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Win 2K- Standard PC HAL or ACPI HAL?

B

BlueVenus

Member
Which one is correct.

I have a Shuttle AK31 with an XP 1600. I have been having USB problems with an Olympus UZ700. Sometimes the camera is not detected, and when it is Windows will not dis-mount it and then I get lockups when I pull the plug.

Most places I see, including Microsoft say to use the ACPI HAL, which I am doing. However I have a Radeon, SB Live, NIC, Supramax modem, Promise IDE Controller, and 3 USB controllers all stacked up on IRQ 11. I understand using the ACPI HAL Win2K has 256 virtual IRQ's that can be used and this IRQ stacking is normal.

Over at http:\\www.usbman.com they say this is not good and USB needs its own IRQ. They say to use the Standard PC HAL if this kind of IRQ stacking occurs.

Does any one here have the skinny on the proper way the HAL in Win2K should be setup?

Appreciate any insight guys.

- Blue
 
I've always used ACPI HAL in both Win2k and XP, after fighting IRQ's for years, I really appreciate ACPI. I'm using USB devices, PCI bus hogging peripherials and a Radeon in XP currently and no trouble at all. I don't have any trouble with the kids' digital cams(cheapies) or my son's Jornada, docking/undocking. I also use a USB Wacom Tablet.

Maybe your cams usb driver? If your hardware is ACPI compliant you should be OK.
 
most use ACPI.

only reason to use standard pc is if you are having trouble with hardware conflicts and stuff (some hardware just doesn't like the way ACPI works)

I'd say stick with the default (ACPI) and only go to standard pc if you notice problems.
 
The preferred, and primary HAL installation state for Win2K is in ACPI mode. If the system fails a set of ACPI compliance tests, the installation falls back to Standard PC HAL mode.

Make sure that you have the latest VIA 4-in-1 drivers installed for your system. VIA chipsets are not really known for a perfect implementation of USB (not to mention PCI, AGP, and just about everything else....😉)

Using 1 IRQ for USB is an idea that only really applies to the Win9x line rather than Win2K/WinXP.

You can try to switch your system to Standard PC mode....you won't lose any data.

Please read the FAQ: Why are all my devices using one IRQ in Win2K/WinXP?. There are full instructions here for changing the HAL.
 
When running VIA... ACPI is a big hit on stablity... most people see 99.99999% of all BSOD go away after turning off ACPI... I did... solved nearly every problem I had... have not had any since... especially those damn IRQL's.


I also hear the SBLIVE is not ACPI compliant and will cause problems if you try to run one with ACPI.


 


<< When running VIA... ACPI is a big hit on stablity... most people see 99.99999% of all BSOD go away after turning off ACPI... >>



My rig is stable and most people don't even know they have a ACPI HAL, most computers using Win2k or WinXP made in the last few years default to the ACPI HAL during installation and stay that way, I would say the vast majority of users that actually change their HAL didn't fix anything, and likely caused more problems. I'd like to see some proof that 99.999999% of BSOD are caused by ACPI, thats just not true.



<< I also hear the SBLIVE is not ACPI compliant and will cause problems if you try to run one with ACPI. >>



Also wrong, SBlive is ACPI compliant, and one does a very fine job in my VIA PC, ACPI HAL rig. I'm not saying VIA or ACPI are perfect, but certainly get blamed for more than they cause.
 
So there is no clear cut answer on the optimum HAL, it will depend upon the hardware.

I guess I will take the problem to my test machine and figure it out. I know the default if hardware is compliant is ACPI HAL, but that USB site says to use Standard PC HAL.

I know I am having USB problems and Service Pack 3 is addressing a host of USB issues.

I remember once at work we had a Win 2K machine that had IRQ's at 23, 24, and 25 in Device manager, and I did not look at the HAL at the time, and we sold that box. Still a few questons in my mind on how Win 2K is doling out resources.

Thanks for the input


-Blue
 
Dual processor systems, along with some VERY recent single processor motherboards, implement what is known as an IO-APIC that allows the use of more than 16 hardware IRQs.

Only Windows 2000 and Windows XP, installed with the ACPI HAL, can take advantage of these additional IRQs above 16.

If your system does not have the IO-APIC, the ACPI HAL assigns all peripherals to IRQ 9 or IRQ 11; if your system has a correct IO-APIC implementation, the ACPI HAL can assign peripherals to IRQs 18, 19, 23, 24, etc without piling them all onto 1 IRQ.
 
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