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lexluthor

IRQ questions answered

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i've seen quite a few posts about sharing irq's in w2k. here is a little info on it...

simple explanation.

 

devices are mapped thru other devices. for instance the microsoft usb joystick is mapped thru the agp port, the gameport on the soundcard and the midi device, if there is one. nowdays just about all devices are mapped thru another device. in older systems the thread would be created when and as needed. this could cause system crashes if a thread was created to the same device at the same time as another one.

wk2 has a cool solution... permanent sharing of irq's. i have yet to setup a w2k system that had problems with the irq sharing. this system has 6 devices that share a permanent irq.

IRQ 9 Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System

IRQ 9 NVIDIA GeForce DDR

IRQ 9 Intel 82371AB/EB PCI to USB Universal Host Controller

IRQ 9 Adaptec AHA-2940U2/U2W PCI SCSI Controller

IRQ 9 3Com EtherLink XL 10/100 PCI TX NIC (3C905B-TX)

IRQ 9 Creative SB Live! (WDM)

 

and as u can see, there is the route from the usb port to the video and sound card.

 

i really doubt a shared irq is giving anybody a problem... there is something else wrong.

 

(thnx to gm at nasa, and jt at intel) for this explanation.

 

btw did anybody know that intel is experimenting with a cpu that has a gpu?

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But why/how does my W2K installation on a BP6 allocate IRQ's above 15 ?

 

Mike.

 

[This message has been edited by Flimber (edited 03 February 2001).]

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It's all to do with ACPI and virtual IRQ's.

Take a look at Microsoft's white paper of ACPI, I think Intel have one too.

It actually makes an interesting read if you are at all interested about computer things.

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flimber

 

the first thing that comes to mind is your bios settings. some bios (most i think) have a setting to save an irq for such things as the agp and the usb port.... the bios saves a port but w2k usually ignores it, so u have a floating blank irq floating around. turn these off and let windows do all the assignments.

also set the "pnp os" to yes.

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This also has something to do with the MPS version control if you use an smp box. This thing threw me for a loop for the past few weeks. Pain in the arse it was.

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