System and method for information handling system multimedia mode boot optimization

• US 20050204181A1
• Filed: 02/19/2004
• Published: 09/15/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/19/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Jaber, Muhammed K., Montero, Adolfo S.
• Granted Patent: US 7,380,148 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4406 Loading of operating system

Abstract

An information handling system selectively boots to a normal operation mode having devices and applications configured to operate normally or a multimedia operation mode having devices and applications that support presentation of multimedia information enabled and other devices and applications disabled. In one embodiment, the multimedia mode improves portable information handling system multimedia performance by reducing power consumption to improve battery charge life and by reducing boot time to improve the timeliness of the user experience. For instance, a multimedia module interfaces with the operating system to disable power up of non-multimedia devices, such as networking devices, and non-multimedia applications, such as antivirus applications, while enabling multimedia devices, such as a DVD disc drive, to display multimedia information, such as a DVD movie.

Claims

1. An information handling system having improved multimedia performance, the information handling system comprising:

plural processing components operable to process information for presentation to a user;

an operating system operable to coordinate operation of the processing components;

a multimedia application operable to interface with predetermined of the processing components through the operating system to present multimedia information;

a multimedia mode selector interfaced with one or more of the processing components and operable to accept a user selection of a multimedia mode of operation; and

a multimedia module interfaced with the multimedia mode selector and the operating system, the multimedia module operable to boot the processing components and operating system to the multimedia mode upon selection through the multimedia mode selector, the multimedia mode having substantially only the predetermined of the processing components configured to run in support of the multimedia application.

2. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein the predetermined of the processing components comprise a CPU, memory, video devices, audio devices and input devices.

3. The information handling system of claim 2 wherein the processing components excluded from boot by the multimedia module comprise a network interface card, a wireless network interface, and a modem.

4. The information handling system of claim 2 wherein the predetermined of the processing components further comprise a DVD disc drive and the multimedia application comprises a DVD movie player.

5. The information handling system of claim 4 wherein the predetermined processing components further comprise a hard disc drive storing the operating system and the multimedia module is further operable to initiate power to spin-up the DVD disc drive substantially simultaneous with initiation of power to the hard disc drive to boot the operating system.

6. The information handling system of claim 2 wherein the multimedia module is further operable to reduce CPU clock speed after boot of the predetermined processing components to an operational state.

7. The information handling system of claim 1 further comprising:

one or more utility applications automatically initiated by the operating system;

wherein the multimedia module is further operable to disable automatic initiation of the utility applications in the multimedia mode.

8. The information handling system of claim 7 wherein the utility applications comprise an antivirus application.

9. The information handling system of claim 1 further comprising:

a power switch interfaced with the operating system and operable to accept a user selection of a normal mode of operation, the normal mode having the operating system boot substantially all of the processing components after a POST;

wherein the multimedia module disables the POST for boots to the multimedia mode.

10. A method for booting an information handling system to a multimedia mode, the method comprising:

selecting a multimedia mode to present multimedia information at the information handling system;

modifying boot of the information handling system operating system to enable multimedia devices and disable non-multimedia devices; and

running a multimedia application with the operating system and the multimedia devices to display multimedia information.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

disabling one or more non-multimedia applications that are otherwise automatically initiated by the operating system.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the non-multimedia applications comprise an antivirus application.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein modifying boot of the information handling system further comprises:

enabling the CPU, memory, video, audio, input and disc drive devices; and

disabling the network interface card, wireless interface and modem devices.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the multimedia information comprises a movie presented from a DVD disc.

15. The method of claim 10 wherein modifying boot of the information handling system further comprises bypassing the POST otherwise automatically initiated by the BIOS.

16. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

operating the CPU at full performance to complete the modified boot and the initiation of the presentation of multimedia information; and

throttling the CPU performance to present the multimedia information with reduced power consumption.

17. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

hiding non-multimedia devices from the operating system to prevent the operating system from trying to power-up unused devices.

18. A system for enhancing multimedia information presentation at an information handling system, the information handling system having plural devices controlled in a normal mode of operation by an operating system, the system comprising:

a multimedia selector switch operable to accept selection of a multimedia mode of operation; and

a multimedia module interfaced with the multimedia selector and operable to boot the operating system to a multimedia mode of operation having selected devices enabled and selected devices disabled, the selected enabled devices supporting display of multimedia information.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the information handling system further comprises plural applications running on top of the operating system after boot to the normal mode of operation, and wherein the multimedia module is further operable to boot the operating system to a multimedia mode of operation having selected of the applications enabled and selected of the applications disabled, the selected enabled applications supporting display of multimedia information.

20. The system of claim 19 further comprising a multimedia configuration GUI interfaced with the multimedia module and operable to selectively configure one or more of the devices and applications as enabled or disabled.