USB-C Power Delivery Protocol has "POWER DEVICE ON" signal?

Question

I purchased a year 2022 used HP Laptop with USB-C power supply. The BIOS is pwd protected from previous owner so the standard BIOS "WAKE ON AC POWER" is disabled.

I can power the HP off and on via the standard laptop POWER ON key (which is inconveniently located on top of the laptop keyboard). I have the laptop connected to HDMI monitor. When I shut off the laptop via OS, it completely shuts down- and when it comes time to power it on I need to open up the laptop and press the POWER ON key on the keyboard. If I am working remotely and something hangs I need to get a neighbor to reboot the laptop.

I noticed that HP sells a USB-C Docking station that has its own POWER ON key. I am wondering if there is some Hewlett Packard standard code sent over USB-C to inform the laptop to PowerON/Suspend/PowerOff/Reboot?

I looked at the USB Type C Power Delivery https://www.embedded.com/usb-type-c-and-power-delivery-101-power-delivery-protocol/ and cannot find any message where the PowerSupply/Dock can inform the laptop USB-C port that the device should be turned on.... Not sure where to look for this type of documentation. Imagine it is vendor specific? Any thoughts or help to help me construct a custom circuit so I do not need to buy a docking station?

Answer 1

Inside the USB power delivery specification (file USB_PD_R3_1 V1.8 2023-04.pdf, page 179), the following events are defined coming from a dock (a Upstream facing device):

• 2: Power button press
• 3: Power button depress
• 4: Controller initiated wakeup (for example wake on lan, or some other feature)

If you want to make a custom circuity for this, you would need a controller chip for an UFP, which allows you to send an custom Alert message packet for the actions you want.

This of course assumes your laptop manufacturer decided to follow the USB power delivery specification, and did not invent their own