Compaq Computer Corporation, Inc.

Hewlett-packard Development Company, L.p.

Compaq Information Technologies Group, L.p.

Craig L Chaiken

James Luke Mondshine

Tim L Zhang

Daniel V Forlenza

Mark J Schlaffer

Larry W Kunkel

William H Nott

Stan Stanart

Mazin A Mustafa

Edmund Heller

Stanley Stanart

A computer system incorporating capabilities for displaying the audio disk track number when the computer system is playing an audio disk. The computer system determines if a disk is present in the disk drive. If a disk is present, the computer system determines if an audio disk is present in the disk drive. If so, the computer system then monitors the disk drive. When the audio disk is played by the disk drive, the computer system displays the audio disk track number. The computer system then periodically polls the disk drive to update the audio disk track number. The computer system displays a battery gauge status when the audio disk track number is not being displayed. The status display is visible when the portable computer is in either an open or closed state.

Status display being visible in a closed position and displaying a track number during play mode comprising a reduced power of a system

Either a backup BIOS or a main BIOS in a non-volatile memory is used to fully boot a computer system, depending on the validity of the main BIOS, successful prior booting using the main BIOS, or the validity of the CMOS settings. Unlike the boot block procedure, in either case, the computer system becomes fully operational. A count is made indicating the number of times booting is retried with the main BIOS. If a predetermined count value is reached, the main BIOS is invalid, or CMOS is invalid, then booting is completed using the backup BIOS. If the predetermined count value is not reached, a jump is made from the end of the BIOS validation code to an entry point in the main BIOS of the non-volatile memory to continue booting using the main BIOS. The backup BIOS is stored in a permanent protected portion of the non-volatile memory and the main BIOS is stored in a flashable portion of the non-volatile memory. The number of contiguous or non-contiguous blocks of the non-volatile memory used to store the backup BIOS and the main BIOS will depend on the specific architecture of the non-volatile memory. In one embodiment, the backup BIOS and the main BIOS are stored each in single contiguous blocks of the non-volatile memory. Alternatively, in other embodiments, the backup BIOS and the main BIOS are stored each in a plurality of individually contiguous or non-contiguous blocks of the non-volatile memory.

Hardware independent implementation of computer system BIOS recovery

A system and method for making sure that before the ROM BIOS of a personal computer is reprogrammed, the BIOS image is compatible with the computer whose BIOS are being reprogrammed. This is done by requiring the utility that performs the reprogramming of the ROM BIOS to have a secure portion of code that is stored in a portion of the computer's memory that is inaccessible to a user. The secure portion of code is used to make sure that the BIOS image to be programmed into the computer is compatible with the computer.

Virus resistant and hardware independent method of flashing system bios

An operating system hang condition is detected by exploiting the fact that when an operating system hang condition occurs, the operating system kernel generally fails to respond to operating system interrupts. Consequently, an operating system hang condition may be detected by setting a status flag to a first value, generating an operating system interrupt intended for an operating system interrupt handler within an operating system kernel that resets the status flag to a second value, executing the operating system interrupt handler if the operating system kernel is responding to the operating system interrupt and executing a system BIOS interrupt handler that measures a time interval in which the status flag is set to the first value without being reset to the second value. If the measured time interval exceeds a threshold time interval, an operating system hang condition may be presumed to have occurred and an appropriate procedure may be initiated that informs the user of an operating system malfunction, performs a system reset operation or corrects the problem causing the operating system hang condition.

Operating system hang detection and correction

In a first aspect, the invention is a method for interfacing a generic program with the ASL code in an ACPI system. The method comprises storing information from a generic program in a shared memory; accessing the ASL code; and retrieving the stored information with the ASL code. In a second aspect, the invention is a method for testing ASL PnP code in an ACPI system. The method comprises identifying a configurable PnP device; disabling the identified configurable PnP device; testing the disabled, configurable PnP device for a configuration; and verifying that, for the tested configuration, the resulting current resources match the set resources. In variations of these aspects, the methods may be performed by instructions encoded on a computer-readable, program storage medium and used to program a computer.

Method and apparatus for testing ASL plug and play code in an ACPI operating system

A computer system allows resuming from Power-On Suspend (POS) mode by generating an interrupt. The interrupt generates a System Management Interrupt (SMI), which a controller uses to produce a POS resume event signal to resume the system from the Power-On Suspend mode. The system allows use of chipsets such as the VIA VT82C586B that are incapable of directly causing a resume from POS mode in response to an interrupt.

Method and apparatus for externally generating system control interrupts as resume events from power-on suspend mode

Providing an audio track number to a status display of a portable computer system which is in an audio compact disk play mode

Computer system with power loss protection mechanism

A monitor includes a file that identifies one or more compatible monitors and/or a list of features of the monitor. A processing unit, such as a computer, that does not specifically support the particular monitor may nonetheless configure itself to operate effectively with the monitor. If the processing unit supports a compatible monitor, it configures itself to operate with the compatible monitor. Otherwise, the processing unit may configure itself to support the features of the particular monitor.

Method and apparatus for identifying display monitor functionality and compatibility

Polling and displaying updated audio disk track number in a portable computer

A computer system that implements communication support with a minimum amount of main memory. The computer system provides a Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) for execution in Random Access Memory (RAM). Included in the BIOS is the communication initialization and runtime code. Upon initialization, the communication initialization code is executed, configuring and initializing communication devices, including a Universal Serial Bus (USB) device. After the initialization, the runtime communication code is moved to a secure memory, such as System Management Mode (SMM) memory. The runtime communication code is executed in response to an interrupt to the secure memory. If the secure memory is SMM memory, then a SMI will trigger the execution of the communication code. The main memory is not accessed to execute the runtime communication code.

Implementing universal serial bus support with a minimum of system RAM

Displaying audio disk track number in portable computer system

A method is provided for creating a virtual operating system directed power management event. The method may include executing a prepare-to-sleep routine in a computer system running an Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) compliant operating system. The prepare-to-sleep routine may include programming ACPI compliant core logic such as the Intel PIIX4 device to generate an I/O trap system management interrupt (SMI) upon accesses to the ACPI WAK.sub.-- STS register. The prepare-to-sleep routine may also enable non-dedicated event signals, such as legacy IRQs, to serve as resume events. After a resume event, the operating system reads the WAK.sub.-- STS register. Upon access to the WAK.sub.-- STS an SMI is generated. An SMI handler may be executed that determines if the resume event was generated by a wake device. If the resume event was in response to a non-dedicated event signal such as a legacy IRQ, the handler writes to a configuration register in the core logic which causes an unused dedicated event signal to appear as if it was asserted in the ACPI general purpose event register. Upon a subsequent access of the general purpose event register, the operating system will now recognize an ACPI compliant event. Alternatively, the core logic may be modified to include an event status/enable pair for each legacy IRQ.

System management method and apparatus for supporting non-dedicated

A keyboard scancode signal is processed by the following steps. In response to the scancode signal, and before capture of the scancode signal by a first program that would otherwise interfere with use of the scancode signal by a second program, causing execution of the second program. After execution of the second program, interaction with the first program is permitted.

Growing community of inventors

Tomball, TX, United States of America

Craig L Chaiken