Power Management Standard (APM and ACPI)

Acka · n00b Joined: 26 Sep 2003 Posts: 28

If a laptop doesnt have a power management standard implemented into the system (APM or ACPI), will that render the laptop to be unstable or cause some unwanted hazards? The laptop will be used for home desktop purposes (Eg: word processing, internet browsing, image editing, multimedia stuff, like DVD watching, etc) At most it might even be left on 24/7, not as a server, but maybe to download things.

I understand that a power management standard regulates fan speed for CPU and more. If there is no power management standard then the fans in the laptop will operate at a static speed, meaning never changing. Wont that damage the laptop because it over-works the fans or anything related?

Any insites on this matter will be appreciated. Thanks.

Hypnos · Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2004 10:00 pm Post subject:

If the laptop BIOS is APM then it's okay to not have any APM control in the OS.

If the laptop BIOS is ACPI, then I don't know -- one would hope that there are BIOS-level safeguards.

For example, if I unload the "fan" ACPI module my laptop will turn off because of a BIOS heat interlock.
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Acka · n00b Joined: 26 Sep 2003 Posts: 28

According to my manual my laptop can handle ACPI or APM standards.

All Im worried about is:
if, assumingly, I cannot enable one or the other (due to hardware compatibility with the OS/kernel, or some other reason) will there be any problems. Basically, in other words; will problems of any sort arise if a system does not have a power management standard.

Eg:
(1) in the long term, if fan continues to operate at a medium-to-fast static speed, this might reduce the longetivity of the laptop
(2)might damage the fan, due to over-working itself
(3)and so forth..

Hypnos · Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2004 12:08 am Post subject:

I don't know

Good luck!
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Acka · n00b Joined: 26 Sep 2003 Posts: 28

Hypnos

Btw, thats a nice screenshot of your desktop.

Whats the resolution and what WM are you using? Im guessing Gnome, that, or something like Fluxbox or similar..

Would you mind if you give me a general recap of your system specs? Im just curious, I hope you dont mind

Hypnos · Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2004 12:16 am Post subject:

Software:

GNOME w/ Metacity windowmanager @ 1400x1050
wallpaper available at www.deaddreamer.com

Hardware:

1.6 GHz P4
512MB RAM
30GB HD
15" 1400x1050 LCD
Ethernet/winmodem/USB wireless
CDRW/floppy/2nd battery
ACPI
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