What is APIC

[javb]

I see this when I run sandra and am curious...

 

[busmaster11]

It's this newfangled BIOS or resource allocation thing that adds 8 IRQs, so if you turn it on in the BIOS, you'll see some card using IRQ 24 or something. It's probably using some cascading thing like they did when it was doubled from 8 to 16, where they'd anchor 8 new ones off of IRQ2.

 

[javb]

thanks for the info

 

[Bozo Galora]

Nope.
APIC and ACPI are different. Misconfigure these and your system will freeze all the time.

quote:
--The PC 2001 Specification calls for all compliant mainboards to
support "APIC", which FORMERLY was used with Multiprocessor Hardware,
but now is also used with single processor mainboards as well. APIC
(NOT ACPI) stands for Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller.

Multi-Processor Operating Systems (Such as XP, and Windows 2000) can
take advantage of APIC to increase the available interrupts (up to IRQ
23), regardless of whether the hardware has one or more CPU's.

Because of the large migration to a multi-processor operating system
such as XP, multi-processor features may be unfamiliar to single
processor users.

Because your mainboard is PC 2001 compliant, XP should have installed
the ACPI Uniprocessor PC Hal.

To sum it up, both ACPI (which MSI sometimes misnames IPCA in the
Bios) and APIC should be enabled in the Bios. Then, XP should install
the "ACPI Uniprocessor PC" Hal.

Some older PCI cards MAY not support the manner in which XP allocates
IRQ's under APIC. In that case, it may be necessary to disable "APIC"
in the Bios and re-install XP, but this should only be done if one is
certain that APIC is the problem. Regardless, ACPI (MSI's IPCA) should
be left enabled. If APIC is disabled and ACPI enabled, XP will
(should) install the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI)
PC HAL.---

As you can see, this is exactly what happened to my board. It did not load the 'ACPI Uniprocessor PC' HAL, but the 'MPS Uniprocessor PC' HAL, which is the same except it disables the APM. Follow?

I believe this is related to your problem, as your seems to be the lack of APIC support which is needed for proper allocation on Dual CPU boards. This is a blurb from MS's Site:



<< How to Force a Hardware Abstraction Layer During an Upgrade or New Installation of Windows XP (Q299340)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The information in this article applies to:


Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


SUMMARY
This article describes how to force in a system Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) during an upgrade or installation of Windows XP.

NOTE : When you upgrade from Microsoft Windows 2000 to Windows XP, the HAL is maintained. Because of this, if the Windows 2000 HAL were a Standard PC HAL, that HAL would be loaded for Windows XP. Also, the procedure to change from the Standard PC HAL to the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) HAL differs from the methods that used in Windows 2000.



MORE INFORMATION
To force in a system Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) during an upgrade or installation of Windows XP, note that during the Text-mode phase of Setup, you receive the following informational message across the bottom of the screen:

Hit F6 if you need to load a third party SCSI or Raid driver.
When this message appears, press F5. You can now make HAL choices by viewing the different options. Note that if you instead press F7, the Standard PC HAL loads, and the ACPI compliance check is bypassed.

After you press F5, you will see the following list of computer types (listed in bold). A brief description of each HAL is included below as a reference.

ACPI Multiprocessor PC : Use for a multiple-processor ACPI computer


ACPI Uniprocessor PC : Use for a ACPI multiple-processor board but with a single processor installed


Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC : Use for a single processor motherboard with single processor.


Compaq SystemPro Multiprocessor or 100% Compatible : Use for a Compaq Systempro computer.


MPS Uniprocessor PC : Use on non-ACPI computers dual processor motherboard with a single processor installed


MPS Multiprocessor PC : Non-ACPI computers with a dual processor running


Standard PC : Any Standard PC, non-ACPI, or non-MPS. Could be a 386, 486, Pentium, Pentium II, or Pentium III


Standard PC with C-Step i486


Other >>



As you can see, 'MPS anything PC is a 'non-acpi compliant' HAL. If this is the actual HAL you have loaded, it's either becuase your board is not fully APIC and ACPI compliant, or XP screwed up during install. For more on this, here is another blurb for MS HardWare development site:
Anyways, this is just the beginning. I will endeavor to search for more.
In the meantime, I would try changing from 'MPS' to 'ACPI Multi-Processor' and see if that gets rid of your error.
-

--For everyone else --> I would submit that this could be the reason why we are seeing the iLoop more in XP as XP is fully APIC (as well as ACPI) compliant, and in fact relies on it. Driver enginneers are used to having to work around this feature (or lack there of), but it's now causing conflicts with XP, the new Specifications, and, newer BIOS's. -

-Ok, with the APIC and MPS Table settings - This is for Dual processors and seems to have been left Enabled by Default. If you already have these items enabled and installed XP, you will lose all your APM functions (Power Off, Standby, etc). To get them back, you have to Disable APIC and re-install XP. During the re-install, setup will find a previous version called "Windows XP" and ask if you want to overwrite, or repair. Choose repair and let it reboot. It will do this again, and again choose repair. This time it will proceed to re-install XP without losing any settings except your Video, which you need to re-install whatever driver you like.

