[pcpro17]

Hello. My computer has several conflicting IRQs, which I think may be causing some instability in the system. I would like to reassign the conflicting IRQs to unused slots. However, when I open a device's properties from Device Manager and go to its Resources tab, the option to "Use automatic settings" is disabled/grayed out. Is there another way that I can change the IRQ assignments? I am using Windows XP-64 Pro. Thanks.

[The Hound]

I don't think I've had to deal with an IRQ conflict since a serial mouse was disconnecting an old modem when Clinton was president...really.

What devices are conflicting? Have you tried simply removing a 'conflicting' device to see if that addresses your instability?

What sort of instability are you experiencing?

[The Hound]

By the way...with XP Pro X-64 I'd be more inclined to change drivers than IRQ assignments...have you tried that avenue?

[pcpro17]

Hello Hound. All the installed drivers are for Windows XP-64. I've had this computer (and this issue) for a couple years now. I've done several re-installs of Windows (and drivers) troubleshooting this, and only recently I've started investigating the possibility of an IRQ conflict. I've attached a screen capture of the current IRQ assignments. IRQs 9, 21, and 23 are assigned to more than one item.

[The Hound]

There's a pretty detailed article on the Microsoft Technet about managing hardware devices in XP Pro. I don't know how specific the article is to 32-bit versions, and I don't have the time or inclination to read the whole thing.

With ACPI and a Plug and Play BIOS, I'm not thinking your problem is Interrupt management. My Device Manager listed by resource connection shows a quite a few duplicates as well...

Can you describe the symptoms or issues, any error messages, and what actions seem to trigger the instability?

Have you looked through your event viewer system logs for hardware related error messages? Any Blue Screens or stop errors?

Are you malware free?

I'd be inclined to do more investigation of other possible sources of instability before heading to the hardware.

[pcpro17]

About 25% to 75% of the time when I boot my computer, it blue-screens (see attachment). There are also other times when the computer seems to lockup, sometime after booting, for no apparent reason, which, just as hunch, I think is related to the first issue. The Event Viewer shows only DCOM errors, which, as I understand, doesn't mean anything.

[The Hound]

NVATAX64.sys is a SATA/RAID driver for your nForce chipset.

There's an article here bemoaning the delays at nVidia of getting WHQL certified SATA/RAID drivers out for that chipset. It also covers issues getting the drivers installed without going round in loops---I'd read through at least some of this before fiddling with resource assignments.

How recent are the chipset drivers? Have you updated the forceware or just lived with the Blue Screens?

Have a look at this driver package from nVidia and see how the version numbers stack up with what you have installed...

EDIT:>>If you'll navigate to C:\Windows\minidump you may find some files with names like 123109-01.dmp. The filenames correspond with the date the dump was created. Zip up the last several and attach them to your next post--a kernel debugging wizard may wander along who can see if that chipset driver is a recurring issue.

[pcpro17]

Hound, thanks for the info. I'm working on it, but it may take a little while. From the link you provided it looks like I may need to reinstall Windows to apply this fix, so I'm waiting for a convenient time to do so. I'll keep you posted.

[The Hound]

Appreciate the update...