ACPI and PnP

Can someone give me a simple answer to what PnP and ACPI automatically assigns to devices. (IE: IRQ, Power management)

I think i have it right in my head just want to double check.

ACPI deals with the powermangement of devices and Pnp Assigns I/o, IRQ and DMA where needed.

Cheers

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agustinchernitsky

Yes, ACPI replaces the old APM. What is important with ACPI regarding 270 is:

1.- Once you install WinXP with an ACPI complaint system, you can't replace it with a non ACPI system (change motherboards). You will get the Blue Screen of Death...

2.- If you need to do it, you have to do an implace upgrade to re-install or remove the ACPI complaint drivers from WinXP.

PNP is another thing. PNP allows WinXP to:

1.- Automatically detect the device
2.- Install the driver
3.- Configure the drive (IRQ, IO address, DMA and other resources)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-and-play

Hope it helps!

bighornsheep

agustinchernitsky wrote:

Yes, ACPI replaces the old APM. What is important with ACPI regarding 270 is:

1.- Once you install WinXP with an ACPI complaint system, you can't replace it with a non ACPI system (change motherboards). You will get the Blue Screen of Death...

2.- If you need to do it, you have to do an implace upgrade to re-install or remove the ACPI complaint drivers from WinXP.

PNP is another thing. PNP allows WinXP to:

1.- Automatically detect the device
2.- Install the driver
3.- Configure the drive (IRQ, IO address, DMA and other resources)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-and-play

Hope it helps!

I dont believe Plug n' Play devices will install any drivers. PnP just means that there isnt any configuration need for resources and the OS knows how to manage those devices automatically. A driver is still needed to be installed. I believe that the term True PnP is coined for devices that require no additional drivers, ie, USB drives and HID devices.

RTmarc

XP has a ton of built-in generic drivers for most everything. I think it will only utilize -I guess you could technically say that it "installs" the drivers -the built-in drivers that XP comes with. Most times the generics will be sufficient but every now and then you will need the specific drivers provided with the device.

!30

RTmarc wrote:

XP has a ton of built-in generic drivers for most everything. I think it will only utilize -I guess you could technically say that it "installs" the drivers -the built-in drivers that XP comes with. Most times the generics will be sufficient but every now and then you will need the specific drivers provided with the device.

-man , the point is you misunderstood the concept , PnP mean's when you pull in your keyboard , the OS will know what to do , instal a driver , automaticaly(transparent to user ) , and configure IRQ , DMA for it , and will automaticaly work .
-I have to mention that the driver will be installed if XP support's it , HLC list , altough XP , suport's now many many driver's.

@agustinchernitsky is true.

Altough I think , Linux/Unix , has many more driver's and suport's more device's that Windows , is another story !

Cheer's !

RTmarc

!30 wrote:

RTmarc wrote:

XP has a ton of built-in generic drivers for most everything. I think it will only utilize -I guess you could technically say that it "installs" the drivers -the built-in drivers that XP comes with. Most times the generics will be sufficient but every now and then you will need the specific drivers provided with the device.

-man , the point is you misunderstood the concept , PnP mean's when you pull in your keyboard , the OS will know what to do , instal a driver , automaticaly(transparent to user ) , and configure IRQ , DMA for it , and will automaticaly work .

How is what I said anything different from what you posted; other than being more easily read? If you plug in a wireless keyboard or mouse or usb flash drive or ________, Windows will automatically install drivers for it so long as it has built in support for the device. Even though it may install a generic driver for the device (i.e., a Logitech wireless mouse/keyboard, SanDisk memory card reader) you may not get all of the features of the device until you install the manufacturer's driver.

agustinchernitsky

Hello,

PNP on WinXP and on any major OS has at least two functions:

1.- Detect & Configure new hardware installed on a system
2.- Install the new hardware drivers

Some HW devices are included in WinXP drivers database (USB pendrives, mouses, display adapters, etc). Others are not... Still since WinXP is a PNP OS, it will install the necesary drivers or:

1.- Prompt you to download the drivers from MS site.
2.- Specify a location
3.- Do nothing.

Maybe, you are mistaken with BIOS PNP... which only detects and configures the hardware (you can see a list of the hardware detected on the bios boot screen).

Danman32

You can also often pre-install OEM drivers, which places the INF in the INF folder, then copies the files where they belong.

Then when the system detects the hardware, it installs the driver using the INF it finds in the INF folder.

If the appropriate INF is not found, then it will assist you in locating the driver for the hardware, which mainly means looking for the install INF.
If the OEM ships their driver via an executable, the executable has to be run before the PnP hardware is connected/installed.

ccnpninja

Hi guys,

PnP is a specification. It mentions that computer resources will be dynamically assigned by a PnP-compliant OS to a PnP hardware device.

So when you plug in a device that is PnP, Windows XP will allocate the necessary resources (as mentioned in previous posts: I/O port, memory,...). Hopefully it is completely done by XP, so you do not worry about the work in the background.

Otherwise if you put in a non PnP device, you will, in many cases, have to configure the necessary resources manually. And this is a tricky job because you should avoid confusion with resources taken by other hardware devices.

I think that nowadays most hardware devices are plug-and-play. Therefore resources conflicts should no longer be a problem.