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ACPI Forced On & Option Disabled in WinXP-Certified Motherboards
stealth_zipper asks: "I just got off the phone with a rep from Soyo Computer Inc trying to get the ability to change IRQs for the onboard hardware. It turns out that because of a deal to get WindowsXP certification, the Dragon-series motherboard ended up having the ability of Enabling/Disabling ACPI in the BIOS disabled. Now FreeBSD has complications with multiple devices on the same IRQs (especially sound, video, and nic all off the same one). Is there a way to get around this for new hardware? Has anyone else encountered this?" Why in the world does XP need this feature disabled, and are there workarounds to get OSes like FreeBSD working properly with motherboards of this sort?
Is it possible that the reason they couldn't get XP certification because they're not following the standard properly?
The only reason I ask is that it seems like we'd see more reports of other motherboards having trouble.
"Derp de derp."
ACPI has been disabled on the last 5 or so motherboards I've seen (work computers I've built, etc..) It hasn't been much of a problem (other than incompatibilities with sucky sound blaster audigy drivers) but then again, I don't run linux.
Yes, it's required for XP-- and it was greatly encouraged for 2000 Pro-- ironically, turning ACPI off fixed a lot of problems I was having with my KT7A-RAID board.
New bios revisions of existing boards sometimes disable this, so watch out!
Some more popular motherboards have "hacks" that can add this functionality back.
Try looking for an "unofficial" support forum for Soyo or whatever.
Go here for the best KT7 faq which answers all these questions for that board, but provides interesting ACPI info, as well.
That headline really needs to be changed. It should read something like "ACPI Forced On in WinXP Certified Mobos"
Also, did anyone else notice this little gem on the requirements page?
Does this mean hardware support for DRM in sound cards?
Naturally, though, since the DoJ has dropped the ball on Microsoft, this sort of thing will only get worse. Get used to it, and vote Democratic in 2004.
Not to point out obvious stuff, but if producers of Windows compatible motherboards consistently take longer to deliver product and charge more to cover their R&D and production expenses because of incompatibilities like these, it means that Linux-only mobos are gonna come to market faster and cheaper. In other words, it adds one more reason that it's cheaper and more efficient to run Linux instead of 'doze. That's just gonna hurt MS in the long run. DOJ action is entirely unnecessary.
Anyone want to finish the ACPI driver? It's big and complicated.
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
In general yes, but Abit and Asus are not only middle line as far as quality goes, they are still running off of the steam of past glories.
:) )
:)
... needless to say Standby mode is not an option. Hehe. :) )
(woh, did I mix enough metaphors for ya?
Soyo has come out with some rather good boards, and some rather bad boards. Asus and Abit also have come out with some rather craptacular boards.
Hell who knows it may just be one faulty little part that once it is found everybody will be going "Duh!" and slapping their hand against their forehead.
Disabling ACPI does suck though.
Especially since anybody who is going to go into the BIOS setup screen and change that sort of settings (which requires reinstalling Windows, at least on 2000 it does, so it is NOT something that you just go ahead and do without a thought for it) aaah screw it.
Basically Win2k (and I am extrapolating for XP here, since it is awfully simular... ) required two separate kernels, one for ACPI, one without ACPI.
I am sure that MS was just getting friggin annoyed with having to support two kernels, not to mention run support for two completely different ways of doing the IRQ thang (WTF is up with backwards support and IRQs? Current x86 OSs support the old way of IRQs to work with current motherboards, current motherboards support it to work with current OSs, WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE FOLKS???? YEESH! Catch(22+(1/0)) --- for you TI calc people out there. ) ).
*NOTE* I read someplace that it is a different Kernel, other places just mention a HAL, either way it must be a pain in the ass to support and I can understand Microsoft not wanting to have to support both ways of doing things, after all, this is the twenty first century, IRQ conflicts should not be a problem. I agree that at times how Microsoft Windows tends to, uh, arrange your IRQs is rather bad, but that piss poor sound quality you hear may very well be a SB:Live, which sucks, horribly.
Turn off Plug and Play OS in your BIOS, as is recommended, if installing Windows2k+. Your PCI slots are most likely already setup to separate a few of them by IRQ, use that if Windows will allow you too. If necessary install devices one by one (recommended in any scenario), yes it is a pain, but it is about the only way of having so many friggin devices installed in a computer at once.
Hell I ran out of IRQs WITH IRQ sharing, I have so many devices that do not like to share IRQs at all. (Dual Head Video Card, TV Tuner, Sound Card, SCSI Card, woh, there goes 4 IRQs already!!!
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Apple has complete control over their hardware. Microsoft, for all we hate them, should at least have a little. ACPI basically eliminates the hardware problems due to IRQs that we've been dealing with for something like ten years.
XP with ACPI runs beautifully on my Asus A7V with Athlon chip and even the dreaded Via 4 in 1 chipset.
Look at IRQ 9:
IRQ 0 System timer OK
IRQ 1 Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard OK
IRQ 6 Standard floppy disk controller OK
IRQ 8 System CMOS/real time clock OK
IRQ 9 Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System OK
IRQ 9 NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Model 64 OK
IRQ 9 VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller OK
IRQ 9 VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller OK
IRQ 9 Intel(R) PRO/100+ Management Adapter OK
IRQ 9 SB PCI(WDM) OK
IRQ 9 Promise Technology Inc. Ultra IDE Controller OK
IRQ 13 Numeric data processor OK
Now ask me how many times XP has crashed since I installed it after purchasing on day one...
(The answer is zero. Not once. The thing is more stable even than my G4 running OSX)
Give 'em a break for once. They may suck as a corporation, but XP is a decent product, and there's nothing at all wrong with them requiring ACPI "always on." It'll save most users the trouble of IRQ conflicts while still letting them plug the latest shit from CompUSA into their PC every month.