no acpi -- a problem??

[Jetro]

Open Device Manager and check if you have NT APM/Legacy Support. If not, run
Add Hardware wizard and install its driver. Open Control Panel/Power
Options, tab APM, and enable APM support.
Upgrade BIOS if available and reinstall Windows, if you want ACPI support.

 

[richard j. boris]

just upgraded a fairly simple machine for a secondary home (2.8E, 1 gig
memory) with an asrock motherboard that has a via chipset and an AMI bios.

The previous motherboard was also had a via chipset (p3 933?), 256k memory)
and an AMI bios.

Much to my surprise the new machine just came up with everything in device
manager and everywhere else perfectly clean without loss of any settings,
etc. I surmise that at some level XP thought the old and new machines
similar enough to come right up.

XP did know, however, that there was a major change because I had to
re-activate the machine, which, of course, was no problem.

I've upgraded much more sophisticated computers (scsi harddrives and
burners, for example) and I've had to do an upgrade/install to get the
computers running with everything on them and their settings intact.

I thought everything was fine until I turned the machine off: I got the
"safe to turn off your machine" message and I have to manually turn
everything off.

from device manager I can see that the machine is a "standard pc" meaning
that ACPI wasn't installed even though the AMI bios' banner says that it is
acpi compliant (and all those settings are live).

So-- what do I do?

Keep the machine the way it is? It is really no bother to turn it off
manually. What do I gain or lose with no ACPI?

Or install the ACPI layer. But how?

Any advice much welcomed.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

just upgraded a fairly simple machine for a secondary home (2.8E, 1 gig
memory) with an asrock motherboard that has a via chipset and an AMI bios.

The previous motherboard was also had a via chipset (p3 933?), 256k memory)
and an AMI bios.

Much to my surprise the new machine just came up with everything in device
manager and everywhere else perfectly clean without loss of any settings,
etc. I surmise that at some level XP thought the old and new machines
similar enough to come right up.

XP did know, however, that there was a major change because I had to
re-activate the machine, which, of course, was no problem.

I've upgraded much more sophisticated computers (scsi harddrives and
burners, for example) and I've had to do an upgrade/install to get the
computers running with everything on them and their settings intact.

Richard,

in your place I would do a repair installation nonetheless,
which should also install drivers like the one for ACPI.

Boot from the install CD, choose to install XP first (not
repair), then let it find your installation and do the
upgrade/repair installation.

All your installed software and settings should remain in place,
but there is always a residual risk that something goes wrong,
so first back up everything that's important.

Hans-Georg