5-17LESSON 2 CONFIGURING POWER OPTIONSCONFIGURATION AND POWER INTERFACE (ACPI), WHICH AUTOMATICALLY ENABLES ADVANCEDPOWER MANAGEMENT SUPPORT AND DISABLES THE APM TAB
5-17Lesson 2 Configuring Power Options
Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI), which automatically enables Advanced
Power Management Support and disables the APM tab. You must be logged on as a
member of the Administrators group to configure APM.
If your computer does not have an APM BIOS installed, Windows XP Professional does
not install APM, so there will not be an APM tab in the Power Options Properties dialog
box. However, your computer can still function as an ACPI computer if it has an ACPI-
based BIOS, which takes over system configuration and power management from the
Plug and Play BIOS.
Note If your laptop has an ACPI-based BIOS, you can insert and remove PC cards on the fly,
and Windows XP Professional automatically detects and configures them without requiring
you to restart your machine. This is known as dynamic configuration of PC cards. There are
two other important features for mobile computers that rely on dynamic Plug and Play: hot
and warm docking/undocking and hot swapping of Integrated Device Electronics (IDE) and
floppy devices. Hot and warm docking/undocking means you can dock and undock from the
Windows XP Professional Start menu without turning off your computer. Windows XP Profes-
sional automatically creates two hardware profiles for laptop computers: one for the docked
state and one for the undocked state. (For more information about hardware profiles see
Chapter 6, “Installing, Managing, and Troubleshooting Hardware Devices and Drivers.”) Hot
swapping of IDE and floppy devices means that you can remove and swap devices such as
floppy drives, DVD/CD drives, and hard drives without shutting down your system or restarting
your system. Windows XP Professional automatically detects and configures these devices.
How to Configure an Uninterruptible Power Supply
An uninterruptible power supply (UPS) is a device connected between a computer
or another piece of electronic equipment and a power source, such as an electrical out-
let. The UPS ensures that the electrical flow to the computer is not interrupted because
of a power outage and, in most cases, protects the computer against potentially dam-
aging events such as power surges and brownouts. When a power outage occurs, the
UPS provides a limited amount of time for you to save documents, exit applications,
and turn off the computer. Different UPS models offer different levels of protection.
To configure your UPS, click the UPS tab in the Power Options Properties dialog box.
The UPS tab shows the current power source, the estimated UPS run time, the esti-
mated UPS capacity, and the battery condition. In the UPS tab, click Configure to dis-
play the UPS Selection dialog box. It displays a list of manufacturers from which you
can select the manufacturer of your UPS.
Note Check the Windows Catalog to make sure that the UPS you are considering is compat-
ible with Windows XP Professional before you purchase it.
If you want to configure a custom simple-signaling UPS, in the Select Manufacturer list
box, click Generic. In the Select Model list box, click Generic, and then click Next. You
can configure the conditions that trigger the UPS device to send a signal in the UPS
Interface Configuration dialog box (see Figure 5-6). These conditions include power
failures, a low battery, and the UPS shutting down.
F05us06.bmp
Figure 5-6