Been having a problem getting my Sony Vaio to boot up XP this week. On each boot, XP started running the add new hardware wizard claiming it had found “ACPI Uniprocessor PC”. Sometimes it wouldn’t load Windows at all, falling into a never ending loop of reboots. A bit of Googling and it seems lots of people are having the same issue. As is usually the way, almost without fail all the answers on forums from “experts” fell into these three categories:
- “You’ve got a virus” – followed by complicated instructions to run various virus scanners, edit the registrty and perform multiple reboots in between.
- “Your XP installation is screwed – re-install Windows” – this is the one Microsoft themselves seem to suggest.
- “You’ve got a hardware fault – send it back for repair”
I didn’t fancy any of these approaches as for one, they would all demand a great deal of my time, and for another I didn’t actually believe any of these was actually going to fix the problem in any case (I know re-installing Windows will fix almost anything – but it’s a bit like buying a new car just because the old one is a bit dirty or has run out of fuel).
I did a bit more Googling to find out exactly what the ACPI Uniprocessor PC is. Something to do with the processor itself and the HAL. That in turn appears to be connected to power management. So….
I’ve switched off power management, and the problem has gone.
Of course, if you use your machine on batteries this may not be the best answer in the world. It does, however, mean you can use your computer a bit as oppsed to not at all. I only run my machine at home and at work, so I’ve always got mains power.
***UPDATE*** Turns out I’m wrong, and this was the first sign of impending hardware failure. The system board actually died completely on me. I’ve got a new post up about how I set up my new VAIO with XP Pro.
