Windows 2000 IRQ issue

[transam321]

I have two systems running windows 2000 workstation.
and for some reason on both machines they have all the pci devices on irq#11.(Soundcard, videocard, nic, usb, and hdd controllers)
I have noticed when playing music and graphic intensive programs I hear a click and a blip. When I am playing music and copying files the music come to a hault until the copy is complete. How can I get windows 2000 not to play all devices on same IRQ? Why does it do this? HELP!!??

 

[jaywallen]

The IRQs are being designated as they should be. Look at the Microsoft Knowledge Base using terms like "pci bus irq sharing" and "acpi" for information. Sometimes IRQ sharing doesn't work out, and the fix (temporary) is to install W2K using the Standard PC HAL instead of the ACPI HAL. This requires intervention at install time by hitting the F5 key when the install procedure asks you if you wish to install special drivers. Or you may be able to go into Device Manager and just change the Computer type to "Standard PC". (I've seen messages from people who say this works, and that devices get spread out among the IRQs, but I'd do a clean re-install if I were going to change the HAL.) The real point is, if the devices and device drivers were up to snuff, then IRQ sharing should work just fine. This isn't a problem with Windows, it's a problem with one or more of the devices and / or their drivers. I'd rather get the devices sorted out that use a Standard PC HAL.

I don't know what you mean by "a click and a blip". Could that just be the Windows sound scheme?

When you play music and copy files the music comes to a halt until the file copying is completed? Well, where are you playing the music from, hard drive or CD player or some other device? Where are you copying files from and to? Are the involved devices located on the same IDE channel? What type of system are you running (speed and processor type)?

 

[transam321]

Click in blips as in sounds not intended to be there, definatly not a sound scheme

 

[transam321]

Also I am not getting the option to change the pc to "standard pc"

 

[jaywallen]

To change to a Standard PC HAL in Device Manager I believe you have to go into the Properties Dialog for the computer item and click the Update Driver button to activate a wizard. Please remember that I am NOT recommending that you do this. As I said before, PCI IRQ Steering and Sharing are a design component of the Intel x86 platform. Windows 2000 makes excellent use of this functionality. Most, if not all, issues with IRQ sharing are the fault of devices and their drivers. It is my understanding that, if you do go to a Standard PC HAL, you will not be able to reverse this decision without performing a clean re-installation of W2K. (I know that there are people who will say that you can accomplish this by changing the driver back and forcing re-enumeration of the hardware by deleting the hardware enumeration keys in the registry. I've heard more horror stories about this process than I'd care to relate.)

If you decide to go ahead with a switchover to a Standard PC HAL, I think you should investigate the features of your MB BIOS carefully to learn what the manufacturer recommends you do in your situation. Some combinations of settings may be better suited to use with the Standard PC HAL than others. And while you are investigating that matter, do consider how many devices are installed on your system. If you switch to a HAL that allows manual assignment of the IRQs will you have enough of them to assign to all of your devices? Without access to the virtual IRQs made available by steering and sharing, most modern PCs would be IRQ bound -- without the interrupt capacity to service all devices.

It is also worth noting that Service Pack 2 is due out very soon now. If there is improved support for certain devices in that SP it's not unreasonable to think that performance of those devices under W2K will improve after the update is applied.

Whichever way you decide to go, I hope sincerely that it works out well for you. It will definitely pay you to do some homework before switching abstraction layers.

Good luck!

Regards,
Jim