Manual turn off after system restore

[AnnieMS]

Thanks GrofLuigi,

I'm confused about what I am doing. Am I reinstalling the original BIOS programming [?flashing] or installing the chipset update before attempting anything in Device Manager? Are BIOS ACPI, APM & LegacySelect options I'll see in the process? Currently there is nothing in BIOS settings or the first information page that says ACPI, APM or Legacy Select. I've only read about LegacySelect at Dell Support. I've never seen any settings for it.

Am I supposed to do a reformat/reinstall of the OS & Dell drivers first? I was planning to take down the RAID before reformat/reinstalling the OS. I wanted to remove a drive before deleting the array because theoretically it'll still have my data if I forgot anything - like the supercat catalog in c:\program files\supercat I almost forgot. I did a drag and drop bu of my personal folders and known back ups in %user profiles% because I don't trust any of my backup programs to work after the restore. Even w/ that I had do some of it folder by folder because I'd get a message "can't move file" and the copying would stop. So I didn't try to just backup everything.

On the Dell Drivers site I only see updates - no original BIOS flash program or Dell drivers. I think I get any originals/updates for the CMOS flash program from Dell. My BIOS version is Dell, Inc. A02, 5/24/05. I've never flashed a BIOS.The BIOS update WS380A09.EXE "improves OROM Initialization", which per Widipedia didn't sound ACPI/APM related. I do eventually need to install one of the chipset updates because I've got the keyboard sx's described.

I still have the OS installation disc and a separate drivers and diagnostics cd and both are recognized by my optical drive. Per the .chm file on the D&D cd I can do a search for specific drivers. The cd doesn't autorun so I guess I run the .exe file in the cd's root directory- then there's is supposed to be a search function in whatever program runs. I also have a 3rd cd w/ the flat panels' drivers.

Current BIOS Settings:

In Power Management I have options for AC Recovery [Off], Auto Power On [Off], Auto Power Time, Low Power Mode [Off], Remote Ake UP [Off], Suspend Mode = 3 [system conserves more power when not in use]

In Performance I have Hyperthreading [On]; Speedstep [Off] & HDD Acoustic Level [bypass]

Onboard Devices has settings for Integrated NIC, Audio, USB Controller, LPT & Serial Ports, & PS/2 Mouse

Post behavior has settings for fast boot, numlock key, post hotkeys, & report keyboard errors.

The other sections - Drives, SATA setting, Security etc. don't seem likely places and I don't see anything related to power in any of them.

[GrofLuigi]

Thanks GrofLuigi,

I'm confused about what I am doing. Am I reinstalling the original BIOS programming [?flashing] or installing the chipset update before attempting anything in Device Manager?

None of that. Just evacuate your stuff to the external HDD. Then you format & reinstall the OS, then the drivers, then reinstall the programs you use, then slowly bring your stuff back. That's what I had in mind, at least. It would be good to flash the BIOS to a new version in the meantime, BUT, if you haven't done it before, DON'T do it - in some (rare, but still...) cases you could kill your motherboard. And I would feel guilty for advising you to do so.

Are BIOS ACPI, APM & LegacySelect options I'll see in the process? Currently there is nothing in BIOS settings or the first information page that says ACPI, APM or Legacy Select. I've only read about LegacySelect at Dell Support. I've never seen any settings for it.

They are supposed to be in BIOS, regardless of the OS. If you don't see them now, you'll never see them. So, Legacy Select still might be a Windows program as I suspected, and ACPI/APM are (most often) worded diferently, or they don't exist as options in the BIOS.

Am I supposed to do a reformat/reinstall of the OS & Dell drivers first? I was planning to take down the RAID before reformat/reinstalling the OS.

That's the Idea of Clean Install - reformat. If you're comfortable with such (relatively) advanced RAID operations, do it, but I wouldn't be. My idea was to let Windows Setup (when booted from CD) format the partition you intend to install to. While we're at it, do you have a Windows setup CD that recognizes the RAID array (has drivers for it)? If the installation CD you mention was received with the computer, it should be OK, but maybe you should check? (Boot from the CD and wait to see if it sees the partitions, but don't do any actual installation. Don't proceed when it prompts you to. Read carefully, there is plenty of information shown).

I wanted to remove a drive before deleting the array because theoretically it'll still have my data if I forgot anything - like the supercat catalog in c:\program files\supercat I almost forgot. I did a drag and drop bu of my personal folders and known back ups in %user profiles% because I don't trust any of my backup programs to work after the restore. Even w/ that I had do some of it folder by folder because I'd get a message "can't move file" and the copying would stop. So I didn't try to just backup everything.

Yes, that's often a problem with Windows copy - giving up too early (and not showing hidden/system files). Maybe you could use some third-party file manager (I use Total Commander) or something like XCopy, but that might be an overkill - I think you should just take care of known documents you saved, email contacts (if you use Outlook/Outlook Express), any messenger settings, and favorites/bookmarks of your browser. Everything else can be re-created.

