Is it possible to disable ACPI Suspend in Windows XP?

I don't mean the "Control Panel, Power Settings,..., choose never to sleep, actions on button, choose 'ask me', actions on close lid, choose 'no action', etc..." solution. [1]

I mean totally disable the suspend functionality, the same way I can totally disable Hibernation by uncheking a box inside a tab in Power Settings that is made for this purpose.

[1] That takes a long time to do and somehow stops on several other annoyances, such as this setting not being properly propagated to each user account.

user39559

Posted 2010-09-03T12:51:02.680

Reputation: 1 783

Answers

I believe this should achieve what you're after.

Open up regedit and navigate to the following location:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ACPI\Parameters

Create a new DWORD value named Attributes, set it's data to hexadecimal and input the value 70.

Exit regedit and reboot.

DMA57361

Posted 2010-09-03T12:51:02.680

Reputation: 17 581

Thanks. What does the 70 mean? Is it a binary expansion of a bunch of settings like in linux file permissions? – user39559 – 2010-09-03T13:08:07.520

@user - I've no idea. Possibly. I came accross this answer in several places though, so it would appear to be a good bet.

– DMA57361 – 2010-09-03T13:18:16.673

Indeed it is. I googled the registry you mention and found a lot of links as well.

7=111 in binary which disables all S1, S2 and S3 suspend modes.

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/74843-disable-standby-tweak/ http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/81483-45-stop-computer-standby http://blog.tiensivu.com/aaron/archives/698-Enable-better-performance-under-XP-SP2-if-you-have-a-lot-of-ACPI-devices-sharing-the-ACPI-interrupt%21.html http://www.exoid.com/?page_id=47 http://www.infdump.com/inffiles/B/BIOSINFO.INF

– user39559 – 2010-09-03T13:50:57.320

@user39559 Good bit of reseach that, and good intuition on it being a bit field. – DMA57361 – 2010-09-03T13:54:51.280

Well, 3, 7, 15 and 63 are suspicious numbers. – user39559 – 2010-09-06T15:05:35.200

To disable ACPI, do the following:

In Device Manager, right-click on "Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC" under the "Computer" header and select "Update Driver".
Select "Install from a list or specific location (advanced)" and click Next.
Select "Don't Search. I will choose the driver to install" and click Next.
Select "Standard PC" and click Next.
Click Next and OK to the end.

I suggest, just in case, to create a system restore point before doing the above, and also to note down the existing driver.

If this is not enough, you might consider turning off ACPI in the BIOS. However, be warned that changing this BIOS parameter might require the re-installation of XP.

harrymc

Posted 2010-09-03T12:51:02.680

Reputation: 306 093

1Wouldn't it ruin other controls, like fan control, screen luminosity, or even the Power Off functionality? – user39559 – 2010-09-03T13:26:30.423

@user39559: It might entail some lose of functionality, but that depends on the computer model. Which is why I suggested the system restore point as a way back. – harrymc – 2010-09-03T14:28:01.783