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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?

15 of 532 comments (clear)

  1. Re:The OS dictating hardware design? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    You attempted to use the word "the" 7 times in your spiel. Here is the breakdown of your spelling of the word "the": 4 incorrectly, 3 correctly.

  2. Large format ads by AlbanySux · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Did anyone else see the large ad under the post before the comments? It only loads sometimes for me. If thats what the ads are going to be it isn't allt hat bad. I was expecting annoying popups and popunders. I can live with that little square there.

    1. Re:Large format ads by AndroidCat · · Score: 1, Offtopic
      Oops, I never got the ad. It must have something to do with some entries in my hosts file. I guess I should sit down and fix this problem one day, when I have spare time.

      Then again, I tend to block anything from DoubleClick, so perhaps it can stay there and rot.

      --
      One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  3. Re:Ad's by cscx · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    You know, after Klerck posts his 'page widening post', it shifts the ad out of visible view... and I'm viewing on 1280x1024 ... :D

  4. Re:A taste of the future by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    Bill,

    How's voting democratic in 2004 gonna help when the Bush administration/DOJ is selling us out now?

    It's not like a different administration (be it Democratic, or Republican) can take another pass at Microsoft on the same case. And with the likely conclusion to the current litigation being a slap on the wrist and no penalties for past abuses, it's conceivable that no other American jurisdiction will have the stomach/resources to even give it a shot.

    I don't hold much faith in the EU either, since it's reasonable to expect the U.S. govt will somehow protect its corporate interests at all costs. It's kind of like how Big Tobacco gleefully accepted the multi-billion tobacco settlement in full expectation that they'd receive carte blanche to continue selling cigarettes with little regulation or resistence overseas.

  5. Re:A taste of the future by 1010011010 · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    I'll vote Libertarian again, but thanks for the recommendation. The Repiblican and Democrats are just the two tits on the body republic, and most companies and other special interest groups are fat dumb and happy to suckle whichever is available at the moment.

    --
    Napster-to-go says "Fill and refill your compatible MP3 player", which is a lie. It's not MP3. It's WMA with DRM.
  6. What XP really is (FPOS) by carlivar · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    As I see more and more of my co-workers running Windows XP, I have definitely decided it is nothing more than...

    Fisher-Price Operating System

    Carl

    --
    Vote Libertarian
  7. Re:A taste of the future by King_TJ · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Good for you. Let's hope that eventually, enough people become "enlightened" and vote Libertarian that the vote will actually make a difference!

    As it was recently pointed out, although MS themselves donated a large percentage of their political contributions to the Republican party, their employees pretty much offset it by contributing mostly to the Democratic party. The 2 party system is pretty much a joke. People just cancel each other's votes out, bickering over the "issue du jour", while whichever party gains power will just follow the money anyway.

  8. [OT] Re:More about ACPI by BrianGa · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Of course, If you want to stick it to the man, you could do the reverse and Block MSIE from your Site.

  9. Re:A taste of the future by King_TJ · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Why do you think that the concept of a 3rd. party such as the Libertarian party is bad because the "country isn't split 50/50"?

    If more Republicans really voted than Democrats by a 2:1 margin, we would never have any Democrats in office. The fact is, you're making very broad, generalized statements that don't hold up.

    I also find it amusing that people still feel the voting system let them down in the last election. Sure, there was a lot of attempted corruption, and some incredibly stupid suggestions for making things right. "Yes, I can tell by the thumbprint on the right-hand side of the ballot, he meant to punch out this circle here." Whatever....

    Still, common sense prevailed and we got through another election year with a winner and a loser.
    (Those who feel the wrong man was elected should consider pushing for an amendment to the Constitution next time it's up for discussion. The whole Electoral Congress thing has been debated before, after all....)

    As for MS (more "on-topic" for this discussion thread), I don't think government really should do anything about them. At best, punish them for perjuring themselves during the trial, and be done with it. We've wasted I don't know how many tax dollars on this fiasco already, and in the end - the products people want to buy/use will win out.

