Unable to assign IRQ's

[Sinluan 0]

I recently upgraded my system to Win2K, Athalon 1800+ XP with an ECS K7S5A mobo (SiS735chipset) and a single stick of 512Mb Mushkin PC133 RAM. Still using my old GeForce2 MMX400 and SB Live! cards along with an Intel 8255 NIC card for my cable modem. I had no trouble installing the OS and, of course, I have the latest drivers for everything installed along with DirectX8.1b.

 

My problem is: the sound, video & NIC cards - along with a couple PCI to USB controllers - are all jammed into IRQ11 and no matter which PCI slot I move them to, the OS refuses to separate them! I have IRQ's 2, 5, 7 & 10 available but the OS won't utilize them unless I go into Safe mode. Since I'm an avid Everquest gamer, this presents a serious problem as it requires the sound & video to be located on separate IRQ's. I do manage to log on but it doesn't take long before everything locks up and I get booted back to the server screen or the desktop. Please help!

[Champion_R 0]

IRQs cannot be assigned when the OS is running with ACPI Power management. However if the OS is run with APM power management IRQs can be assigned.

 

Changing this requires a reinstall of the OS and I think it's F6 at the start of setup to set the Power Management mode.

[Jerry Atrik 0]

let the irq's share

doesnt hurt anything. hardware is designed to be mapped together

[Phero.1 0]

I don't agree to the last post that hardware was meant to share..

It depends on a lot of different things. Is the motherboard fully ACPI compatible? Does the pci card fully comply with the standards? Bios good?

 

If not you're in for a world of pain.

 

You can always re-install and use the F5 key to selected "Standard c-stepping 486 PC" which will disable ACPI alltogether and you'll be able to shift irq placements.

 

Another thing that can do the trick is to force windows 2000 back to the standard c-stepping pc mode. It's quicker than re-installing.

 

You might have noticed that if you go to your BIOS and disable ACPI your computer will not boot. Leave it on and boot into win2k.

Right click "My computer"-> Properties -> Hardware -> Device manager

-> Expand "Computer" -> Right click "ACPI PC" -> Properties -> Driver

-> Update driver - > Next - > "Display known driver list" -> Check "Show all hardware of this device class" -> choose "Standard PC" -> Next....

 

Win2k will probably warn you that this might not be the correct driver but indeed it is.

 

Restart your computer and go to BIOS to disable ACPI.

Boot back into win2k and it will "discover" most of your hardware all over but when it's done you'll be without ACPI.

Go back into the device manager and bring up the properties for "standard PC". Under "IRQ steering" you might also want to uncheck "use irq steering" and reboot again.

 

Now you'll find that your Pci cards are most likely placed on different IRQ's but if you still have a problem with one or two cards you should change their physical location in the computer until they're on seperate IRQ's.

 

Hope it helps.

P1

[Jerry Atrik 0]

dont know about via/amd

but intel/intel has been 100% acpi since the i440

[thatsteveguy 0]

You seem to be making the assupmtion that because they are sharing it is bad. which it isn't. the steps you provide are handy if you are having problems and can trace it back to ACPI. (and in most cases it is bad hardware drivers and is not IRQ or ACPI related.

back in the Win98 days , yes you did not want sharing, but 2K handles it well and I have never had a problem.

So the fact you have devices sharing is not a problem.

Where exactly did you get the information that Everquest can't share those IRQ's because it is the first time I have ever heard that.?

that sounds more like an AGP issue or just bad display drivers not an IRQ issue.

regards

S

[DosFreak 2]

Quote:

dont know about via/amd
but intel/intel has been 100% acpi since the i440

Just because the mobo is doesn't mean the hardware is. For FULL ACPI compliance ALL hardware must be ACPI compatible.

[Jerry Atrik 0]

agreed

what hardware made in the last 2 or 3 years isnt.

 

good information if i ever run into the problem on another computer

[BladeRunner 0]

It's quite safe to assume that as long as you're not using any old legacy cards (ISA) and your PCI/AGP cards are no more than about two years old then you're going to have fully ACPI complient hardware.

Add in a fully ACPI complient motherboard/BIOS (Older motherbaords that claimed ACPI were lying, they didn't follow the specifications correctly) and a fully ACPI OS (Win2k & WinXP) and you're ready to go.

 

ACPI was released so silently, a Wintel invention and one that has made building and managing computers so much easier.

Forget faster CPU's, easier to use OS interfaces - ACPI has been quite porbably the single most useful invention for computers in years yet really hasn't been hyped and people are always trying to circumvent it :-/

[Sinluan 0]

The reason I felt that there's a problem is that with more than double the processing power (Duron 700 vs. Athalon 1800+) and better memory (512mg PC100 vs. 512mg PC133) I was expenencing more video jitters and lockup problems than I ever had previously. With my old FIC AZ-11 mobo everything was spread out evenly IRQ-wise and now it's all lumped together.

 

I do have all the latest drivers loaded from NVIDIA & Creative but with both of them plus the NIC card sharing the same IRQ it's a wonder that my problems weren't worse than they are, eh? The 'Change Settings' option on the Resources tab of the Device Manager Properties is grayed out so I have to believe that everything is hunky dory with regard to ACPI.

 

So, I'm going to try the suggestions that Phero put forward and see if they will get me where I want to go. I will post my results aftyerward so y'all will know what has transpired. Oh, btw, the info regarding the video & sound needing separate IRQ's I got from EQ's Tech Support.

[DosFreak 2]

Try removing the Live? (no exclamation mark ) and see how your system performs then.

[Jerry Atrik 0]

several people have posted about having sblive probs.

mostly getting pops and cracks in the sound (including myself)

a clean instal of sp1 seems to have ended that problem

[Stoffer 0]

It could also be because u are using SD-RAM with the ECS K7S5A. I have heard alot of weird stories with that mobo and SD-RAM. Is it possible for you to burrow a stick of DDR-RAM from a friend and try with that.

[yaktao 0]

Hi there: IRQ sharing is a very interesting subject, especially under W2k. I Have had this problem too, few month before. Just because i am not a gamer so it works quiet well with Intel chip set und PIII . but it's quiet anoying that fast all the non system device , network card. sound card. video card are sharing IRQ 11. I have tried to seperate it without success. according some document there is a bootup command line switch /PCILOCK ,because the defauclt Bios bootup assigned seperated IRQ to each device. but It's not works, and someone told me to switch from ACPI to STandard. then the disaster beginned and after that i must reinstall my system totally. so Just A SUGGESTION: TAKE CARE BY SWITCHING FROM ACPI TO STANDARD PC. But if you tried it anyway, please also post a message whether it's successful or not. wish u luck

[ma®k 0]

Originally posted by Phero.1:

Quote:

the trick is to force windows 2000 back to the standard c-stepping pc mode.

<snip>

Hope it helps.

P1

 

Absolutely brilliant, P1 ) You've solved a problem that has plagued me for ages.

 

Thank you so much.

 

Ma®k