[Ham-Computers] RE: WinXP hangs

[Hsu, Aaron]

Again, no major experience with WinXP yet, but some general observations...

You didn't mention which sTinkpad (sorry) you own, but going by the "press
the power for 5 seconds" statement, it sounds like a more recent model with
ACPI type power management.

Windows 2000 (and XP) look for and take advantage of ACPI functionality if
the system supports it.  Unfortunately, many companies added only partial
ACPI support when ACPI first hit the seen (circa 1998) or followed early
proposals rather than the final spec.  One of the key things to do when
installing Win2K/XP is to make sure the BIOS is at the latest version
*prior* to installing the OS (ACPI support is configured during the initial
setup of Win2K/XP).  It's possible to change the system type to ACPI after
the fact, but this often isn't successful and, at worst, will render the OS
dead on boot (BSOD stop error during startup).

On systems where ACPI isn't properly configured, problems can occur when
Windows tries to invoke an ACPI call.  For example, if Windows thinks the
system has been idle for a while, it will try to put the system to sleep (or
hibernate).  It uses ACPI calls to both check for system activity and to
tell the system to sleep.  If these calls are not properly implemented on
the system, Windows may hang as it invokes the call(s).

I have an older AMD K6-2 system at home that has a similar problem.  The
latest BIOS only partially supports ACPI and Win2K detected the system as
ACPI-compliant.  However, it wouldn't shutdown properly (always BSOD stop
error) and some older Windows 95 apps hang the system after a certain amount
of time passes (mouse based apps that don't use the keyboard).  After
"tweaking" the system as best I could over the course of a year, I finally
decided to "force" the system into thinking it was a "Standard PC".  This
way, Win2K used older Advanced Power Management (APM) calls rather than ACPI
calls.  The system not shuts down properly every time and all but one of the
Win95 apps work fine (the system still hangs after about 1 hour of no
keyboard activity).

So my suggestion is to make sure the BIOS is up-to-date.  Check IBM's
website for the latest version and install it.  Also, try changing the PC
type in the Device Manager to "Standard PC" rather than "ACPI PC".  Note,
however, if you make this change, you may not be able to convert back to
"ACPI PC" without re-installing the OS from scratch.  With Win2K, you can
also override the detected system type during setup by pressing <F2> when it
prompts for <F6> for device drivers.  There are no scroll-bars on the
selection screen, so you'll need to remember that more choices are available
via the keyboard.

Good luck!

  - Aaron Hsu, NN6O (ex-KD6DAE)
    {nn6o}@arrl.net
    {athsu}@unistudios.com
    No-QRO Int'l #1,000,006
    . -..- - .-. .-   ".... . .- ...- -.--"
 


-----Original Message-----
From: John McClain [mailto:digi2@earthlink.net]
Sent: Tuesday, January 07, 2003 11:21 AM
To: Ham-Computers@mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Ham-Computers] WinXP hangs


I have converted my Thinkpad that I use on Ham Radio over to Windows
XP PRO and ever since then I have been experiencing a system hang once
or twice a day.  No errors, no blue screens, just a hang and it always
happens when I am using the mouse.  It happens with various programs
including IE6. The systems is completely locked up, CTRL-ALT-DEL
doesn't work.  The only way out of it is to press the POWER button for
about 5 seconds until it finally powers off.  Once it is powered back
up again everything is fine until the next hang which will take at
least 8 hours.  Is anyone else having hang problems with XP Pro?

John
K7SVV
k7svv@arrl.net
K1 #1378, K2 #2569, SST 20, Rock Mite 20, Rock Mite 40, Nor'Easter