Advanced power management (APM)

APM makes it possible for the computer to enter an energy saving standby mode. The standby mode can be initiated in the following ways:

  • Time-out period specified in the BIOS Setup Utility
  • Suspend/resume switch connected to the front panel sleep connector
  • From the operating system, such as the Suspend menu item in Windows 95
In standby mode, the motherboard can reduce power consumption by spinning down hard disks, and reducing power to or turning off VESA DPMS-compliant monitors. Power-management mode can be made available or unavailable in the BIOS Setup Utility.

While in standby mode, the computer retains the ability to respond to external interrupts and service requests, such as incoming faxes or network messages. Any keyboard or mouse activity brings the computer out of standby mode and immediately restores power to the monitor.

The BIOS makes APM available by default; but the operating system must support an APM driver for the power-management features to work. For example, Windows 95 supports the power-management features upon detecting that APM is enabled in the BIOS Setup Utility.