Troubleshooting Text-Mode Setup Problems on ACPI Computers

• Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Server

SUMMARY

This article describes how to troubleshoot problems (such as the computer not responding, or hanging) during the text-mode portion of Setup on ACPI-based computers.

MORE INFORMATION

Following the steps below may help to solve many of these problems. An Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) computer builds a table of devices that it supplies to the operating system. This table provides everything the computer needs to know about the resource needs and power management capabilities of the hardware in the computer. Inaccuracies in this table are the primary cause of hardware problems in Windows 2000. Mixing legacy (manually configured or ISA) devices with PCI devices accounts for the second most common cause of problems. ACPI builds a collection of tables containing information about the resource usage and power management capabilities of the devices in your computer. It then loads the device drivers for all devices and uses those detected. Based on this information, the following troubleshooting steps may help in troubleshooting hangs during the text-mode portion of Setup.

1. Verify that that your computer is listed on the ACPI portion of the HCL for Windows 2000.



2. If ACPI does not install on its own, do not force it. A host of reasons contribute to this. It may be on the known bad ACPI BIOS list. Forcing it to install deliberately introduces the instabilities that have caused the computer to be placed on the list to begin with. It may not be responding properly to the Computer Control Interrupt enable call among other reasons. In that case, a hang when forcing the installation when it is not properly responding to ACPI configuration calls is to be expected.



3. Verify that you have the most recent ACPI BIOS as supplied by your computer manufacturer.



4. If it will not install with ACPI enabled, disable ACPI support in the computer BIOS (if possible) and try to install then.



5. Remove absolutely all non-essential hardware and attempt to install again.



6. If you have a mix of ISA and PCI devices, remove the ISA devices (if possible) until after installation. The PCI bus has no reliable way of knowing of the resource settings of ISA devices. This means that it is possible for device conflicts to occur because of the lack of communication between the two bus types. Remove the ISA devices, then verify their settings against the computer's current resource usage. If possible, manually configure the ISA device to an unused resource configuration.



7. If removing the ISA device until after Setup is finished is not feasible, check the computer BIOS to determine if it is possible to manually reserve the resources used by the ISA device (set to "Used by ISA" or "reserved for ISA").



8. Another option is to globally disable the installation of ACPI by altering the Txtsetup.sif file in the following manner:

   ; not in the GoodACPIBios list. If a BIOS has a date greater
   : than this and is not in the BadACPIBios list, then it will
   ; be used unless ACPIEnable = 0
   ;
   [ACPIOptions]
   ACPIEnable = 0 (Change this from 2 to 0)
   ACPIBiosDate = 01,01,1999
   
   [BadACPIBios]
   
   [GoodACPIBios]
   AcerAspire2100=AcerAspire2100
   AcerAspire3000 = AcerAspire3000

   It would be better to remove ACPI support in the BIOS if that option is available. This prevents devices expecting the ability for the operating system to write back configuration information from not succeeding. For additional information about the Txtsetup.sif file, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   Q216573 How Windows 2000 Determines ACPI Compatibility




9. Avoid assigning IRQ 9 to legacy devices. ACPI uses this IRQ for PCI IRQ steering and this too can cause computer hangs during text-mode Setup. If the device cannot use any other interrupt, try to reserve the device interrupt in the computer BIOS as noted in step 7 above.

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbhw kbsetup kbtshoot
Version : WINDOWS:2000
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbhowto