Software workaround for Windows 98 without installation.

• This is applicable ONLY with Windows 98.
• Again! This will not work for XP/2000.

The trick to avoid shutdowns by ACPI is to remove it. Sounds easy, but it is not!
The windows version provided with Sony Vaio laptops does not show this feature in device manager, so it can not be disabled.
What we do here, is to simply delete the drivers Windows uses for ACPI/APM.
This will result in

• one or two blue screens while booting (telling you that ACPI-drivers are not found).
• Besides that your system will work fine!
• All programms and data will stay on your harddisc.
• Running on battery, your laptop cannot reduce power consumption of certain devices any more -> shorter runtime.
  

NECESSARY STEPS:

1. First enter your BIOS/CMOS Setup by pressing the appropriate key (usually F1/F2/Del) specified in your computer/motherboard manual during the bootup POST (Power On Self Test) screen, and DISABLE ALL (Advanced) Power Management (APM/ACPI) settings, like: "Doze Mode", "Standby Mode", "Suspend Mode", "HDD Power Down", "Video Off" etc. Save your changes and reboot.

2. After your Windows GUI comes up: open Control Panel -> Power Management -> select the "Always on" Power scheme -> make sure the "Turn off monitor" and "Turn off hard disks" boxes show "Never" -> click OK/Apply to save changes.

3. Edit your SYSTEM.INI file (found in your Windows folder) with Notepad or Sysedit (but BACK IT UP FIRST!) -> go to the:
   1. [boot] section -> look for the "power.drv" entry on the "drivers=" line -> move it to a new line of its own starting with a semicolon (;) to disable it (example):

      [boot]
      drivers=mmsystem.dll whatever.vxd etc...
      ; power.drv

      DO NOT remark/disable ANY other filenames on the "drivers=" line!

   2. [386enh] section -> look for the "device=*vpowerd" line -> disable it by placing a semicolon (;) in front of it (example):

      [386enh]
      ; device=*vpowerd

      Save your file.

4. BACKUP YOUR REGISTRY FILES: SYSTEM.DAT, USER.DAT (+ CLASSES.DAT -WinME only)!

5. Run Regedit:
   1. Go to:

      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

      and then to:

      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\VCOMM

      Under each key above -> double-click on the "EnablePowerManagement" DWORD/Binary (depending on your Win9x/ME release) Value in the right hand pane -> change ALL characters to read 0 (zero) -> click OK/press Enter.

   2. Click Edit from the Regedit menu -> select Find -> start 3 separate Registry searches: type "power.drv", "vpower" and "vpowr" respectively (no quotes) in the "Find what..." box -> delete ALL found keys/values/entries.

6. Move to a safe BACKUP location these 2 files from C:\Windows\System: POWER.DRV + VPOWERD.VXD.

7. Disable ANY Power Management entries from the System Agent (Task Scheduler) list.

8. Restart Windows.

9. Done.

Your Windows machine could now run without shutting down.

Please report (if succeeded or not) here:
strandi?web.de (replace ? with @ -> Antispam :)

          Andi