the Accept button to acknowledge the power down time and close the window. Next, if you want to use the computer for a little longer, you can delay the power down for 15 min, 30 min, 1 hr or 2 hrs by selecting the appropriate delay from the drop down list then clicking the Snooze button. Next you can cancel this scheduled power down completely by clicking the Cancel button. The system will pick up the next days power down time from the schedule. Finally, if you simply ‘do nothing’ the system will power down at the scheduled time.

If you chose the Snooze option, the system effectively reschedules your power time for a new time. Fifteen minutes before the newly scheduled time, the pop up screen will appear. Whether you chose to Snooze or Cancel, in the following week the system will revert to the scheduled time for that day.

Power down now
If you choose the button named Power down now from the main screen (you can also access this by right clicking on the PC Power Down icon in the bottom right of your computer screen and selecting Power down now), your computer will immediately be powered down. You are asked to confirm this choice just in case you have clicked the button in error.

Exiting PC Power Down
You can exit PC Power Down by right clicking on the PC Power Down icon in the bottom right of your computer screen and clicking exit.

Renewing your licence
One month before your licence is due for renewal, a reminder screen will pop up. Follow the on-screen instructions to renew.

Hardware

PCP-PB1USB

The surge protected PC Power Down power block controls power to your computer peripherals. Your power block has five sockets and two leads; one lead is a power cord, the other is a USB cable.

Connecting your power block
Connect your computer to an electrical outlet (not one of the sockets on the power block) and connect your power block to another electrical outlet using the power cord. Next, plug the USB cable of your power block into a spare USB port on your computer.

You can now connect your peripherals such as a monitor, a printer and a router up to a maximum of 2.3kW to the power block.

When the PC Power Down software powers your computer down (or if you power it down manually), the computer communicates with the power block via the USB connection to switch off the power to the peripherals.

When you power your computer back up again, the computer communicates with the power block via the USB cable to restore power to the peripherals.

PCP-PB2MS

The PC Power Down power block controls power to your computer peripherals. Your power block has six sockets, one is a master socket and five are slave sockets.

Connecting your power block
Connect your power block to an electrical outlet.  Connect you computer to the socket labelled master then switch the main switch to ON. Next, power up your computer.

You can now connect your peripherals such as a monitor, a printer and a router to the sockets on the power block labelled slave. When these are connected, the light labelled slave will illuminate.

The master socket senses when less than 60W is being drawn so when the PC Power Down software powers your computer down (or if you power it down manually), the master socket senses the reduction in power usage and switches off the power to the peripherals.

When you power your computer back up again, the power block senses the increase in power consumption and restores power to the peripherals.

Indicator lights

A. Indicates that all connected plugs are wired correctly
B. Indicates that there is a wiring problem with at least one of the connected plugs
C. Indicates that a surge protection was activated (press the reset button [R])
D. Indicates that there is power to the slave sockets
E. Spare