Need some serious advise here please! IRQ Trouble & WinXP Stuff

[ZurgDawg]

Hi All! This is kind of a big one so please stick with it if you think you can help.

Basically, I want to assign my own IRQ settings though the Device Manager in windows. For example, if you open the device manager, right click on the item you want (Vid Card, Sound Card, etc.), then go to Properties, and then the Resources Tab. The middle area of my Resources tab is shaded out so I cant change it, 'use automatic settings' is checked and I cannot uncheck it - the 'change setting' button is also shaded out.

I know people who do not have this area shaded out so they can setup their own IRQs though Win2k / XP this way. I have changed from ACPI to Standard PC successfully, but this area remains shaded out. Am I missing a small portion of the Standard PC Setting???

Also, under Standard PC, you can go to its properties in the Device Manager, and one of the options is 'IRQ Steering'. You can select it to choose fromthe BIOS or from the MS OS. Any combination that I try here, results in 'table not found' listed for IRQ Steering.

Here is the hardware that I think matters:

Abit KR7-RAID
Windows XP Pro
let me know if you need more.

I have tried messing around with setting IRQs in the BIOS, but it is really confusing on how to do it and I'm not sure if I am even doing it right.

Please help me out, I'm confused!

Thanks!

Scott

 

[MacaroneePenguin]

How did you "successfully" change it to Standard PC mode?

The best and most efficient way of conversting an ACPI enabled computer to ACPI disabled computer is by doing a clean install with all ACPI settings disabled in the BIOS.

 

[ZurgDawg]

I have tried installing the Standard PC HAL though the 'F7' technique when installing Win XP. It does the exact same thing, I can not manually change the settings.

How / Where would I change it in the BIOS for my KR7-RAID? There is nothing that says "Disable ACPI Here!" so I'm wondering if it is labeled kind of different.

Also, I did some more reading and from the MS website, it says that the area will be unavailable when Plug and Play is enabled - so do I need to turn of P&P on top of ACPI?

Thanks!

zurg

 

[cholley]

first thing to do when you have irq trouble is to go into the bios and disable com2 in integrated perif.

 

[ZurgDawg]

cholley - Is the reason for this that disabling COM2 will free up an IRQ port?
Just curious on the logic here.

Thanks!

 

[cholley]

eggzaktley

 

[ZurgDawg]

Great Idea, I will try that. But my biggest problem isn't that I don't have enough free IRQs, rather WinXP is not distributing them well. As of right now, IRQ 5 isn't even used and I have 4 USBs sharing IRQ 10 with my Soundcard.

I have a M Audio sound board for professional recording etc. and it really needs to have its own IRQ to run 100% stable, so I want a way to tell everything where to go- via device manager would be nice, thus my original post.

Zurg

 

[DaiShan]

ok, first things first, are you logged in as administrator? You will need to be logged in as admin to change these settings, next install the latest via 4 in 1's, this is the chipset driver that controlls irq's and what not, thrid, make sure nothing is in pci slots 4 and 6 as they share irq with the usb devices, your usb devices will continue to share that one irq btw. One question though, why are you changing your irq's? is it causing conflicts? if not I would follow the old addage: "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"

 

[ZurgDawg]

Hey DaiShan -

Will doublecheck the 'Admin' and would feel fairly stupid if that were true, but you never know! I'm the only user on the system so don't see why it wouldnt have been set to admin.

Will reinstall 4 in 1s tonight.

Changing IRQs since my M-Audio Audiophile card really needs its own IRQ. I get random lockups/restarts/crashes/bluescreens when I have all my PCI cards in, but when I insert 1 by 1, test etc. no lockups/restarts.

Zurg

 

[ThaGrandCow]

<< are you logged in as administrator? >>

 

[ZurgDawg]

Yes, logged in as admin.