On the Dell Drivers site I only see updates - no original BIOS flash program or Dell drivers. I think I get any originals/updates for the CMOS flash program from Dell. My BIOS version is Dell, Inc. A02, 5/24/05. I've never flashed a BIOS.The BIOS update WS380A09.EXE "improves OROM Initialization", which per Widipedia didn't sound ACPI/APM related. I do eventually need to install one of the chipset updates because I've got the keyboard sx's described.

As I said, there is no pressing need to update the BIOS, and it poses a great risk. OROM should be Option ROM, the firmware of the RAID controller. And from what I remember, Dell packs everything in such exes, which can be extracted with some archiver or Universal Extractor, but I think there's no need to.

Sorry, I don't know what keyboard sx's is.

I still have the OS installation disc and a separate drivers and diagnostics cd and both are recognized by my optical drive. Per the .chm file on the D&D cd I can do a search for specific drivers. The cd doesn't autorun so I guess I run the .exe file in the cd's root directory- then there's is supposed to be a search function in whatever program runs. I also have a 3rd cd w/ the flat panels' drivers.

Of course, you use the OS installation disc to fresh install and, if you care to invest some time, download newer drivers than the ones from the second CD (the link by VideoRipper.)

Current BIOS Settings:

In Power Management I have options for AC Recovery [Off], Auto Power On [Off], Auto Power Time, Low Power Mode [Off], Remote Ake UP [Off], Suspend Mode = 3 [system conserves more power when not in use]

They aren't about ACPI/APM, but here's what they mean:

AC Recovery - what will your PC do when there's a power blackout and then the electricity is restored - your setting is to remain OFF.

Auto Power On (and time) - to turn your computer on every day at the same time.

Low power mode - don't know

Remote Wake Up - Turn the PC on from another computer through network with a so-called magic packet.

Suspend Mode (I believe that is S3 sleep state) - Older OSs had problems with it, but I think XP SP2 should be okay with it.

In Performance I have Hyperthreading [On]; Speedstep [Off] & HDD Acoustic Level [bypass]

Hyperthreading - sees your processor as two. Good thing, although it wasn't brilliantly implemeted in this generation, I'd leave it on.

Speedstep - ON reduces the clock speed of the processor when it's not doing anything. Conserves power and reduces heat, but there could be sligthly slower reaction on demand and problems if the OS isn't aware of it (XP SP2 should be).

HDD Acoustic level - trade off between Hard Disc Drive making lotsa noise, but working faster, and the opposite.

Onboard Devices has settings for Integrated NIC, Audio, USB Controller, LPT & Serial Ports, & PS/2 Mouse

Turn off any that you don't use (the last three are good candidates), it will help ACPI (the magic word ).

Post behavior has settings for fast boot, numlock key, post hotkeys, & report keyboard errors.

The other sections - Drives, SATA setting, Security etc. don't seem likely places and I don't see anything related to power in any of them.

SATA settings could be significant - if anything changed, it could render XP unbootable. Careful there!

Good Luck,

GL

[AnnieMS]

OK, I'm clear that I'm not trying to fix the manual turn off thru the BIOS or chipset [Finally! you say] - I'm doing it w/ a reformat/ reinstall. Thankfully, I will leave the BIOS alone for now. I'm not clear on the power ACPI/APM/LegacySelect ramifications since it should be in the BIOS, which is pre-OS, and isn't.

I found this additional info googling

Dell's LegacySelect software lets system administrators deactivate various ports and devices (including USB ports and PCI slots) at the BIOS level for tighter control over system security...

Dell's printed documentation is sparse, with only a setup and quick-reference guide that illustrates system assembly.

So LegacySelect is a pre-os option I guess configurable thru the BIOS set up program tho I'm going to try and find that setup & quick reference guide. So maybe there's a ROM chip somewhere that the BIOS reads... but it looks to me that some of the options in BIOS are the LegacySelect. ACPI puts all power management into the hands of the OS and APM "talks" to the BIOS so I thought LegacySelect = APM. But maybe the LegacySelect configurations are "reported" to the OS thru FFH or AML and then the OS takes over. The bottom line for me is is there a ROM or BIOS button that got turned on that I should turn off. But it seems unlikely to me that Dell would offer an option that rolls back the clock to APM so I think maybe LegacySelect is those options in the BIOS setup and I still have no explanation for why ACPI got turned off but a good old reinstall should fix it.

The RAID 1 is a "BIOS controlled" chipset thing. As I understand/guess from what I read, you enable it in the BIOS [and either Dell has the wrong BIOS setting on its support page or my BIOS has had the wrong setting for 3 years] and the chipset's firmware loads the RAID 1 during boot and win xp's RAID drivers take over when the processor is switched to 32 bit - or the memory is switched, however you say it. The first thing the screen shows on booting is the two drives listed separately and "crtl + i to enter raid configuration" . You have to hit that quick to get into that utility. I think after that the raid is established.

I've been wanting to get rid of that raid 1 since I first got the computer. Per Dell deleting the array makes the disc non-bootable and all files inaccessible. Since this is not a true hardware raid, removing one drive may do the same thing. If I knew that for sure I'd go ahead and delete the array and install onto whichever SATA drive is recognized as the "master" - I think that would be the one in slot 0.

