IRQ forcing in Windows 98

[beer]

OK -

My Linksys Phoneline 10M card and my Geforce DDR are both sharing IRQ 11. While it still works, and it may not be taking a performance hit, it bothers me because I have a nice, sweet IRQ 7 completely open. I disabled my parallel port since I use network printers, and thus that IRQ is open.

So I went to change the IRQ by manually configuring the settings in the device manger. Oops - it can't be modified. So I reboot, go into the BIOS, turn "PnP aware OS" to "off" and select "PCI 2" to "IRQ 7" as opposed to Auto. I go into Windows and it's still on. I am sure that my NIC is in PCI 2...but it's still not changing to 7.

How do I force the IRQ to 7? I really would rather move my NIC than my Geforce becasue I know they are so, so sensitive to minor setting changes...

I tried going into safe mode but changing the NIC to 7 there resulted in my computer hanging on boot. The IRQ is free...

 

[Midnight Rambler]

I don't think a PCI device can use IRQ 7. 5,9,10,11,15 are OK.

Also, depending on motherboard, card placement is still a part of the equation. Some slots share with another, with the AGP, and with the USB. Some slots get an IRQ of their own. That's where I would put that NIC, and the same for the video card. You ought to have 2 slots with their own IRQs.

All these years and all these hardware "advances" and still no more IRQs ...

 

[beer]

F-cking Sh-t. So even though I have a free IRQ...I can't use it? WTF?

 

[Midnight Rambler]

Normally IRQ7 has gone to the LPT1, but older sound cards often used it as well. I'm not 100% positive PCI devices can't use 7, that's why I said "I think" before. But I could swear I have read/heard that before ...

Post all your devices and their IRQ assignments, then maybe someone can help you more. Also, check out what I said about IRQ sharing by PCI slots.

 

[beer]

Can anyone else second the motion to state that you can't use IRQ7 for PCI cards?

Too much parlimentary procedural reading

 

[Nih]

In your bios, have you tried to set the allocation to manual as opposed to auto. Also is your irq7 set to a legacy or isa instead of pnp/icu??

 

[beer]

IRQ 7 is assigned to PCI/PnP (as opposed to ISA/EISA)
Resource allotocation is set to manual

 

[NicColt]

the problem is more with the slot's than with the irq's. there's only 5 slots and 4 shares with 5 with means that you have 4 irq's for the 5 slots. so if you have more than 4 devices on the bus were screwed. AGP, NIC, SBLive, USB Host, Promise ATA100 so something HAS to share, and they are supposed to share but they don't always like each other and that's where the problems is. I have 3 PCI slots left but if I put another card in there it will have to share with one of these 4 irq's for which they don't like sharing. I have heard it all' the agp deosn't like to share with the nic, sblive should have it's own irq, the ATA100 has to have it own irq ect... this entire situation is a hit and miss situation and hope for the best, it sucks but we have to live with it.

I forgot to say that I disabled my 2 com ports and I have two irq free I think it's 4 and 9. but even if I put another card in there it will use one that's already assigned. Even irq 6 is reserved for the flopply even if you will never use a floppy again.

 

[Balt]

I was able to modify my IRQ settings by going to the device manager while in Safe Mode. That was only the beginning of my problems, though...

With my Asus P3V4X, no matter what IRQ I tried to give my nic, my USB controller would always take the same one. Eventually I just switched to a slot I knew was shared with the AGP bus and it let me change the IRQ there without moving anything else.

So, like the other have said, try switching slots and maybe that will give you more control over defining IRQ's for devices.

IRQ problems in my (limited) experience are the most annoying and frustrating (unless we are talking about hardware failure). :|

 

[NicColt]

I know what you mean Balt, if you have PnP then your at the mercy of the system. fortunetly swapping slots about 5-10 times was enough for the system to put the sblive in it's own slot and irq. like soneone would say X86 is SUCK.

