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#1
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ACPI power supply relation?
Hello, how are you? I'm Steve. I upgraded my computer. The new board
has got a 24 pin ATX power connector. The other one had got a 20 pins only. Now, the power supply has an extra 4 pin cord which does plug to an 8 pin ATX connector sitting about above the top of the cpu. Could it be, this power cord configuration, somehow, prevents ACPI S1 and S3 from working properly? Steve |
#2
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ACPI power supply relation?
Steve Miller wrote:
Hello, how are you? I'm Steve. I upgraded my computer. The new board has got a 24 pin ATX power connector. The other one had got a 20 pins only. Now, the power supply has an extra 4 pin cord which does plug to an 8 pin ATX connector sitting about above the top of the cpu. Could it be, this power cord configuration, somehow, prevents ACPI S1 and S3 from working properly? Steve ACPI specs are available here. If you have insomnia, this will rapidly cure it. The spec is about the size of "War and Peace" by Tolstoy. http://www.acpi.info/ There is a little bit of info here as well. "Advanced Configuration and Power Interface" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acpi ACPI is something that the BIOS plays a part in, as well as the operating system. The BIOS passes "tables" at startup, to the OS. Some of the "ACPI objects" take the place of Plug and Play information. So, for example, the functionality of a Soft Power button, may be indicated by an item in the BIOS table. The BIOS has some latitude, in terms of things like Standby. For example, say the motherboard cannot properly handle Suspend To RAM (S3). The BIOS could refuse to pass S3 as an option, to the OS, and then if you attempted Standby in the OS, it would just blank the monitor instead. So if a hardware feature is "busted", the BIOS has a crude way of preventing collateral damage. Now, what does this have to do with the power supply ? Virtually nothing. Your ATX power supply has a main connector. It has 20 or 24 pins. The extra pins on the 24 pin version, are redundant pins and wires. They increase the maximum current flow that could be safely handled by the wiring harness. No new functions are added there. The secondary connector, is the ATX12V connector. It powers the processor, and ideally, is separate from the main harness. It is typically a 2x2 connector on a desktop. Two wires are yellow (+12V), and two wires are black (ground). If you assumed the pins could handle 6A current each, the yellow wire max current would be 12A. Multiply 12V by 12A and get 144W max. If the Vcore (processor power conversion) is 90% efficient, the net power delivered to the processor, is about 130W. And that is just about the highest power desktop processor. For people who overclock, it is possible to set the clock frequency so high, that the processor draws 200W+. Some motherboards get so hot while doing that, that the area around the CPU socket can melt foam plastic. In such extreme situations, the other connector version comes in handy. That is the 2x4 connector. It has four yellow wires and four black wires, and while the function is not changed, the amount of current that can flow without burning any pins, is increased. One difference between the old AT supply, and the new ATX, is the ATX has "soft power" control. The PS_ON# signal, sent from the motherboard to the power supply, indicates when the motherboard wants the main power signals turned on. The +5VSB power rail, is present while the computer is sleeping, and is used for the logic driving PS_ON# as well. This means the ATX power supply is split into two pieces, a +5VSB chunk for standby power. And the rest of the rails, switched on while the user is actually running the computer. The rest of the functions (intelligence, if you will), is the motherboard logic chips, and the OS and its ACPI code. ******* To make ACPI work requires 1) ACPI compliant BIOS (able to "pass good tables"). 2) BIOS table value passed, is able to indicate a working S3. That is, if you want Suspend to RAM. 3) When WinXP is installed, a HAL is selected that supports ACPI. Pressing F5 and selecting "Standard PC" would break it. The OS installer would normally automatically notice the BIOS supports ACPI, and install an ACPI HAL. A broken BIOS (I had one), results in the wrong HAL being installed. 4) If Device Manager "Computer" entry properties indicates "ACPI" in the name, then a good HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) is present. If the user has just corrected an error in the BIOS setting (for S3), then Microsoft "dumppo.exe" can be used to attempt to correct the situation. I expect there is a potential for some other issues, which surround the presentation of options on the screen during shutdown. But I don't know how that stuff works. For example, sometimes an option will be grayed out, but I don't know what thing in the registry might be responsible. The purpose of all this Hardware Abstraction Layer stuff, is to hide the details of doing stuff, from the OS. So you may not find a piece of code in the OS, that actually loads a register in the logic, and switches off the power. It may actually be some BIOS code, with the OS handing off control to the BIOS just about when shutdown is to occur. That means, to some extent, the OS works at a higher level. Otherwise, you'd "need a driver", to make the soft power button stuff work. For example, consider hibernation. On my computer, if I hibernate (S4), the BIOS puts up a blue screen with the word "Hibernate" at startup the next time. Apparently, the BIOS has set some storage bit, so it knows that hibernate was requested at last shutdown. The BIOS is not clever enough, to go sniffing around for a hiberfile (because the BIOS would have to know how each OS in existence works). Instead, during shutdown, the OS must be telling the BIOS, what state is to be used. For S3, it would be told to maintain RAM contents. For S4, it might set a bit indicating that hibernation is currently in progress. But that doesn't prevent the OS from also playing a part. If the power fails, the BIOS hibernation bit is cleared, the OS can still discover the hiberfile is present, and load it instead of executing the normal boot sequence. So this standard, does appear to affect what the BIOS has to support. So that is a bit of background (the bits I've learned, without reading the ACPI spec :-) ). Paul |
#3
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ACPI power supply relation?
