jm7 said:
Yes I have version 8.383.000 dated 13 Jun 07. and Catalyst Ver 07.6
the card is a ATI HIS RADEON x1550 PCI.
incidentally, how does the wrong driver affect hibernation?
I actually had to download this driver from the WEB. The original driver on
the CD would not get the card to work in the hi res modes. i wonder if
Hibernation got affected then and now I can't get it back even though the
correct drivers are on now.
thanks,
The issue is that the OS (Win XP) in this case needs to talk to devices
in order to change their power states. For sophisticated devices such as
video cards, sound cards, and the like, drivers are needed to translate
the OS requests to the device and BIOS. The default drivers that come
with the OS know how to do these things for simple devices such as IDE
and SATA connections, some USB interfaces and the like. If the OS
determines that it doesn't have the proper methods (drivers in our
case), it refuses to enter certain power states because it cannot do so
safely - safely means without the likely loss of data.
When I install new ATI drivers the process is as follows: 1) uninstall
existing drivers and reboot, 2) after reboot I get an error form my UPS
that hibernation is disabled - the UPS initiates hibernation if there is
a lengthy power outage, 3) I install the new drivers and reboot, 4) when
the reboot is complete the I no longer get the UPS diagnostic since
hibernation is re-enabled.
Note that without proper drivers you may not even be able to enter S1 or
S3 power conservation states. You might be interested to know that
Microsoft certification of drivers is more based on whether they
properly perform power management than if they actually perform their
intended driver function (at least as I understand it).
In summary, I suggest that you find good drivers from the manufacturer
or other source for your devices. If there are power management issues,
the drivers are not good. Note, for many old devices there are no good
drivers for XP because the hardware is not able to function adequately.
Every year, the device industry does a better job of meeting modern
specs. However, some of the old devices are hopeless.
-- Jeff Barnett
