Windows XP ACPI/APM/Standby/Hibernate

Having recently rebuilt my PC with Windows XP, I found that afterwards I did not have the Standy or Hibernate options - despite having them previously.

I did a LOT of searching around the 'net for possible solutions.

MS update required if you're using 3D screen savers (not me)
May need to update VGA driver (tried that twice without result)
Check that BIOS up-to-date (yup)
Check BIOS ACPI/APM settings (ok)

And possible a few more ideas that didn't help.

Well, then I decided to try somethign drastic and went to

ControlPanel->System->Hardware->DeviceManager

There I selected the 'System devices' and decided to try see what would happen if I uninstalled the 'Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System' entry.

No problem - wanted a reboot.

When it started up the mouse wasn't working, so I navigated to the DeviceManager using the keyboard. Slow going, as I don't do it that way often!

There I saw a whole raft of devices with the dreaded yellow question mark!

Anyway, I was trying to figure out why that could be and then Windows started to detect all the different devices and picking up the drivers for them. I did have to reinstall the VGA driver (maybe back to the ideas above?)

Then, after another reboot, everything was working AND the Standby/Hibernate options were available in the Power applet in the ControlPanel.

Anyway - I've seen so many questions on this I thought I'd share what I'd found.

[nffc]

And? I can't see why that is so earth-shattering.

Removing the Computer type- the hal, is the driver equivalent of getting a new mobo. [this is why XP won't work if hal.dll is missing]

Changing it is going to affect everything- IRQ settings, PnP, drivers etc etc- so it's no surprise the drivers need to reinstall, as the settings all need to change...

Personally I find the best one seems to be Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC - better than the one XP seems to like which is ACPI Uniprocessor PC.

But then, I am averse to Virtual IRQs...

Originally Posted by nffc

And? I can't see why that is so earth-shattering.

Removing the Computer type- the hal, is the driver equivalent of getting a new mobo. [this is why XP won't work if hal.dll is missing]

Because you cannot update the HAL in this way - there is a way, check out the MS Knowledge Base if you're interested.

The 'earth shattering' part of this is that after extensive searching all over the 'net I had failed to come up with anything that suggested what I did.

Now, if after hours and days of searching, tweaking and rebooting I'd found a little nugget of information like that and it worked for me I'd be pretty damn pleased.

So, it may not be very interesting in your opinion, but it ended a fairly lengthy quest I'd had. Seemed like a nice idea to share it with anyone who might come across the same.

Originally Posted by nffc

Personally I find the best one seems to be Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC - better than the one XP seems to like which is ACPI Uniprocessor PC.

In all that searching on the 'net I never did come across anyone who actually had the answer - seems like I should have asked here first...

[nffc]

Originally Posted by ScaredWebWarrior

Because you cannot update the HAL in this way - there is a way, check out the MS Knowledge Base if you're interested.

The 'earth shattering' part of this is that after extensive searching all over the 'net I had failed to come up with anything that suggested what I did.

Now, if after hours and days of searching, tweaking and rebooting I'd found a little nugget of information like that and it worked for me I'd be pretty damn pleased.

So, it may not be very interesting in your opinion, but it ended a fairly lengthy quest I'd had. Seemed like a nice idea to share it with anyone who might come across the same.

In all that searching on the 'net I never did come across anyone who actually had the answer - seems like I should have asked here first...

Sorry, I didn't mean to sound quite so condescending!

XP Power Management is rather inconsistent at the best of times. Then I spose, hibernate and standby are rather complex things to program and also have compatible for any combination of HW and SW from the last eight years! That's why they have the HALs- to cover these differences. Unfortunately some of them don't work so well...

I wasn't getting at you for sharing it, far from it.

And AFAIK, the only way to "update" the HAL is as you and I have done- uninstall the device, then install a different one- what is best, is to choose the driver from the list. As I said in the previous post, the one I find best, is the ACPI PC... but then I suppose others will work well depending on your config...

Originally Posted by nffc

Sorry, I didn't mean to sound quite so condescending!

I was particularly touchy since I was still feeling rather triumphant!

Originally Posted by nffc

XP Power Management is rather inconsistent at the best of times.

For sure, in my quest for more info it seemed as if there was a veil of mystery drawn around the subject. I even got the feeling at MS they didn't really understand it!

Originally Posted by nffc

That's why they have the HALs- to cover these differences. Unfortunately some of them don't work so well...

Having done some Hardware Abstraction Layer (hence HAL) type work for other OSs I know just how tricky that stuff can get. With the crazy amount of possible different combinations of devices I'm surprised sometimes that PCs work at all. lol.

Originally Posted by nffc

And AFAIK, the only way to "update" the HAL is as you and I have done- uninstall the device, then install a different one- what is best, is to choose the driver from the list. As I said in the previous post, the one I find best, is the ACPI PC... but then I suppose others will work well depending on your config...

OK - I'd love to hear more about your opinion on the different (are there more than uni- and multi- processor?) Let's have a look... I guess you mean this one http://support.microsoft.com/default...22120121120120

Not forgetting that

Device Manager does not permit the change from a Non-ACPI HAL to an ACPI HAL.

Anyway, when I read this http://support.microsoft.com/kb/299340/ it didn't seem as if hacking the HAL was such a good idea...

As far as I'm concerned, what I did was only uninstall and then re-install what was there before (I assume) - I was just hoping that it would do some system discovery stuff on installation and that maybe it would correctly detect the ACPI/APM options this time. Seems I was right, in part, maybe. Certainly the Device Manager is reporting the same as before.

[nffc]

Originally Posted by ScaredWebWarrior

OK - I'd love to hear more about your opinion on the different (are there more than uni- and multi- processor?) Let's have a look... I guess you mean this one http://support.microsoft.com/default...22120121120120

Not forgetting that

Anyway, when I read this http://support.microsoft.com/kb/299340/ it didn't seem as if hacking the HAL was such a good idea...

As far as I'm concerned, what I did was only uninstall and then re-install what was there before (I assume) - I was just hoping that it would do some system discovery stuff on installation and that maybe it would correctly detect the ACPI/APM options this time. Seems I was right, in part, maybe. Certainly the Device Manager is reporting the same as before.

Hmm, sure I changed it from Standard PC to the ACPI one before...
I'll have a read of the KB articles when I've not got to be up early...