Powerdown problem

[Peter]

Hi Guys,
I recently had to re install XPpro on my machine and whereas the machine
used to switch itself off it now just sits there with "It is now safe to
turn off your Computer" I have been to Device manager and under "Computer"
it says just "Standard PC" which I believe means it has not recognised the
M/B's ability to handle advanced power options? It used to work OK so I know
the M/B does support powerdown. Also I can no longer put the monitor into
standby with Screen saver Monitor power options? I guess that is part of the
same thing. I imagine I might get it back if I re install XP Pro again but I
really don't want to do that if there is an alternative. Any ideas or
suggestions would be welcomed.
Thanks in advance

Peter

 

[Peter]

Hi Sharon
There is no APM tab on the power options, just "Power Schemes ,
Advanced, Hibernate and UPS" In advanced it has two drop down boxes for
Turn off Monitor and Turn off Hard drive, but whatever they are set to seems
to have no effect on the machine. There is certainly no mention of APM
anywhere in power options.
Thanks for trying
Peter

 

[CS]

Peter:

When you reinstalled XP Pro you may have had ACPI turned off in CMOS
setup. For what ever reason, installation did not install the "ACPI
computer" HAL, therefore you will not be able to use "Standby" and you
may have difficulty shutting down. However, if the "Standard PC" HAL
was used as you say, you should have the APM button that Sharon
mentioned. Make sure APM has not been turned off in CMOS setup.

You might want to reinstall XP Pro again after you have checked the
above items. Do a repair install - during which if you're sure your
machine can support ACPI, you can selectively install the ACPI HAL
when the install program asks if you have additional drivers to
install. When that appears on the screen, press F6 and then scroll
to the correct ACPI HAL and select it for install. Be sure you select
the correct one - go through all selections before choosing.

 

[Peter]

Hi CS,
I did go into the BIOS to check that Power management was switched on in
the setup, it was, so I have no idea why it was not recognised when I did
the re install. Is there no way the ACPI HAL can be installed once windows
is set up?

Peter

 

[CS]

Hello Peter:

Once the "Standard PC" HAL has been installed, the only way to switch
to an "ACPI HAL" is to reinstall. There are far too many hardware
enumerations that have to be setup in the registry. If you attempt to
switch HALs via the Device Manager Hardware properties dialog, the
system will most likely hang and not boot.

I'm currently using the "Standard PC HAL" on my desktop computer at
home along with APM. There are far fewer problems encountered with
drivers, software, etc. that might be incompatible with ACPI. The
downside is no IRQ sharing or a true standby function. You might
want to consider leaving well enough alone rather than reinstall.

 

[Peter]

Hi CS,
I shall have to give it some thought, I would like the machine to switch
itself off but can I be bothered to go through all of the re installing??
Thank you very much for your input on the matter, I had a feeling it could
be a deep rooted piece of XP that could not just be added, and thanks for
confirming that for me. A colleague had suggested that it was just a case of
copying an acpi hal.dll into the system32 directory but I had severe
misgivings about his suggestion. I am still not sure when the "if you have
additional drivers to install. " part of the install happens ( Sharon's
post), I don't seem to remember ever seeing it in any installations I have
ever done, but I suppose I have never looked for it?
Well thanks everyone for your help
Peter

 

[Peter]

Hi guys,
Just for information, I found a Microsoft KB article 810903 and followed the
path suggested there to disable the Microsoft ACPI driver and install the NT
APM/Legacy Support driver, worked a treat. So I am up and running again with
my powerdown working properly.
Once again thanks for your help
Peter