Hewlett-packard Development Company, L.P.

Mazin Mustafa

Michael A Provencher

Larry W Kunkel

Mike Provencher

A computer system having first and second low power states includes a controller (such as a BIOS routine) that can generate a request to transition to the first low power state (e.g., Suspend state defined in the Advanced Power Management or APM. Standard) in response to activation of predefined events (e.g., a time-out event or a user-initiated event). A program receiving the request can deny the request and instead causes the system to transition to a second low power state (e.g., the APM Standby state).

Managing power states in a computer system

A computer system includes a status register for receiving events which cause the computer system to change to a low power mode or back to a normal power mode. The status register is selectively coupled to a keyboard controller to receive an interrupt from the keyboard controller when a sleep/wake key is actuated on a keyboard. When the computer system is normally powered, the keyboard interrupt is not routed to the status register. If the computer system is powered down, the keyboard interrupt is routed so that actuation of the sleep/wake key will awake the computer system.

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Mazin Mustafa