[justaten01]

I need to change my IRQs because my Video Card is getting slowed down by my TV Tuner. I have tried switching PCI slots without success. And changing them in the BIOS I don't think is possible on my ECS K7S5A. Below is some specs that might help you help me.



Here are my system specs :
ECS K7S5A
AMD Athlon XP 1.8Ghz 2200+
Microsoft Windows XP SP1 [No SP2 things]
1280x1024 32bit
Maxtor 60GB [Int] & Maxtor 120GB [Ext]
256Mb PC2100 RAM
ATI Radeon 9000 - 128MB DDR - Dual Display


Here are my IRQs :
IRQ 0 System timer
IRQ 1 PC/AT Enhanced PS/2 Keyboard (101/102-Key)
IRQ 2
IRQ 3 Communications Port (COM2)
IRQ 4 Communications Port (COM1)
IRQ 5 SiS 7001 PCI to USB Open Host Controller
IRQ 5 NEC PCI to USB Enhanced Host Controller (B1)
IRQ 5 CMI8738/C3DX PCI Audio Device
IRQ 6 Standard floppy disk controller
IRQ 7
IRQ 8 System CMOS/real time clock
IRQ 9
IRQ 10 SiS 7001 PCI to USB Open Host Controller
IRQ 11 RADEON 9000 SERIES
IRQ 11 Hauppauge WinTV 878/9 WDM Video Driver
IRQ 11 Hauppauge WinTV 878/9 WDM Audio Driver
IRQ 12 NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller
IRQ 12 NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller
IRQ 12 56HP-PCT #3
IRQ 13 Numeric data processor
IRQ 14 Primary IDE Channel
IRQ 15 Secondary IDE Channel

[JohnWill]

First off, it's very unlikely that the shared interrupts have anything to do with any real or perceived slowdown. You can actually disable the assignment of an interrupt to the video board, very few applications ever notice it doesn't have one. This computer has run for several years with no video interrupt, and I've never had any issues with the fact that it's not there.

[justaten01]

Well it does it to me while playing games.

I've also noticed my 3D Mark score to be high when it is not shared.

[crjdriver]

You cannot assign irqs in xp if you are using acpi. While you may have a problem, shared irqs do not generally cause any grief. It is possible to disable acpi, however that can lead to other problems. What have you done as far as troubleshooting the problem?

[justaten01]

The real problem is games, The Sims and Diablo II LOD, crashing in during game play without error notice. This, the IRQ changing, was the last thing I could think of for this problem.

"What I've done troubleshoot?" Well I've done everything imaginable: I've reformated, ran the games without sound to see if that was the problem, reinstalled the games several times, change the accelaration of the sound and video, changed my system to single display, swaped RAM chips, and a couple of other things all with me having the same problem.

Also these two games, The Sims and Diablo II LOD, are the only games that crash, both of which aren't really graphic intense but games like Return To Castle and Age Of Mythology, both graphic intense, don't crash.

If you can suggest anything I haven't tried please do so.

[crjdriver]

From your description, I would surmise that the problem is with the individual games not an irq problem. If you want to try and disable apci so that your cards are on different irqs, I have instructions on how to do it without a reformat and reinstallation. Let me know if you want the instructions.
Have you checked for updates / patches for those games? Just a thought do these games run from your hd or do they run from the cd?

[Miz]

There is a patch for Diablo II. It wouldn't run correctly on my XP system until I'd applied that patch.

You can get the patch from Blizzard.

[justaten01]

crjdriver : I know how to change the ACPI without reformatting and reinstalling but thanks, I have the latest patches for the games, and they are running off my HD. I've noticed a better performance when running off the HD.

Miz : I already have that patch for Diablo II, it will run it just crashes after a random duration of time.

[justaten01]

Ok, I've found out how to fix the problem.

Here is what you do to asign IRQs by the BIOS, which is good enought for me.

Go to open boot.ini with notepad and put /PCILOCK after the '/fastdetect' switch.



and they said it couldn't be done

[Dan O]

Nice job and thanks for sharing the tip.

[Rollin' Rog]

And just for the record, did the change resolve the gaming problems?

[justaten01]

I did change the resolution, and still couldn't fix it.

[Rollin' Rog]

Since these are gaming issues that may be video driver related, have you checked the ATI site for the latest drivers and technical reports?

http://www.ati.com/support/drivers/w...nnowdm-xp.html

You might want to contact their support and see if they are getting any similar reports or have any advice for you.

http://www.ati.com/support/products/...proissues.html

[crjdriver]

As I stated above shared irqs do not generally cause problems. The computer I am typing this on currently has eight devices on irq 11 with no problems whatsoever. Modern PCI / AGP cards do not use irqs in the same manner as the old isa cards; they are made to share irqs.
As a test disable your tv card in device manager and restart the computer [you can always enable it later] see if your problem goes away. If not, then it is not related to the tv card / video card.
What programs / services are loading at startup? You can disable them [one at a time] to see if one of them is causing the problem.
Have you installed the latest catalyst driver along with dx9 for your video card? Do you have the latest driver for your tv card?
I used to have the same video card and I tend to think the problem resides elsewhere rather than with the video card. As I said mine was shared with eight devices and ran great.

[Swiper]

I agree with CJRdriver.
Windows 2k/XP will run just fine with IRQ's being shared.
If your games are crashing, it is most likely a video card driver issue, chipset driver issue perhaps. The hardware itself. heat.
and last but the most likely cause. ( aggressively set RAM / AGP timings )


By the way, to change from IRQ shared ( ACPI )to IRQ seperated
all you need to do is go to device manager, under computer where it says ACPI computer, you need to update this driver and change it to STANDARD PC and reboot. This will force XP to reassign IRQ seperately for each device.

GOOD LUCK!!!!!