On May 17, 10:19*am, Paul wrote:
Steve Miller wrote: Hello, how are you? I'm Steve. I upgraded my computer. The new board has got a 24 pin ATX power connector. The other one had got a 20 pins only. Now, the power supply has an extra 4 pin cord which does plug to an 8 pin ATX connector sitting about above the top of the cpu. Could it be, this power cord configuration, somehow, prevents ACPI S1 and S3 from working properly? Steve ACPI specs are available here. If you have insomnia, this will rapidly cure it. The spec is about the size of "War and Peace" by Tolstoy. http://www.acpi.info/ There is a little bit of info here as well. "Advanced Configuration and Power Interface"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acpi ACPI is something that the BIOS plays a part in, as well as the operating system. The BIOS passes "tables" at startup, to the OS. Some of the "ACPI objects" take the place of Plug and Play information. So, for example, the functionality of a Soft Power button, may be indicated by an item in the BIOS table. The BIOS has some latitude, in terms of things like Standby. For example, say the motherboard cannot properly handle Suspend To RAM (S3). The BIOS could refuse to pass S3 as an option, to the OS, and then if you attempted Standby in the OS, it would just blank the monitor instead. So if a hardware feature is "busted", the BIOS has a crude way of preventing collateral damage. Now, what does this have to do with the power supply ? Virtually nothing. Your ATX power supply has a main connector. It has 20 or 24 pins. The extra pins on the 24 pin version, are redundant pins and wires. They increase the maximum current flow that could be safely handled by the wiring harness. No new functions are added there. The secondary connector, is the ATX12V connector. It powers the processor, and ideally, is separate from the main harness. It is typically a 2x2 connector on a desktop. Two wires are yellow (+12V), and two wires are black (ground). If you assumed the pins could handle 6A current each, the yellow wire max current would be 12A. Multiply 12V by 12A and get 144W max. If the Vcore (processor power conversion) is 90% efficient, the net power delivered to the processor, is about 130W. And that is just about the highest power desktop processor. For people who overclock, it is possible to set the clock frequency so high, that the processor draws 200W+. Some motherboards get so hot while doing that, that the area around the CPU socket can melt foam plastic. In such extreme situations, the other connector version comes in handy. That is the 2x4 connector. It has four yellow wires and four black wires, and while the function is not changed, the amount of current that can flow without burning any pins, is increased. One difference between the old AT supply, and the new ATX, is the ATX has "soft power" control. The PS_ON# signal, sent from the motherboard to the power supply, indicates when the motherboard wants the main power signals turned on. The +5VSB power rail, is present while the computer is sleeping, and is used for the logic driving PS_ON# as well. This means the ATX power supply is split into two pieces, a +5VSB chunk for standby power. And the rest of the rails, switched on while the user is actually running the computer. The rest of the functions (intelligence, if you will), is the motherboard logic chips, and the OS and its ACPI code. ******* To make ACPI work requires 1) ACPI compliant BIOS (able to "pass good tables"). 2) BIOS table value passed, is able to indicate a working S3. * * That is, if you want Suspend to RAM. 3) When WinXP is installed, a HAL is selected that supports ACPI. * * Pressing F5 and selecting "Standard PC" would break it. The * * OS installer would normally automatically notice the BIOS * * supports ACPI, and install an ACPI HAL. A broken BIOS (I had * * one), results in the wrong HAL being installed. 4) If Device Manager "Computer" entry properties indicates * * "ACPI" in the name, then a good HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) * * is present. If the user has just corrected an error in the * * BIOS setting (for S3), then Microsoft "dumppo.exe" can be used * * to attempt to correct the situation. I expect there is a potential for some other issues, which surround the presentation of options on the screen during shutdown. But I don't know how that stuff works. For example, sometimes an option will be grayed out, but I don't know what thing in the registry might be responsible. The purpose of all this Hardware Abstraction Layer stuff, is to hide the details of doing stuff, from the OS. So you may not find a piece of code in the OS, that actually loads a register