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Dealing with Windows's Advanced Power Management (APM)

Intended For
Windows XP
Windows 2000
Windows Me
Windows 98
Windows 95
One of the most common problems with Windows is its abysmal support for APM (Advanced Power Management). Either Windows won't go into power saving mode when you want it to, or it insists on putting your system in "standby" mode even when all power management options are disabled. Either way, it isn't fun.

  • Windows 95 has minimal support, and therefore doesn't pose much of a problem.
  • Windows 98 has more support, but it typically doesn't work very well.
  • Windows Me has much improved APM support over Windows 98, although occasionally you'll run into an incompatability.
  • Windows 2000 and Windows XP will support APM very well, as long as the correct HAL (hardware abstraction layer) is installed.


Regardless of your OS, you should check your system BIOS to see if APM is properly enabled and configured:

  • Enter your computer's BIOS setup (press DEL or ESC or something like that just after turning on your system, and your computer is counting through your memory). Contact your computer's manufacuter or refer to your computer's documentation for details specific to your computer.
  • Turn the main APM option to Enable or On.
  • Important: Set all the lesser APM-related options (such as hard disk timouts and the monitoring of ports) to disable or off. This ensures that Windows is in control of all the APM options, and your BIOS settings don't interfere or conflict with your Windows APM preferences.


Then, set your power-saving preferences in Windows:

  • Double-click the Power Management icon (called Power or Power Options in some versions of Windows) in Control Panel. If it isn't there, your computer isn't properly set up - see above.
  • Choose the options that best suit your needs, and click Ok when you're done.

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Written by: Annoyances.org
Last updated: Tuesday, September 25, 2001

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