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APM and the WP

New MessageAPM and the WP (modified 0 times) Lucubrate
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I just got my first WP a week ago and can see that it should make a great mp3 player for my stereo system (my CD player is dieing and I don't really want to buy a new one.) I have noticed the CPU gets really hot when playing mp3s and the WP will crash when the case is assembled. I will probably put some better venting in to fix this problem (I would like to stay away from fans.) My main concern now is the APM functionality. I would like to be able to suspend or standby the system when not in use.

I have noticed that some people are able to use the APM features of the WP and some are not. If I turn on or off the APM in the bios, press and hold the 'power' button, or use the suspend feature on the Start menu, the system seems to go into power save (the LED turns orange and the screen backlight turns off.) But when I touch a key, move the trackball, or press the button again, the LED turns green and the screen stays turned off. At that point I can use the keys for a restart (alt-f4, then alt-r then enter) and get the system to reboot. So I think it is coming out of the power save, just not turning on the backlight.

I was wondering, is this due to the win98lite installation? I have tried both the image with the opera browser and the image with IE on my DOC. I have not yet tried a full 98, 98SE or ME install on a hard drive. Who has APM working on a normal windows installation with a hard drive in the WP and who has it working with an image on the DOC? Anyone have any pointers on how to get the backlight to turn on?

I have the monitor set as a laptop 800x600 display. In the monitor properties, it is flagged as energy star compliant, and the 'reset display on suspend/resume' is turned on. Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks for any help,

05-24-2001 20:15:15

New MessageRE:APM and the WP (modified 0 times) davethewave
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Look at the thread entitled "Power Button does not function at all?" for a discussion on this topic...

David

05-25-2001 08:41:40

New MessageRE:APM and the WP (modified 0 times) san472
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I think it's a problem with the MediaGX drivers or the VESA BIOS. It looks like the drivers calls VESA to perform the power management and for whatever reason, its not supported. Strange though, the BIOS' APM can shutdown the display.

You can remove the Advanced Power Mangement driver and that will make the power button work. The only problem with this is Windows becomes oblivous to power management. When you push that button, Windows doesn't know about it, the BIOS does the job, and so it doesn't perform the needed task of informing other devices. My NetGear EA101 for example, causes the system to wakeup immediately after I press that button.

So... I made a fix, if anyone's interested. It's a vxd device driver that intercepts the VESA calls and instead uses APM to shutdown or power-on the monitor. It works alongside the standard APM device driver. The power button doesn't work, but Windows shutdown->standby and the timed power management now works. It's good if you have a problematic device like mine, but the 'remove APM' trick is more convenient...

05-25-2001 23:53:09

New MessageRE:APM and the WP (modified 0 times) davethewave
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Hey san472 - I would be interested in the driver if you are willing - also if you could post the exact settings needed to make it work (BIOS and Windows)...do you want to post it or e-mail ?

Thanks a lot !


David

05-26-2001 05:22:56

New MessageRE:APM and the WP (modified 0 times) Lucubrate
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Thanks san472, removing the APM system device did allow the power button to work properly. I will be putting a USB ethernet adapter on this machine soon, and so I am quite interested in the VXD solution you have created.
05-26-2001 07:05:17

New MessageRE:APM and the WP (modified 0 times) deoxy
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san472 - I would be interested in this driver. If you could send it to me via email, that would be great. If you like, I could also put it up on the web, so others could get it without troubling you for it.

Thanks

deoxy@rocketmail.com

05-26-2001 19:15:21

New MessageRE:APM and the WP (modified 0 times) gsmith22
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I'd be interested in the driver also, can you email it to me ? Thanks

/gsmith22@ameritech.net

05-26-2001 20:23:53

New MessageRE:APM and the WP (modified 0 times) san472
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I've posted it in GeoCities along with some notes...

http://www.geocities.com/nojx2/

Hope this helps...

05-26-2001 21:32:39

New MessageRE:APM and the WP (modified 0 times) davethewave
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Hmmm - I very much like the current configuration I have (removing the APM support in Windows and letting the BIOS handle the power management as suggessted by san472) the power button works as a suspend button and I never have to use the plug as the "power button" - I noticed however, that after the WP comes out of suspend mode, the system clock shows the time that the system went into suspend mode and it never updates itself...when my laptop comes out of suspend, the clock changes (but Win98 handles the power management on the laptop)....any ideas on how to fix this ?

David

05-29-2001 06:34:10

New MessageRE:APM and the WP (modified 0 times) aadam12
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I was going to post the exact same question because I would like to use one of the "clock radio" programs and wake up to a Winamp playlist in the morning. I'm having the same exact problems with the clock while in suspend mode.
05-29-2001 07:51:30

New MessageRE:APM and the WP (modified 0 times) davethewave
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Hey that's a good idea - I was going to do something boring like have the WP wake up and run a back-up job for the computers on our home network, then go back to sleep....I like your idea better....

David

05-29-2001 13:45:00

New MessageRE:APM and the WP (modified 0 times) san472
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Hi guys...

I've updated the driver and it now enables the power button. Like removing the APM driver, pushing it puts the system on standby. The only difference is that with the driver, Windows is involved in putting the system on standby and does whatever it needs to before powering down.

I've also included a program that loads the driver temporarily (until you hit ESC) if you just want to try it.

And if you've installed the driver before, uninstall it first, then reboot.

05-30-2001 02:27:21

New MessageRE:APM and the WP (modified 0 times) Lucubrate
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Great job san472.

Minor issue though, looks like the link to the zip still points to the older version of the driver. I was able to get the newer one by pointing to http://www.geocities.com/nojx2/wpmgxv053001.zip

05-30-2001 17:43:40

New MessageRE:APM and the WP (modified 0 times) san472
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Thanks :) Fixed the link.
05-30-2001 18:45:07

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