Question about hal.dll, acpi-aware BIOS and APIC

[garyf]

Please could someone clarify something for me.

I am deploying an XP image to i386 laptops and desktops. The "Computer"
entry in Device Manager reports that the Desktops are "ACPI
Multiprocessor PC" and Device Manager on the laptop reports that they
are "ACPI PC" They both have the same versions of hall.dll,
ntoskrnl.exe and ntkrnlpa.exe.

What is the difference between the 2? Is this the reason that I can't
deploy the same image to desktops and laptops?

Someone on these groups told me I couldn't deploy the same image to an
ACPI aware BIOS and an non ACPI BIOS. What is also confusing is that
Device Manager reports that they are both ACPI?

Please can someone explain this to me ... I would really appreciate it.

Thanks
Gary

 

[Darrell Gorter[MSFT]]

Hello Gary,
It doesn't work since one hal is APIC and the other is PIC even though both
machines are ACPI machines.

One is a APIC hal. "ACPI Multiprocessor PC"
The other is a PIC hal. "ACPI PC"

See this link for some of the differences between APIC and PIC.
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/sysperf/IO-APIC.mspx

This is the article that talks about hal options post setup that are
available.
309283 HAL options after Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 Setup
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=309283

Thanks,
Darrell Gorter[MSFT]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights
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[garyf]

Hi Darrell, thanks very much for the explanation. So the only way
forward is to build a seperate image for the desktops and laptops?

Thanks again
Gary

 

[Darrell Gorter[MSFT]]

Hello Gary,
To achieve the best functionality and to do it correctly yes, you need to
maintain two images.
During setup, detection is done when the hal installs for the first time.
This means that any number of changes are implemented in the registry based
on what was intially installed for the that system.
Some system will run with different hals, most will run with the standard
hal for example, but you then lose functionality or the functionality is
limited. Power management options are one example.
In this case, you are running a multi-processor hal for the desktop
machines which would mean hyperthreading or the second processor as well as
the APIC options would be lost if you changed to the standard hal.
Thanks,
Darrell Gorter[MSFT]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights
--------------------