IRQ Issues

[Mortis]

Greetings... I had onboard sound that was sharing IRQ 18 with my onboard Gigabit NIC- this is causing issues with a certain program/game. I purchased a Sound Blaster Audigy Gamer for two reasons- been looking at sound cards and was under the impression that installing a PCI SoundCard would result in it being assigned a different IRQ. Well, the Audigy is still sharing IRQ 18 with the NIC- hence, I am still having probs.

How do I change/force the IRQ of the SoundCard? I am/was under the impression that they can not be changed in Windows XP. Will an OS ReInstall change the IRQ? I dont have options in my BIOS to specifically change the IRQ's. So, how do I change this sucker?

Thanks for the Thoughts and Assistance!

System Specs:
Windows XP Pro
MSI 648 Max-L
P4
G4 Ti4200P Turbo
SoundBlaster Audigy Gamer
1024 PC2700
Onboard NIC
etc...

Mortis

[speedman]

Did you disable the onboard sound via jumper/bios before installing the new card?

I imagine you've seen this already.

SYMPTOMS
On a computer that is running the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL), you are not able to change a resource setting for a device in Device Manager.

If you modify the resource settings in the BIOS, the changes do not register.
CAUSE
This behavior occurs because the ACPI HAL controls resource assignments in Windows XP and does not permit user intervention.
STATUS
This behavior is by design.
MORE INFORMATION
Microsoft does not recommend that you change the HAL that is installed during the Windows XP Setup process. When you change from the ACPI HAL to the Standard PC HAL, you must reinstall the operating system, and ACPI functionality is lost.

In some rare instances, you may need to have control over a resource assignment. You can manually configure resources in Windows only if you are using Standard PC HAL, and even then you may not be able to configure some devices. The device must support manually setting of resources.

[jad1097]

"you must reinstall the operating system,"



Not true. You may need to do a reinstall of the OS, in most cases you do not have to. All you have to do is go into device manager and change the driver for "computer" from ACPI to standard. Be sure to have all your drivers ready. By doing this you will have to manully shut the computer down.

[Mortis]

Ok... I read up on HAL and ACPI.

Here is another question- I was told or read that after I installed the SoundBlaster that it would default to a different IRQ... why didnt this occur? The old was on 18, now so is the New... I thougth it would use 9. If I ReInstall the OS, will it use the same IRQ as present, or will it redetect and install to a different address (or is it like CrackerJacks- never know what you are going to get till you are at teh bottum)?

SpeedMan- Yea, I disabled the OnBoard Sound from BIOS and removed all software traces I could prior to installing the SB. I have an option in BIOS to Disable or Auto (Auto states it will detect if other devices are installed and override if necessary). I set it to Disable as it still wanted to install drivers when set to Auto even though it should have overrode.

Jad- thanks for Clarification about Standard.

I read about these two things pretty exhaustively at Microsoft... I plan to try them unless "you's" think ReInstalling the OS will fix things. I would rather leave ACPI enabled, but will OverRide if necessary.

Thanks!

Mortis

[jad1097]

Changing to standard fixed all my SB problems. There was no other fix that would work for me. This is normally a problem with VIA chipset based boards though. A long as ACPI is enabled I think you will have to deal with shared IRQ's.

Have you tried to install it in another slot?


Maybe trying a NIC card instead of the onboard one may resolve it.

[jad1097]

This may be helpful (http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?threadid=56475)

[Mortis]

Thanks Jad... will look into that link tonight and tomorrow. Appreciate the Assistance!!!

Mortis

[NDC]

It won't matter if you reinstall the OS, you will still get the SoundBlaster on IRQ18. This is a very popular address for many types of devices. Video cards are devices that also like to utilize IRQ18. Under most circumstances, sharing of IRQ is ok among devices. However, this doesn't seem to be the case for you. Only thing I haven't tried forcing IRQ's to each PCI slot in the BIOS which some mainboards have and then installng XP. Other than that, you will need to change the HAL driver from ACPI to standard PC as said above and then changing the IRQ's through Windows...

[speedman]

I just pasted that info in my last post from Microsofts help site...........:)

Do you have plug and play OS installed enabled in the bios, I always disable this. But after you have already installed the OS I don't think you can disable it, maybe someone can give further info on this................:D