IRQ vs XP

[Xavi]

I have; SOYO P4I Fire Dragon, Visiontech G4 4600, Creative Audigy Platinum.
I get; Sound clipping and system locks during games like RA2 Yuri's revenge.

I have updated; MOBO BIOS, Graphics and Sound drivers, RA2.

Visiontech says Graphics board must be IRQ11 (unshared).
Creative says Sound board must be IRQ5 (unshared).

It takes some effort to get them to the right IRQ but they are sharing IRQ's with controllers.
I cannot change any of the IRQ's in the Control Panel. The MOBO Bios shows that INT 1 is the Multimedia device and Display Device, INT 2 is Multimedia Device and several controllers. INT 3 is empty and INT 4 has controllers.

I have disabled everything I can think of, ACPI, USB, on-board sound, IEE..... I have re-installed XP numerous times and even tried installing as a "Standard System". Nothing works. SOYO told me there is no problem with sharing IRQ's. So why do I have clipping and lockups? Should I consider a different MOBO? Is there a MOBO that lets you assign the IRQ so no sharing will occure?

Please help.....

Xavi

 

[LiLithTecH]

Did you try installing the Intel Application Accelerator?
It does actually do some good for I/O and Graphic display.

I would have to agree with SOYO.
There should be no issue with IRQ sharing with the Video/Sound combo you have.

Did you MANUALLY ASSIGN IRQ 5 and 11 and the correct DMA's to the PCI devices?

 

[Xavi]

Yes, I installed the Intel Accelerator.

To get the IRQ's right, I have used the BIOS to assign IRQ11 for the graphics card and moving the Sound card until it gets IRQ5.
I cannot manually assign any IRQ's. I don't know if it's XP or the MOBO but none can be changed manually.

How are the DMA's assigned? I haven't been told about that yet.

 

[LiLithTecH]

When you say "I cannot manually assign any IRQ's", are you speaking
of in the OS or in the BIOS (or both)?

The Creative Audigy:
The card defaults to IRQ's 5,7,9,10. It does not have to be on IRQ5 unshared.
The card defaults to DMA's 0,1,3 (First channel), 5,6,7 (Second channel)

The DEFAULTS used are generally IRQ 5, DMA's 1, 5.

In your BIOS, under PNP\PCI Configuration Controls\Resources Controlled By,
change from AUTO to MANUAL.
Then assign IRQ-# & DMA, Save and Reboot.

You will not be able to change the IRQ or DMA in the OS as XP locks them.

 

[Xavi]

The IRQ's are locked in XP as I have learned. However, changing the IRQ's in the Bios is not so easy. Both the graphics and sound card want to use IRQ11. When I try to move the sound to IRQ5 it does not always work. I haven't seen any settings for DMA in the Bios.

Why are both Creative and Visiontech telling me NOT to share IRQ's?
And, why do I get sound clipping and random system locks.....only in games....?

 

[LiLithTecH]

What leads you to believe that either the Video or Sound are the problem?
Random lock-ups and Sound clipping can also be caused by disk I/O.

Do you have the RAID set? If yes, a so-so drive can cause headaches.

Did you update to DirectX v8.1b?
It helps clear up issues with conflicts with nVidia based video cards.

I had a Pre-Release of your board to play with and did not find any issues with the SB line Audio
cards (which is a rare occurance).
The DMA settings were switchable in the Bios.

I have not had the Pleasure of playing with a ti4600 as of yet, so I have little to offer you there.

 

[Xavi]

The raid is Disabled.

I believe it is the sound card because it is the sound that clips and.........
I have replaced the memory card and the video card and the problem persisted.
It could be the MOBO but a twin system with all the same gear is doing the same thing, so the odds of having two MOBO's that are bad is slimmer than having bad drivers from Creative.

I have the newest everything, the twin system does not.

I don't remember seeing any DMA settings unless that is the IRQ setting in the PHP/Periferals settings. There also is no setting for the AGP 4x unless that is done with the voltages. (Nothing says AGP2x or 4x)

The SOYO manual is very basic and assumes the reader knows all the terms. These were my second and third self built systems and the most trouble. I should have gone with an Abit or Asus board because SOYO gives NO help.

 

[GAZZA]

Do you have all the extra power ports plugged in on the motherboard ?

How good is your PSU that you are using , are they powerful enough to run all those components such as the GF4, P4 ?

I would deffinitely let the bios asssign the IRQ's in the bios , ACPI also shouldn't give you any problems except lower frame rates.

What happens when you put the sound card in pci slot #1 next to the AGP card ?

What speakers are you using and are you running digital or analog ?