IRQ conflicts with win2k

[davidac]

My PC at the moment seems to work well under win2k but every once and a while it will spontaneously restart for no reason at all. To try and fix this problem I have tried everything i can think of. I've made sure all my hardware is properly plugged in and well conncected, i've downloaded all the latest drivers for my components and updated my bios, and it still happens. I then decided to check the IRQ's of all my devices to find that I had 7 devices sharing the same channnel, IRQ 9. I have no idea if this is the cause of the problem but it seems a bit abnormal to me.

Inside the device manager windows will not let me change ANY of my resource settings(and i am logged in as an administrator) as they are all greyed out and unseable. I've tried changing them in the bios and even disableling IRQ 9 in the bios and it makes no difference and I have NO idea what I should do next.

The system I am running is

Asus A7V socket-A KT-133 motherboard
AMD Thunderbird 800
MSI GeForce-2 MX 817
15GB Western-dig 7200rpm hd
128mb of PC-100 RAM(a little old)
32x CD ROM
SB PCI-128 Sound card
An SN5200TX 10/100 network card(using the Realtek drivers)


need a little help!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Vinny N]

Usually spontaneous restart is a power problem from what I've seen.

Lots/Everything on one irq?

What about on boot up, does your BIOS report them all using the same IRQ (it's on the summary screen just before booting up the OS, you may have to try and hit pause/break to read it). It wouldn't be normal, but I've seen systems like that run fine.

As for Windows 2000, I think that's a bug, many systems running Win 2k report all devices on one irq.

 

[davidac]

yeah, on the boot up screen the IRQ's are different to what they are listed in win2k and whatever i specify in the bios is ignored by the os. If it is a power problem how am i meant to fix it, does it require a new power supply because i've just recently replaced mine with an ATX-250W, actually the same as my old one-i blew it and i also had the problem in winME, but it just crashed much more frequently

 

[Vinny N]

You blew up the previous one? Maybe it's time to consider a different brand, and perhaps a beefier 300 watt one as well?

 

[davidac]

ok

i'll try that

thanks for the help

 

[AndyHui]

Windows 2000 has been installed in ACPI mode and that is how it assigns its plug and play resources. Most people have no problems, other people do have problems. Usually it's all assigned to IRQ9...supposedly it's used as a gateway to virtual IRQs above 15.

Anyway, here is the article from Microsoft dealing with it.

If you want to manually assign IRQs, or just let Windows do it properly, you have to change the ACPI mode HAL to Standard PC HAL.

To do this, go into Device Manager, and look under Computer. It should say Advanced Configuration Power Interface PC. Change this to Standard PC by changing the driver. Then reboot. Hopefully it should come out OK.

If you need to reinstall, hit F5 while it is detecting all the devices right at the very beginning to manually select the Standard PC HAL. You may also need to turn ACPI off in the BIOS if you have that option.

 

[slatt01]

If you disable ACPI in the BIOS w2k will assign IRQs to each device.

You get the same effect in W98SE as with ACPI enabled Windows assumes that devices can share the same IRQ, but I dont believe that it has any effect on performance.

I dont know what happens if you re-enable ACPI after W2K has been installed, if required.