in the logic, and switches off the power. It may actually be some BIOS code, with the OS handing off control to the BIOS just about when shutdown is to occur. That means, to some extent, the OS works at a higher level. Otherwise, you'd "need a driver", to make the soft power button stuff work. For example, consider hibernation. On my computer, if I hibernate (S4), the BIOS puts up a blue screen with the word "Hibernate" at startup the next time. Apparently, the BIOS has set some storage bit, so it knows that hibernate was requested at last shutdown. The BIOS is not clever enough, to go sniffing around for a hiberfile (because the BIOS would have to know how each OS in existence works). Instead, during shutdown, the OS must be telling the BIOS, what state is to be used. For S3, it would be told to maintain RAM contents. For S4, it might set a bit indicating that hibernation is currently in progress. But that doesn't prevent the OS from also playing a part. If the power fails, the BIOS hibernation bit is cleared, the OS can still discover the hiberfile is present, and load it instead of executing the normal boot sequence. So this standard, does appear to affect what the BIOS has to support. So that is a bit of background (the bits I've learned, without reading the ACPI spec :-) ). * * Paul Thanks Paul. what a great posting. I forgot to tell, my current power supply has a 20 pin ATX plug and the previously mentioned 4 pin plug. The computer won't start without the 4 pins plugged in, too. The heat sink doesn't get hot, since the processor was without power. First I was thinking it was broken, but was told it's not. I assume there are power supplies which might only have a 24 pin connector, which solely needs to be plugged to the mainboard, not the the additional 4 pin plug. As you have said, this was the way I have understand your reply, this current power configuration can not be faulty, preventing the S1 or S3 state? The BIOS lets me choose ACPI enabled or disabled (the computer won't boot if ACPI was disabled, however ) as well as ACPI state S1 or S3, which was set below ACPI enabled or disabled. The hardware manager says ACPI Multiprocessor PC, therefore it should be fine and work which it doesn't. Would be great to save up some energy. Steve |
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ACPI power supply relation?
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#5
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ACPI power supply relation?
The power supply has 20 pin connector, the mainboard 24 pin. I don't
need to plug 24 in 20. Do you get it? Steve |
#6
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ACPI power supply relation?
wrote in message ... The power supply has 20 pin connector, the mainboard 24 pin. I don't need to plug 24 in 20. Do you get it? Steve What you are doing is totally correct. The 24 pin motherboard connector will accept a 20 pin PSU connector. Those 20 pin PSU to 24 pin motherboard adapters are pointless. They don't increase the overall current capacity. The important thing is that you connect the 4 pin CPU 12 volt connector to the CPU connector block. Later motherboards have an 8 pin CPU block, but the 4 pin PSU connector will only fit into the proper side of the block, the left side. |
#7
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ACPI power supply relation?
Sorry I think was a little brusque. But, I was tinkering with this a
while. so, should I get one of such adapter. Something new to the collection of computer related stuff. : ) Steve |
#8
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ACPI power supply relation?
Ian D wrote:
What you are doing is totally correct. The 24 pin motherboard connector will accept a 20 pin PSU connector. Those 20 pin PSU to 24 pin motherboard adapters are pointless. They don't increase the overall current capacity. The important thing is that you connect the 4 pin CPU 12 volt connector to the CPU connector block. Later motherboards have an 8 pin CPU block, but the 4 pin PSU connector will only fit into the proper side of the block, the left side. And yet I've had the situation where I plug the 20 pin plug into a 24 pin mobo socket and nothing. I then put the adapter in the middle and it works - go figure. -- SteveH |
#9
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ACPI power supply relation?
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#10
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ACPI power supply relation?
I do love you guys, really. Thank you. Should I remove the other 4 pin
plug before the adapter comes in? Or, was it save to leave it in? Steve |
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