WIN2K- ACPI HAL to Standard PC HAL Change Procedure

[SharkB8]

Here is the scenario. I have just dual booted WIN2K with my existing WIN98SE. (both are on their own partition) I now have the same problem everyone else has with a bunch of devices all on IRQ9 due to installing with ACPI HAL instead of Standard HAL. Here is the "correct" procedure Microsoft recommends for switching from ACPI to Standard:



The optimum method to change from an ACPI HAL to a Standard HAL is to re-install Windows 2000 as an upgrade:

1. Start Windows 2000 Setup as an upgrade.


2. To automatically disable ACPI support and allow Windows 2000 to detect automatically or manually change and install the correct (Standard HAL) computer type that your computer supports, use either of the following methods:

-To Auto detect the computer type:

Press F7 when Setup generates the following informational message:
Press F6 if you need to install a third party SCSI or RAID driver.
NOTE: You do not receive a visual indicator that auto detection is taking place when you press F7; proceed normally with setup until it is completed.

-To Manually Select your computer type:

Press F5, and then manually choose the correct Standard computer type by using the following list:


i386 source File Computer Type

*hal.dll Compaq SystemPro Multiprocessor or 100% Compatible
*halapic.dll MPS Uniprocessor PC
*halapic.dll MPS Multiprocessor PC
*hal.dll Standard PC
*halborg.dll SGI mp



My question is do I start the upgrade from WIN2K instead of WIN98SE? Also, will doing this screw up my boot.ini file and the dual boot menu?

 

[GL]

You do realize that having all those device on one IRQ isn't a problem right?

-GL

 

[SharkB8]

As I have searched through past posts in these forums I have not seen anyone give a definitive reason why in the world it is ok to have 5,6,7 or 10 devices all on one IRQ. I have, however, seen various problems some are having that could be definitely be related to to this WIN2K "feature". One of the devices I have piled up with everything else on IRQ9 is a RAID controller. From past experience, I know these do not like sharing an IRQ with anything else. Now I know that WIN2K is a much different animal than WIN98 is but what is it that I am missing??? I am in the early stages of setting up WIN2K and as I see it, this is the time to resolve this potential problem.

 

[TBP]

This is from M$:

SUMMARY
In Windows 2000, peripheral component interconnect (PCI) devices can share interrupts (IRQs) by design. Per the Plug and Play capability that is defined by the PCI specification, adapters are configured by the computer's BIOS, and are then examined by the operating system and changed if necessary. It is normal behavior for PCI devices to have IRQs shared among them, especially for Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (APCI) computers with Windows 2000 ACPI support enabled.



MORE INFORMATION
In Windows 2000, some or all of the devices on your ACPI motherboard may be listed on the Resources tab in Device Manager as using the same IRQ (IRQ 9). You cannot change the IRQ setting because the setting is unavailable. This occurs because Windows 2000 takes advantage of the ACPI features of the motherboard, including advanced PCI sharing. IRQ 9 is used by the PCI bus for IRQ steering. This feature lets you add more devices without generating IRQ conflicts.

Note that Windows 2000 does not have the ability to rebalance resources as does Microsoft Windows 98. Once PCI resources are set, they generally cannot be changed. If you change to an invalid IRQ setting or I/O range for the bus that a device is on, Windows 2000 cannot rebalance the resource it assigned to that bus to compensate. Windows 2000 does not have this ability because of the more complex hardware schemas it is designed to support. Windows 98 does not have to support IOAPICs, multiple root PCI buses, multiple-processor systems, and so on. Rebalancing becomes risky when you are dealing with these hardware schemas, and will not be implemented in Windows 2000 except for very specific scenarios. However, PCI devices are required to be able to share IRQs. The ability to share IRQs should not prevent any hardware from working in general.

The Plug and Play operating system settings in the computer's BIOS should not affect how Windows 2000 handles the hardware in general. However, Microsoft recommends that you set this setting to "No" or "Disabled" in the computer's BIOS. For information about viewing or modifying your computer's BIOS settings, consult your computer's documentation or manufacturer. Manually assigning IRQs to PCI slots as a troubleshooting method may work on a non-ACPI system, but these settings are ignored by Plug and Play in Windows 2000 if ACPI support is enabled. If you need to manually assign IRQ addresses to a device on an ACPI motherboard, disable ACPI in the computer's BIOS before installing Windows 2000.

 

[AndyHui]

Also, what they don't tell you is that Win2K uses ACPI to access virtual IRQs up to 255 through using that single IRQ (usually IRQ9) as a gateway.

I agree with GL that having all devices on one "real" IRQ is not a problem. In Win2K you may see your devices assigned to IRQ17, 18, 19...etc. As long as most of your components are relatively new, then you should have no problems with the IRQ sharing scheme in Win2K.

 

[SharkB8]

Let me preface this by saying that I am an beginner to WIN2K and don't pretend to understand exactly how ACPI works in this OS. I yield to those who know more than me in this area. Having said that here is the result of performing the procedure I discribed above on two seperate WIN2K systems.
First was the brand new system at work which has been notoriously slow and also had some flakey sound problems. All it's IRQ's were stacked up #11. After selecting "No" to Plug'n'Play in the BIOS and then changing HAL to "Standard PC" via the update procedure above, all the devices magically had there own IRQ's. I ran this system through its paces for nearly 2 hours and realized it had the speed it should have had from the beginning less the flakey sound problems. The only change I made was to HAL, nothing else, so I feel this speaks for itself.
I then went home and performed the same procedure on my newly dual booted system at home. Afterwards, all my devices were assigned the IRQ's I designated in the BIOS when I first set up WIN98SE. IRQ assignments for both OS's look identical. I have only just loaded WIN2K on this system so I can't speak for any real world improvements here.
Neither of these systems have a lot of expansion cards in them. Mine has a RAID adapter, sound card, NIC, and an AGP card. The work system has all that less RAID. I can definitely see how WIN2K ACPI could be of an advantage if you really had a boat load of cards requiring IRQ's, however, for most this is not the case. M$ may say that it is "by design" that everything shares one IRQ but I see this as BS due to my above experiences. I understand that I may have lost APM in the process of doing this but I don't care on either system. It never worked correctly at home anyway due to the FAT32 issue. The one at work is used constantly so who cares?

Take this for what it is all worth......the experiences of an admitted amateur.

 

[AndyHui]

What has FAT32 got to do with APM? What issue were you experiencing?

 

[SharkB8]

I will have to seek it out in the Microsoft Knowlege Database but this a known issue with some video card/monitor combinations and a FAT32 file system. Someone clued me in on this on these forums 8 months ago after I had reloaded WIN98 and had been through countless video drivers. Had I thought about it I would have realized that the problem developed after changing from FAT to FAT32. What happens is that after the monitor goes to sleep and you move the mouse to pull it back out of sleep, there is nothing but indecipherable sh*t on the screen. This requires a reboot to fix. As I said this is a known issue due to FAT32 as per MS. I will seek out the link if you are interested.

 

[han888]

i just reinstall my win2k, and it's a suprise here! all my devices in each irq, so no sharing irq! i did'nt change anything, just did a normal install

 

[SharkB8]

You probably already had Plug'n'Play shut off in the MOBO BIOS and that was detected during the WIN2K install. Go to Device Manager and look under Computer. It more than likely says "Standard PC".

 

[han888]

hmmmm.... i just check on the device manager setting and it's write "ACPI uniprocessor PC" what is it?