The os install disc has Dell, not MS, on it but its label is "winxp prof sp2" in my computer and I've run recovery console from it and expanded hal from it. It has i386 and value added. It also has a $OEM$ folder. I sincerely hope it will allow me to do a non-RAID installation

[GrofLuigi]

OK, I'm clear that I'm not trying to fix the manual turn off thru the BIOS or chipset [Finally! you say] - I'm doing it w/ a reformat/ reinstall. Thankfully, I will leave the BIOS alone for now. I'm not clear on the power ACPI/APM/LegacySelect ramifications since it should be in the BIOS, which is pre-OS, and isn't.

I found this additional info googling

Dell's LegacySelect software lets system administrators deactivate various ports and devices (including USB ports and PCI slots) at the BIOS level for tighter control over system security...

Dell's printed documentation is sparse, with only a setup and quick-reference guide that illustrates system assembly.

So LegacySelect is a pre-os option I guess configurable thru the BIOS set up program tho I'm going to try and find that setup & quick reference guide. So maybe there's a ROM chip somewhere that the BIOS reads... but it looks to me that some of the options in BIOS are the LegacySelect. ACPI puts all power management into the hands of the OS and APM "talks" to the BIOS so I thought LegacySelect = APM. But maybe the LegacySelect configurations are "reported" to the OS thru FFH or AML and then the OS takes over. The bottom line for me is is there a ROM or BIOS button that got turned on that I should turn off. But it seems unlikely to me that Dell would offer an option that rolls back the clock to APM so I think maybe LegacySelect is those options in the BIOS setup and I still have no explanation for why ACPI got turned off but a good old reinstall should fix it.

As I said, don't worry too much about it, it *should* get automatically sorted out. Most probably the button didn't get turned on in the BIOS, but in Windows (Windows got confused and maybe it -- or another program -- tried to install what it thought was missing).

And yes, from the description, at first I thought LegacySelect is the name of the BIOS menu Onboard Devices.

The RAID 1 is a "BIOS controlled" chipset thing. As I understand/guess from what I read, you enable it in the BIOS [and either Dell has the wrong BIOS setting on its support page or my BIOS has had the wrong setting for 3 years] and the chipset's firmware loads the RAID 1 during boot and win xp's RAID drivers take over when the processor is switched to 32 bit - or the memory is switched, however you say it. The first thing the screen shows on booting is the two drives listed separately and "crtl + i to enter raid configuration" . You have to hit that quick to get into that utility. I think after that the raid is established.

That is the Option ROM (the BIOS chip of the RAID controller). It's independent of the system BIOS. XP's drivers are there so that the OS can 'talk' to the RAID controller. No 32-bit switching takes place, as far as I know (and everything is supposed to be 32-bit on that computer, anyway -- that is, if you haven't installed another OS). There is a pause (when the Ctrl - I... message is shown) to enter the controller's options, and probably you could say the control is switched to the RAID controller, but that isn't important for everyday operation (even for reinstall of OS).

I've been wanting to get rid of that raid 1 since I first got the computer. Per Dell deleting the array makes the disc non-bootable and all files inaccessible. Since this is not a true hardware raid, removing one drive may do the same thing. If I knew that for sure I'd go ahead and delete the array and install onto whichever SATA drive is recognized as the "master" - I think that would be the one in slot 0.

I'm a little rusty on RAIDs, but yes, it's not advisable to remove one of the drives out of the blue - I've seen too many cases when the RAID drives lose their 'relation' to each other (or how it's called) and the array needs to be rebuilt - to try to induce that on purpose. Although, this might be the perfect chance to do it - when the drives are supposed to be blank (always backup first, right? ). See in the Ctrl - I options whether there is a JBOD (just a bunch of disks I'm not kidding, that's the name) option - where each drive is on it's own.

The os install disc has Dell, not MS, on it but its label is "winxp prof sp2" in my computer and I've run recovery console from it and expanded hal from it. It has i386 and value added. It also has a $OEM$ folder. I sincerely hope it will allow me to do a non-RAID installation

I hope so, looks like it will.

GL

[AnnieMS]

More confusion before reinstalling.

I'm about ready to do the reinstall - I have some idea of how the dell install cd should work. But while I was gathering that info on another computer I ran some tests from the diagnostic partition on the Dell starting w/ the express test. It reported failure of the memory data bus stress test and a long list of ECC errors from system memory. I'm starting a separate post for that in Internal Hardware.

Followup re the RAID 1 array.

I removed the secondary SATA drive [w/ power off] and connected it to another computer via a SATA to USB adapter and verified that the data was accessible. I then booted up w/ only one drive and the raid 1 configuration in place. I got a message on the initial boot screen that the array was degraded but bootable and the computer booted up per usual. [i ran the above dell diagnostic before removing the sata drive]

I'm planning on deleting the array, which will make the system unbootable, going into setup and turning RAID off and then booting/installing from the installation cd.

[oopsCarol]

you can try here : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/810903

hope this help