 

[DaddyG]

I really don't think that you have to worry if you don't have any lockups or sh1t. The time that the IRQ line is high (requesting service) is pretty small and as the processor can only handle 1 interupt at a time its pretty moot.

 

[Midnight Rambler]

Ultimately yes, IRQ sharing should work OK. But some vid cards don't like it so well. As several of us said above, card placement can be key. Here's a common IRQ map for a 5 PCI mobo with AGP:

Slot 1 - shares an IRQ with AGP
2 - has its own IRQ
3 - has its own IRQ
4&5 - share an IRQ with USB

Also, the SBLives seem to work best with their own free. Someone mentioned having 9 free but unable to use it - that's an IRQ commonly used by PCI devices, it ought to be assignable somehow. And if you don't use 2ndary IDE, disable that in BIOS and in Device Mgr. and you can free up IRQ15, which another PCI device could use. Disabling USB if it's not being utilized will help as well.

 

[Goi]

I have the exact same problem too. My IRQ 11 is shared by 3 devices, my MX300 PCI soundcard, D-Link PCI NIC and the Intel PCI to USB Universal Host Controller. I am also getting that "This resource setting cannot be modified" message when I try to modify the IRQ. How can I modify it? I have no idea which PCI slot each of them are in(at least not the slot number)

Here are my IRQ mappings according to device manager:
IRQ0 - System Timer
IRQ1 - Keyboard
IRQ2 - Programmable IRQ controller
IRQ3 - Unused
IRQ4 - Unused
IRQ5 - 3COM PCI NIC
IRQ6 - FDD
IRQ7 - AGP Voodoo3 video card
IRQ8 - Real Time Clock
IRQ9 - Unused
IRQ10 - Viking LT PCI Winmodem
IRQ11 - Diamond MX300 PCI soundcard, D-Link PCI NIC,intel PCI to USB universal host controller
IRQ12 - Logitech mouse
IRQ13 - Numeric Data Processor
IRQ14 - IDE Busmaster, Primary IDE Controller
IRQ15 - Secondary IDE Controller

Can anybody help? My system keeps locking up and I'm suspecting its because of the IRQ11 conflict.

 

[Mem]

This is tricky I had SBLive & Geforce2 MX both on IRQ 11,I was able to move SBlive IRQ to IRQ 10 by changing my resouce settings for modem in device manager & rebooting,it was really trial & error I was lucky to get it right first time(did not even have to open case & move cards around).

 

[Goi]

Hmmn, I disabled the other 2 devices sharing IRQ11 by checking the "Disable in this hardware profile" under device manager, rebooted, went into BIOS, disabled "PnP OS installed" and set the IRQ assignments to "Manual".
Then I restarted Windows and went to device manager to check. The 2 disabled devices are now using IRQ3, does this mean if I enable them again they will continue using IRQ3? Or is IRQ3 just some IRQ value assigned to disabled devices since its the smallest IRQ value I have that's currently unused?

 

[Goi]

OK, IRQ3 was just a temporary assigned IRQ. After I enabled it, it went right back to IRQ11. I did the BIOS thing and booted up in Safe Mode, and was able to manually change the IRQ, but no matter what IRQ I choose, Windows reported a problem with the NIC. When I tried changing the IRQ of the soundcard, Windows couldn't even start up.

So I shuffled the cards, but now Windows locks up when trying to re-install my winmodem. I got tired and just removed it since I was on cable anyway(it was just a backup in case I lose connectivity) and now everything works perfectly...no lockups for over an hour of mp3/midi loops.

 

[Mem]

Goi ,Happy to hear you got it sorted(sort of).

 

[Goi]

Yeah...sort of. I guess my last 2 PCI slots were sharing the same IRQ. I didn't really need the WinModem in my system anyway...its a sign I tell you!

 

[pjs]

There are four irq lines that are used to satisfy the combined needs of the AGP, pci, and usb port regardless of what irq is assigned to a specific port(s).

Paul