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Is it possible to disable ACPI Suspend in Windows XP?

I don't mean the "Control Panel, Power Settings,..., choose never to sleep, actions on button, choose 'ask me', actions on close lid, choose 'no action', etc..." solution. [1]

I mean totally disable the suspend functionality, the same way I can totally disable Hibernation by uncheking a box inside a tab in Power Settings that is made for this purpose.

[1] That takes a long time to do and somehow stops on several other annoyances, such as this setting not being properly propagated to each user account.

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up vote 1 down vote accepted

I believe this should achieve what you're after.

Open up regedit and navigate to the following location:


Create a new DWORD value named Attributes, set it's data to hexadecimal and input the value 70.

Exit regedit and reboot.

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Thanks. What does the 70 mean? Is it a binary expansion of a bunch of settings like in linux file permissions? –  user39559 Sep 3 '10 at 13:08
@user - I've no idea. Possibly. I came accross this answer in several places though, so it would appear to be a good bet. –  DMA57361 Sep 3 '10 at 13:18
Indeed it is. I googled the registry you mention and found a lot of links as well. 7=111 in binary which disables all S1, S2 and S3 suspend modes. msfn.org/board/topic/74843-disable-standby-tweak tomshardware.com/forum/81483-45-stop-computer-standby blog.tiensivu.com/aaron/archives/… exoid.com/?page_id=47 infdump.com/inffiles/B/BIOSINFO.INF –  user39559 Sep 3 '10 at 13:50
@user39559 Good bit of reseach that, and good intuition on it being a bit field. –  DMA57361 Sep 3 '10 at 13:54
Well, 3, 7, 15 and 63 are suspicious numbers. –  user39559 Sep 6 '10 at 15:05
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To disable ACPI, do the following:

  1. In Device Manager, right-click on "Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC" under the "Computer" header and select "Update Driver".
  2. Select "Install from a list or specific location (advanced)" and click Next.
  3. Select "Don't Search. I will choose the driver to install" and click Next.
  4. Select "Standard PC" and click Next.
  5. Click Next and OK to the end.

I suggest, just in case, to create a system restore point before doing the above, and also to note down the existing driver.

If this is not enough, you might consider turning off ACPI in the BIOS. However, be warned that changing this BIOS parameter might require the re-installation of XP.

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Wouldn't it ruin other controls, like fan control, screen luminosity, or even the Power Off functionality? –  user39559 Sep 3 '10 at 13:26
@user39559: It might entail some lose of functionality, but that depends on the computer model. Which is why I suggested the system restore point as a way back. –  harrymc Sep 3 '10 at 14:28
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