When I look under Device Manager, then highlight my modem and go to Properties, then the Modem tab, it says my modem is in COM4. When I look under the Resources tab, it says I have an IRQ conflict (IRQ3) with COM2 (although there are no devices in COM2). Under Ports in DM, it says I have COM1 and COM2, but no COM4! The system has run this way for many months. This morning when I booted up, I had no sound. Also, the modem was not detected. I have done everything from running scandisk and defrag, to running Wintune and RegClean, to removing drivers and replacing them, to removing the modem and replacing it physically. Somehow I've gotten the modem working, and all the settings are back to where they were for the past several months, but the sound is stuttering. I'm running OSR2 with all the tweaks and patches.

Your modem and Port setup is common. IRQ4 is shared by COM1&3 and IRQ3 is shared by COM2&4.

Backup up the Windows Registry, you can use CFGback it on the Windows CD. Then try removing sound from Device Manager, reboot and let Windows re-discover and set it up.

If that does not work let us know what sound card you have and any conflicts.

Good luck. Dan-O

I've backed up the registry, and taken out the sound drivers already. I reinstalled them with drivers I got from the manufacturer's site (Opti). DanO, if it's common for COM2 and COM4 to share IRQ's, then why does it show as a conflict in Device Manager with the modem? Why did it work with the conflict for so long?

The conflict is common, but it doesn't hurt anything unless you actually plug a device into the COM port and try to use it. Then you are in trouble. That's why it shows the conflict, too - as a warning.

Opti sound cards can be tricky - did you do a full uninstall of the existing software and drivers, then start in Safe Mode and check the device manager to be sure they were all really gone (including items with question marks)? Then you would reboot and use the new drivers....

If you have a WinModem it will assign itself a COM port and not have it show up in the ports section. However, win modems won't limit themselves to IRQ 3 and 4 alone. So I doubt you have a WinModem.

When your modem disappears, you may try doing a hardware detect for the modem.

However, your problem sounds like you've run out of IRQs. If this is the case then there are a number of things you can do to free them up and possibly resolve the sound card problem at the same time.

1. Disable your Com2 in the BIOS. You're not using it and don't need the trouble of the conflict.

2. If you're not using a PS2 mouse, disable this too in the BIOS.

What if this doesn't seem to help? What if windows won't assign a free IRQ to everything?

If in your BIOS you state that you are using a PNP OS like Windows by enabling OS PNP. Windows may never assign anything to IRQ12 other than a PS2 mouse, or to IRQ 3 and 4 other than COM ports. At least that's what I've found. In cases like these, if you disable PNP OS in the BIOS, your motherboard will assign the IRQs to your PNP devices, and it will use those hard to assign ones.

Good Luck



[This message has been edited by Magus (edited 03-10-99).]

OK, Larry, I've done as you said. I uninstalled the drivers, checked in safe mode, and installed the downloaded drivers. Even took the card out and made windows find it. Everything is now back to the way it was in Device Manager before when things were working fine, except no sound. I tried to hit a key in ICQ, and it started to stutter again, then I got a message, something like 'sound board not working. Run Setup from the Win95 CD..' I can't do that right now, because the cdrom drive is dead.

Magus, it's not a Winmodem. It's a Wisecom with a Rockwell chipset. The sound card is a BTC with an Opti chipset. And the mouse is a PS/2.

Well... What's wrong with the CD drive? I can't think of anything else to try on the sound card.

I'll try to replace the drive within the next few days, and see if I can run Setup.

I've replaced the cdrom drive, so I can run Setup from the Win95 CD now, but I've never had that message again. The sound problem remains, in that it comes and goes. Sometimes I need to reboot a few times to get it working. The only conflict that remains visible in DM is the shared use of IRQ3 by the modem and COM2.

The only way to get that message back is to go through the uninstall in safe mode again - it's a pain, but the drivers won't go away, and thus won't ask to be reinstalled, unless you do that again.

When you double click on the "computer" in Device Manager, and get the IRQ list. Does the list show any multiple IRQ sharing with the sound card IRQs. They may not be listed as conflicts. And while you're at it, how many free IRQs do you show? Just curious.

I went through the process again with no success; I was never asked for the Win95 CD again. Then I tried downloading the drivers to a new floppy disc, thinking maybe the old one I was using had gone bad. Voila! Sound again, so far...

looks like this one is solved... for now

Closing thread