sysctl variables not showing. -- FreeBSD-4.8-P13

[nw1]

FreeBSD 4.8-RELEASE-p13
The machine overheats.  sysctl variables unable to be seen.

Box-1 = NFS-server (the problem machine)
Box-2 and above are NFS-clients

The short version of the problem:  After some overheating issues using:
Two (2) AMD 1800+ MP processors
In a Tyan Tiger MP (S-2460),
it was discovered that setting the following knobs curbed the overheating:

machdep.apm_standby_delay=0
machdep.apm_suspend_delay=0  Things went pretty smooth --for a while.

Currently, we have the same two (2) AMD 1800+ MP's in a different board ="Tyan Tiger-MPX
(S-2466)" -- now the box continues to overheat just as it did in the past (prior to
setting the above sysctl knobs).  When switching from the S-2460 to the S-2466, all we did
was plug in the hdd's and go for it --things seem to work.  Because the S-2466 is the
successor to the S-2460, we didn't see any need for a fresh install --granted the chipset
is a tad different.  <g>  Could this different chipset be causing my problem(s)?

Looking further into the problem, on Box-1:

# sysctl machdep.apm_standby_delay
sysctl: unknown oid 'machdep.apm_standby_delay
# sysctl machdep.apm_suspend_delay
sysctl: unknown oid 'machdep.apm_suspend_delay'

As you can see, these knobs are no where to be found.

The extreme strangeness is, The roll of this machine is one of a build-box; three (3)
other machines on the LAN mount the necessary file systems via NFS to installworld and
install their respective kernels from this machine, and yet, on those client machines I
get the following:

# sysctl -a | grep -i apm
SWAPMETA:        160,     3479,    489,    227,     1592
debug.apm_debug: 0
machdep.apm_suspend_delay: 1
machdep.apm_standby_delay: 1
---------------------------------
Using that same command on the --build machine-- aka: Box-1:
# sysctl -a | grep -i apm
SWAPMETA:        160,    31727,      0,      0,        0  <-- is all we get.

My questions are, at the very least:
Why aren't those knobs -or- variables displayed using sysctl -a?

Even though the aforementioned variables aren't seen using the above command, will setting
those *unseen variables in /etc/sysctl.conf in fact get set?

Thanks for your time reading this.

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