Can't set up sleep or standby mode on XP Home. Standard PC, no ACPI

[3dmap1]

I upgraded my daughter’s computer and everything works great BUT I cannot get the option for Sleep mode or Standby to come up on the computer. It never had the ability to do this before but I thought the upgrade would fix that also. Does anyone know the reason for this? I can put it in Hibernate or Shut Down but that is all, it does come out of Hibernate from the mouse but I would rather have Stand By or Sleep. I also checked in “system” and it shows as Standard PC, not ACPI. I have checked my BIOS and it is from March 2005, so it should be okay. In BIOS, I have also enabled ACPI Suspend to RAM and enabled the Power Up Controls.

I have an Enlight case from 1999 and ran Windows 98SE. I upgraded to XP Home SP2, THEN I decided to do a hardware upgrade (from a 466 Pentium 2). I read that could be a problem because XP might see the old hardware on install and see it as incompatible with ACPI. I upgraded to:

AMD Athlon XP 2700+ Thoroughbred 333 MHz
40 GB Maxtor Ide ATA 133 hard drive
Asus A7V600-X Socket A motherboard
PQI 256 MB DDR SDRAM
Sapphire Radeon 9250 128MB DDR AGP video card
Rosewill wireless keyboard and mouse

What I have done since (Last night)to try to resolve this is to upgrade the power supply to a Rosewill 450 watt power supply which has output at the +5VSB at 2.5A which is needed to support low power (Standby) functions.
Then I reinstalled XP Home SP2 and applied the updates with the hope that it would find the ACPI capability. Still show Standard PC and no ability to put in standby or sleep. (All parts came from NewEgg.com great company, excellent prices and shipping).

 

[wahnula]

Go to a blank spot on your desktop, right clicl, left click "properties" > Screen saver tab> Power> Hibernate tab> tick in box "Enable Hibernation", Apply, OK on out.

 

[3dmap1]

I have hibernation enabled. I can hibernate, I can't go to sleep mode.

I may have found the problem. I looked up a very helpful website and am posting the info here, I didn't see any copyright anywhere:

http://www.theeldergeek.com/clean_installation_of_windows_xp.htm

When I first put together this guide to a clean install of XP I didn't think there would be a big problem with ACPI BIOS detection. I was wrong, so I've inserted this section relating to Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) detection in the hope of saving users a lot of grief over XP not shutting down properly. The identical information is also included on the page about Shutdown Problems.

The Role of the F5 Key and Shutdown Problems
When I first put this page together I meant to include this information. Unfortunately it totally slipped my mind. One of the hazards of being an Elder(ly) Geek, but better late than never. Thanks to reader Glen M. for jogging my memory.

When XP is first installed it tries to determine what type of BIOS is available on the computer. Newer systems have what is known as Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) capability. Unfortunately, XP doesn't always recognize a computer BIOS is ACPI capable and doesn't install the support for ACPI. Even more unfortunate is the fact that if ACPI support isn't determined at the initial install it's virtually impossible to correct this at a later time short of reinstalling XP over the top of the previous XP installation. To do so requires changing the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL). The chances of successfully changing a HAL after XP has been installed is pretty close to zilch.

Once you drop the CD in the tray and fire up the computer to install XP, the first thing you'll see at the bottom of the screen is the option to press F6 if you need to install a SCSI or RAID controller. Don't press F6. Press F5 instead. This will take you to a separate menu of Hardware Abstraction Layer's where you can choose an appropriate HAL that supports ACPI. The choices will be:

ACPI Multiprocessor PC

ACPI Uniprocessor PC

Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC

Compaq SystemPro Multiprocessor or 100% Compatible PC

MPS Uniprocessor PC

MPS Multiprocessor PC

Standard PC

Standard PC with C-Step i486

Other

In the majority of installations the 'Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC' HAL is the one you will want to use. A few cautions are also in order:

Obtain and install the latest BIOS for your motherboard before you begin the XP installation.

Equally as important as using the proper HAL on ACPI capable systems, is NOT using it on systems that are not ACPI compatible. The install may complete but the system will almost surely fail to start when it reboots.

There are situations where it is definitely not desirable to use an ACPI HAL even if it is supported by the BIOS. This predominately applies to servers, but to ensure that an ACPI HAL will not be used or automatically detected and used, press F7 instead of F5 as discussed previously.

Considering the number of problems that users have with systems not shutting down completely I wonder why this feature is not prominently mentioned and documented. It could save many headaches, but now you know. A good piece of knowledge to have tucked away for your next XP install.

As a final note, to determine if your computer was detected as being ACPI enabled:

Right click My Computer then click Properties > Hardware > Device Manager.
Expand the entry called Computer.

If the entry is 'Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC' you're all set. If it says 'Standard PC' the computer BIOS was not detected as being ACPI capable.