Crazy IRQ sharing in win2k

U

Usher

Veteran X
Alright, I went out and purchased a gf4 4200 and put it in. Ihad some difficulties getting video, so i cleared cmos and ended up having to change over my cpu fan to the other socket (not sure why, but it worked)

Anyway, when i went into win2k, drivers installed just fine and all, but Ihave problems running certain games. They now load slower than before, sometimes takingas much as 10 X longer to load.

So, I look into my resources and see that vid card sound card and modem are ALL on IRQ 11. 9, 10 , and 7 are not even being used. My question is, how do I get the IRQ's to change? back when i ran 98 i could do it by swapping PCI slots and eventually theyd pan out -- is this the same and win 2k? Ive moves both sound card and modem to no effect. Is there anythign I can do in the BIOS? Im assuming this is the reason im loading slow btw.
 
Each PCI slot has an assigned IRQ and they usually share with another PCI slot.

The slot near the AGP slot shares that IRQ.

The main thing about Win2k and WinXP to remember is they don't always use the IRQ they show. It's a nice thing called ACPI. If you look into your sysinfo some more you'll see an ACPI device using that same IRQ.

This resource controller holds each IRQ for each device and dishes out the bus to which device needs it the most, when it needs it.

If you have issues loading stuff or locking up, then move a card to another slot.

Generall this is the way cards should be installed:

With sound card:
AGP Slot: video
PCI Slot 1: NIC
PCI Slot 2: modem
PCI Slot 3: audio
PCI Slot 4: SCSI/other

Without sound:
AGP Slot: video
PCI Slot 1: (blank)
PCI Slot 2: modem
PCI Slot 3: NIC
PCI Slot 4: SCSI/other

If your system has more than 4 PCI slots, find out which ones are the ones that don't share IRQ's and use them first with the most resource consuming devices (ie, sound)
 
So basically if i move them around enough ill get something on another IRQ?

the way theyre set right now is:

Agp : video
PCI: empty
PCI: modem
PCI: empty
PCI: sound
PCI: additional USB (also on IRQ 11 within OS)

Is the info on which slots have a standalone IRQ gonna be in my mobo manual?
 
Most boards supply the IRQ info somewhere in the manual or on the web page. If not, email them.
 
ASK-CandyMan said:
With sound card:
AGP Slot: video
PCI Slot 1: NIC
PCI Slot 2: modem
PCI Slot 3: audio
PCI Slot 4: SCSI/other

Without sound:
AGP Slot: video
PCI Slot 1: (blank)
PCI Slot 2: modem
PCI Slot 3: NIC
PCI Slot 4: SCSI/other
Click to expand...

Hey Candy, why would you want your NIC and Video to share the same IRQ? IMHO isn't it always best to leave PCI1 on the device you use the least... or at least that requires the least real-time polling.

I have 5 PCI's and this is how mine is:

AGP: Video
PCI1: Controller Card for ZIP
PCI2: Sound
PCI3: Extra USB card for scanner and webcam
PCI4: NIC
PCI5: Modem

Whereas they share in pairs working their way down on my mobo.
 
mine is setup like this (amd761/via686b)

agp
pci1 empty
pci2 empty
pci3 nic
pci4 soundcard
pci5 empty
pci6 empty

I have windows XP and ACPI enabled in OS and BIOS, but all of mine are spread across IRQs. A bios update a while back seemed to fix this. Maybe they changed some ACPI protocols, I dunno.

A while back, all 3 of these plus my usb controller and my raid controller were on IRQ 11. Now, I have my raid controller disabled. The video card and sound card each have their own IRQs, and then the NIC shares the same IRQ with the USB controller.

Seems to work fine for me. The sound card is even a Soundblaster Live! 5.1. :bigthumb:
 
i don't have problems with my current system sharing irqs, with the ACPI and all. i just plugged in whatever i felt like wherever and it worked.

my old Abit BH6 was a pain though, especially when I had 5 PCI cards (or was it 6... i forget) and I had to map out stuff and swap cards around until i figured out what could and couldn't share properly.

i'm not sure if you swapping the cards right now will do anything since you have ACPI enabled. in win2k i was told that in order to disable ACPI, you'd basically have to disable it in your BIOS, and then reinstall the OS. or you could just try deleting every entry under the device manager->system devices section.

i guess give swapping the cards around a shot first. also, what do you mean it loads slow... it LOADS slow, as in before you get into the game and once you're in the game runs fine?
 
The reason you have the nic right next to the AGP is the NIC will only use an IRQ in burst mode and it's a very small percentage. Full load on a 100mb network is only around 4% irq use from a NIC, the 64bit nics force all the IRQ to the 64bit channel.

The way I listed things is the way you'll find vendors, like dell and compaq, ship their systems installed. This is due to them being forced to meet requirements for certain things, ie whql and such.

It also optimizes the IRQ resources and bandwidth by device and use of that device.
 
some NICs don't play nice though sharing IRQs at all. i had a 3com that would just lock my system as soon as i utilized 3d acceleration if i had it in the 1st pci slot under the AGP.
 
invar said:
some NICs don't play nice though sharing IRQs at all. i had a 3com that would just lock my system as soon as i utilized 3d acceleration if i had it in the 1st pci slot under the AGP.
Click to expand...

Yet another reason why 56k + no network rocks!

:( just trying to make myself feel better :cry:
 
Didnt realize there were still comments, but anyway I'm still havin the same trouble.

Invar, by loading slow, i mean that the data itself loads slow, but once in a game, performance is fine.

I did try swapping all around and it didnt seem to have an effect.

So theres the pnp os in my bios and its disabled(is that teh ACPI component?), should it be enabled upon install of the OS? Im not sure ive seen anything in my BIOS to enable/disable ACPI but i might just have not paidit any attention.

Let me know and i can delete all my devices and acpi and have the os reinstall everything if itll help.
 
ASK-CandyMan said:
The reason you have the nic right next to the AGP is the NIC will only use an IRQ in burst mode and it's a very small percentage. Full load on a 100mb network is only around 4% irq use from a NIC, the 64bit nics force all the IRQ to the 64bit channel.

The way I listed things is the way you'll find vendors, like dell and compaq, ship their systems installed. This is due to them being forced to meet requirements for certain things, ie whql and such.

It also optimizes the IRQ resources and bandwidth by device and use of that device.
Click to expand...

I'll take ur word for it... coo, thanx :)
 
Usher..

In bios the pnp setting is usually the ACPI if there is not specifically an option for ACPI.

Check to see if windows has the correct driver installed by going into device manager and looking at what it has to show for the computer type, should say ACPI or ACPI Uniprocessor.

If it doesnt, change the bios setting and then change the computer type, no reinstall needed.
 
It says ACPI under device manager.

I'm not sure what there is left to do. It seems nothing affects the IRQ's when all's said and done, regardless where I place the cards.
 
i got 4 intel pro/100s nics sitting in a box, and a netgear installed in my main box :]

still don't feel like swapping the intel, cause i'd have to get my internet re-registered at the residential computing place (different MAC address)
 
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