    I love Linux, but I also know it still has SERIOUS weaknesses as a mainstream desktop platform. If you disagree, I'd dare say you're looking at it through some dark-tinted glasses. Unix has always been a server OS, and it'll take a LOT to hammer and chisel it into a user-friendly desktop OS. Microsoft, on the other hand, started with a desktop OS and tried hammering and chiseling it into a large server OS. They're still struggling at that.

    Most of the "competition" to MS hasn't been all that competitive, in hind-sight. Take OS/2, for example. IBM had a strong competitor going there - but they blew it by their own free will. (They were too greedy, and decided it was easier money to get in bed with MS and Windows NT than to compete.) BeOS, well - they never had the financial backing to do too much. If I want to go up against a BIG company, it takes some BIG dollars to do it properly. A superior product is the most important item, but you have to leverage that by peddling it to venture capitalists or other investors who see the potential and give you the funding to make it do big things. BeOS just didn't get there with it.

    IMHO, it's pretty lame of people to cry out for govt. intervention when the real problem is that the vast majority *like* the MS products enough to keep buying them, over and over again.

  10. Buy a Mac. Use OS X :-) by crovira · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Nuff sed

    --
    MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
  11. Welcome to ZDNet, I mean Slashdot by Migrant+Programmer · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Here's the new slashdot for those of us not subscribed... loverly! It doesn't appear all the time... yet.

    http://islandofdoom.com/slashad.png

    (shamelessly tagged onto the top moderated post)

  12. Re:wouldn't this by Una · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    This is totally O/T
    But you wouldnt happen to be the same 2MuchC0ffeeMan from Clan Victory would you?

    --Una

  13. Re:wouldn't this by Com2Kid · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Ironically enough, Windows 2000 does not even need EXPLORER, not to mention Iexplorer, to run.

    The ONLY thing that the HTML engine is really needed for is those lameo customized folders which nobody uses (but for which Microsoft insists on shoving files for all around your HD. . . .) and HTML help files, which are actually LESS useful to the user then their old .hlp format ones. (in the very least, starting them up if the program has 'issues' can be a serious pain. Ironic when you need your application to work in order to start the trouble shooter for how to get your application to work. . . . reminds me of the old AOL "please logon to our members area for help logging on" message. . . . )

    HTML help files are a tad wee bit more convenient for the developer though. (big whoop, I don't give a care. ^_^ )

    Hmm, I have an application sitting on my desktop right now that replaces explorer.exe with itself, as MANY look and feel replacement applications do.

    (I do not run it because it requires registration for full functionality and quite frankly I refuse to spend my money on look and feel types of applications, a total waste they are I say. )

    Hmm, if Win2K had a decent CLI (doesn't of course) that could be booted to directly (their recovery console IS powerful, but it lacks some. . . . basic functionality. heh. ;) ) I would nuke iexplore.exe right now just to see what would happen. Not like it would be anything TOO bad.

    Oddly enough sometimes when browsing the net explorer.exe is only used, other times iexplorer.exe is used. Hmm. . . . .

    Bizarre to say the least. Well I know the cause of that, well, mostly. If Iexplore.exe freezes nuking that will take out all browsing windows opened under it but leave the ones opened under explorer.exe alone. Ah, how lovely. LOL.

    I could likely just replace the shell=explorer.exe with shell= whatever my star office executable is, and run things just fine. Well that actually depends, I wonder if Staroffice copies the windows taskbar or if it is a completely independent taskbar. If it copies the taskbar then it should be possible to make it independent of the real taskbar existing. Then again I have no idea about that. -_-

    But hell, taskbar aside, everything else SHOULD work. Well except that now Openoffice has removed the Integrated Desktop (I can understand why, better complete platform independence and all, but it was still a nice feature that had serious potential had it been developed further. :) ) so I would need to use Staroffice5.x (hey, just guess what I have installed! :) )

    Not going to try it though, Staroffice's integrated desktop feature is too unpolished, feels like going back to windows95 or such. (yes 98 was different then 95, trust me on this one, it was. You had to have used the OS way more then it is healthy for you to use it to notice the difference though, but just like a case with nice rounded corners and strict adherence to ATX specs, there was a difference in the overall feel. You may still get cut, but at least you didn't lose a limb. :) )

  14. Re:Interesting by pythas · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Nevada my friend.

    Nevada.

    One large sandy brothel.