This all started when I had to use the noapic boot paramater in order to install and boot mandrake 10.1 linux. Does not being able to have apic enabled mean that power management will be all screwed up on my laptop? Let me just say that I get oh about an hour out of my battery in linux when I get about 2 and a half hours out of it in windows. I am just not sure if apic is actually the problem. ACPI can be on and linux doesn't freak out but I tried enabling it through KDE and the cpu throttling doesn't work so I'm guessing thats where APIC comes in. I know APIC and ACPI are different I think APIC = Advanced Power and Interrupt Control ...but I don't know what ACPI stands for. Please help me!! I'm running an Averatec 6210HX laptop if that helps at all. Here's the specs for it:

(Everything in the specs is right off newegg.com where I bought the laptop except for my "*EDIT*" line =D )

Specifications:
Part#: AV6210X60-01
CPU: AMD Athlon XP-M 2400+
Display: 15.4'' WXGA TFT(1280 x 800)
OS: *EDIT* Windows XP AND Mandrake 10.1 *EDIT*
Memory: 512MB DDR
Graphics: SiS M741 64MB Shared Memory
HD: 60 GB
Optical Drive: DVD+/-RW drive
Communication: 56K Modem, 10/100 LAN, 802.11g WLAN
Ports: 4 x USB 2.0, VGA, Audio ports, 1x PCMCIA Card Slot
Average Battery Life: 2.5 hours
Dimensions: 14" x 10" x 1.2" (WxLxH)
Weight: 6.2 lbs

just try:
# laptop-mode
i'm too tired to read entire your question, but if you have a problem with battery life, try it.
also it is good to see, if your CPU has frequency scalling /proc/cpuinfo or /proc/cpufreq
and look at the disk, if there isn't much activity here. (too much logs, etc...)
and LCD brightness ...
sorry. no ideas this time
and ... i'm newbie here