===================================
Thats ok. The new boards' BIOS has something call APIC (not to be confused with ACPI) which allow the BIOS and/or compliant OS to assign 'virtual' IRQs to get passed the 16 IRQ limit. The reason why W98se lists them all on one IRQ is because W98se is not a compliant OS, and does not know how else to handle it. If you were to use XP, you would see IRQs in the 20's and 30's.

The reason your sound cuts out is because of your Aureal card. It is not busmastered, and loses its 'place' in line. There is a WPCredit plug-in to enable Busmastering for that card, but I am not sure it will work with you new board. (Too bad too, because I LOVE the Aureal cards)

Suggestions: Upgrade to XP (which will really kill the Aureal card) and upgrade to a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz Sound Card (inexpensive, and actually works on new boards and OS's) I would do this before you get too much data loaded (proggies, games) becuase a format and clean install are recommended. If you decide to go the XP route, let me know, and I will provide a link to a setup that makes use of your W98 and the XP upgrade disk.

==========================================

Having it all in one IRQ is a perfectly normal thing in a system installed with ACPI. This only means when windows98se was installed, u had ACPI enabled. U don't need to worry, since in reality u don't have all things on IRQ 11. What happens is that ACPI is managing your free resourses and automatically reassigns them to the hardware who request them. In fact, if we want to be more precise, u're not using any IRQ's at all! PCI does not use IRQ's, only ISA does. PCI uses a different concept: INT lines. Nevertheless, u still see the IRQ's, for backward compatibility, but consider them as a kind of virtual IRQ's, since they don't really exist.

 

[busmaster11]

What do you mean nope? Who's talking about ACPI? We're not even talking about power management.

You quote backs up what I said, if you had read it...

 

[javb]

actually i'm having stability issues, i have a p4 1.8ghz, and an asus p4s333 and 2 sticks of kingston value ram at 333. 2 scsi 36gig hdd raid level 0, and a geforce 3 ti 500, running xp pro. the os is acting real weird. when i hit the start button all the icons get garbled or are missing or in a different place. and when i try to do some video editing in adobe premiere it lockes up on me

 

[javb]

i loaded sandra to see if it could help me figure out what's wrong and i saw that apic and it had a big x meaning not enabled and was just wonding what it was

 

[busmaster11]

Originally posted by: javb
actually i'm having stability issues, i have a p4 1.8ghz, and an asus p4s333 and 2 sticks of kingston value ram at 333. 2 scsi 36gig hdd raid level 0, and a geforce 3 ti 500, running xp pro. the os is acting real weird. when i hit the start button all the icons get garbled or are missing or in a different place. and when i try to do some video editing in adobe premiere it lockes up on me

Ah is that it?

The easy ones: Have you gone through windows update? Have you installed the latest drivers for your video card and DX 8.1?

Have you ever toggled the APIC option in your BIOS, especially after installing XP? If you have you may need to reinstall XP. Read the article posted above by Bozo.

APIC should be on, and set before XP is installed.

 

[javb]

Ya, I've installed all updates. And got all latest drivers for windows xp from all the manufactures web pages that i cared about like the vid card, firewire card, and scsi raid card. And motherboard. And i have updated the bios. I'm going to re-install xp today although I can't find the APIC setting in the bios. If you can tell me where it is on the asus mobo p4s333 that would help out alot I've looked everywhere.

 

[busmaster11]

Originally posted by: javb
Ya, I've installed all updates. And got all latest drivers for windows xp from all the manufactures web pages that i cared about like the vid card, firewire card, and scsi raid card. And motherboard. And i have updated the bios. I'm going to re-install xp today although I can't find the APIC setting in the bios. If you can tell me where it is on the asus mobo p4s333 that would help out alot I've looked everywhere.

Although the two ought to be mutually exclusive, it never is: You've got a Phoenix Award BIOS with absolutely no options for you to set (as opposed to the much more superior Award Award BIOS...)

I DL'd your manual and can't find it either... I see that the 961 chip you have supports it, and sinced there's no options for toggling it I assume its turned on...

Not sure I can help you, but if you keep the thread alive I'm sure I or someone else will come up with something.

Try the reinstall first, thenh get back to us.