Computer hanging when trying to load APM, at boot time

[FIlosofem]

Hi.

As written in the subject, my computer freezes at the point it should
load APM.  However, it does boot in safe mode, and "shutdown -p now"
works perfectly.

Moreover, unfortunatly, when I boot in safe mode, only one of my two
processors is being used (it is therefore impossible to always boot in
safe mode).

Thus, my question is: What does booting in safe mode changes, about
APM, so that it works?

Actually, I would like this function to work, since it is pretty
useful with SSH.

Thanks.

Notes: 

1: For sure, the problem is about it since my computer boots perfectly
when disabled in "device.hints", but doesn't when enabled.

2: I can't use ACPI since my BIOS is "on the black list".  

3: I am using FreeBSD 5.3.

4: My server  is a HP Kayak XU/400, dual Pentium II Xeon 400 Mhz, 640 Megabytes.