On 3/18/2023 5:03 PM,
tfrank@mixedup.org wrote:
I'm having a problem booting my desktop XP. I'd like to keep it
running but in some kind of "sleep" mode when I stop using it so I
don't need to reboot. I would like all program that were open to
still be open when I resume use by pressing a key on the keyboard. I
would also like the monitor to go On and Off automatically as the
computer goes in and out of such a "sleep" mode.
I read the Help file, but don't quite understand which choice of
Sleep, Hibernate, System Standby would do the job for me.
?
This utility (no longer available), is the key to determining whether
the WinXP PC is properly prepared for the customer.
ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/products/Oemtest/v1.1/WOSTest/Tools/Acpi/dumppo.exe
dumppo.exe cap
dumppo.exe admin cap
power capabilties
...
System states supported.: S1 S3 S4 S5
Of these:
These states would need a UPS (uninterruptable power supply).
These two states save your session.
S1 System Standby (monitor goes black, but system box wastes electricity)
S3 Suspend to RAM (Sleep) (only RAM sticks are powered, CPU off, monitor black)
The S4 state saves your session too, but it is slower coming back by some seconds.
S4 Hibernate (to C:\hiberfil.sys , holds system image)
This is the "power safe" state, and the session survives power outages.
Whether you have a UPS, does not matter if using this "safe" power saving state.
And these last ones are bookkeeping items. These don't keep a session.
Selecting "Shutdown", is the S5 state. Flipping the OFF switch on the back of the
PC, saves the maximum possible amount of power.
S5 Soft Off (will need a fresh boot, by pressing front button) [PC uses several watts]
OFF This is the mechanical OFF switch on the back of the PC, removes AC. [PC uses zero]
The "dumppo.exe" utility, can be used to "add back" menu choices
when they are lost. Making dumb choices in the BIOS (I've done it),
removes good options in the shutdown menu. Then, after correcting
a BIOS (S1+S3) setting, enabling ACPI 2.0 in the BIOS,
you need dumppo.exe (12KB) to tell the OS to put the menu items back.
A PC can lose those settings in the BIOS, when you change the CMOS battery.
DUMPPO.EXE admin /ac minsleep=s3 # System Standby and Sleep enabled
# The AC refers to laptops and being on
# Mains Power. The other option is battery.
# Program has no help. Documentation: Non-existent!
# Just one enthusiast site, contains our info.
DUMPPO.EXE admin /ac minsleep=s4 # You can extend it to Hibernate
*******
Hardware wise, old machines (not an ATX, a Soft Off PC) have only "APM"
and not "ACPI".
APM was Power Management, with a very simplified set of states.
One of the states was "It is Safe to Turn Off this PC" in Win98.
The machines only had a switch on the back of the machine. Power
switching was mechanical.
Whereas ACPI exposes the soft control features of ATX equipment,
such as sleeping and restoring a session by pressing the front (soft)
control button for the hardware. For WinXP, generally the ACPI 2.0 spec
is the lowest version of the standard that works well. ACPI 1.1 kinda works, but the problem was that BIOS implementations were "a bit shaky" and
the PC might not flip in and out of these states properly. In an
Asus BIOS for the year 2002 or so, there is a setting to enable
ACPI 2.0 (why you have to enable this, is just so silly).
If a machine does not show all the menu items people tell you about,
then it takes BIOS corrections (S1+S3 and the ACPI 2.0 setting), then
some work with the dumppo.exe (no longer available) utility. The FTP
server was shut down some time ago, which is why finding "dumppo.exe"
(it's not on the CD) is difficult. If the staff at Microsoft had
a clue, this could have been sent out via a Windows Update, eons ago!!!
Name: dumppo.exe
Size: 13072 bytes (12 KiB)
SHA1: 4DDB6611E12A53BF05F458803BE4A9291BC5A229
There may be two of those in circulation.
Summary: If all your menu items are present, you likely need to
do nothing to use them. The soft button on the front, should
always raise a sleeping machine. Programming the power state
in Device Manager, for the mouse and keyboard, that is a discretionary
adjustment activity. ("Allow this device to wake the PC")
Just remember that leaving the machine
in Sleep, and then your house mains power fails, causes the
sleep session to be lost, and potentially some damage to the
file system. NTFS has the best "survival characteristics.
FAT32, not so much. WinXP can also be run on a FAT32 filesystem,
as that is what I was using (before my WinXP machine had a hardware
failure).
While the Hibernate choice saves a session, and it is power safe,
it is slower. By a bit. Only RAM in usage, is written out to
the hiberfil.sys for safe keeping. That's why the Hibernate is
faster than it otherwise has to be.
And while there is something called Hybrid Sleep, I don't know
if WinXP has it or not, and that's why I did not write it up.
It is an S3 sleep, that keeps a safety copy in the hiberfil.sys.
The ACPI spec, may not document that quirk. It does not have its
own label as such. It is basically S3, that converts to S4 on a
loss of power.
Paul
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
