Hells teeth

[deejay]

Hi Folks,
Well I finally bit the bullet and replaced my MOBO and processor (Abit SA6R), without formatting and reinstalling W98.
Having taken on your good advice in my previous post, everything seemed to go very well until I looked at my IRQ list.
Looks a disaster area to me, what do you think:

00 system timer
01 standard 101/102-key or Microsoft natural keyboard
02 programme interrupt controller
03 communication port 2
04 communication port 1
05 creative sb16 emulation
06 standard floppy disk controller
07 printer port LPT 1
08 system cmos/real time clock
09 SCI IRQ used by ACPI bus
10 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
10 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
10 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
10 Intel ® 82801BA/BAM USB Universal host controller-2442
10 Matrox Millennium G400- English
10 Creative SB Live! Value
11 ACPI IRQ holder for steering
11 ACPI IRQ holder for steering
11 Intel ® 82801BA/BAM USB universal host controller-2444
12 PS/2 compatible mouse port
13 Numeric data processor
14 Primary ultra ATA Controller
14 Intel 82801BA Ultra ATA Storage controller –244B
15 Secondary Ultra ATA Storage Controller
15 Intel 82801BA Ultra ATA Storage controller –244B

I tried moving devices (IRQ's) in W98 System properties but kept getting the 'This Device cannot be altered' message.
Had a look in Bios, the only thing I seem to be able to do is reserve IRQ's. To be honest with you I don't quite understand that area.
The only info listed under IRQ's is 'used by PCI Device' Can anyone give any clues as to how to force IRQ's in the Bios although it looks like the G400 and SB Live cannot be moved anyway.

Oh I have also tried moving the SB card to another Slot to see if that would shift its irq requirement, it didn't.
So all in all its a bit of a foul up.

My intention now is to format and start again.
Would it be advisable to clear my cmos, bearing in mind that I had the PNP-OS switch set to disable, thus allowing the Bios to configure the pnp cards to their relevent IRQ's.

Is it a good idea to set the pnp-o/s switch to enable and let W98 configure all the devices?

Your advice on these points would be very much welcomed.

Thanks.

Dave


[This message has been edited by deejay (edited 13 February 2001).]

[deejay]

Thanks for the reply TP.
Is my system working properly? well:

Iam getting significant slow downs in one or two games when the sound kicks in, ie Quake 3 arena. Also occasionally I get a black screen with a sound loop again on Q3. Only playing at 800x600 16bit. Seems very slow on my PIII 866 133mhz fsb. (seems to be worse than previous PII 400, albeit on a ATI Rage pro)

My sidewinder precision 2 joystick (usb) will not work, I assume this is because the usb controller is using the same IRQ as the sound card.
Take out the sound card and it works, albeit not with the software that came with it. It is listed as not connected but still works in games. Incidentally the USB ports are functional as my scanner works ok.

On bootup I get a report that SB16 emulator is conflicting with another PCI device, yet Windows reports device working properly with no conflicts.

In the control panel, system device listings I have exclamation marks against floppy drive and keyboard devices.
Windows reports that the floppy drive is using dos drivers yet when I try to update the drivers windows tells me its already using the best drivers. Same with the keyboard.

Question;

What is the significance of the ACPI installation?, does this allow devices that would otherwise conflict to sit on the same IRQ with no problems (similar to W2k)

Why have I what appears to be duplicated entries in the IRQ list?.

Surely from what I have read many times on this forum, it is thoroughly bad news to have the G400 and SB live on the same IRQ?
I'd love to get those two separated.

I just get the feeling that my system is getting a little tired and probably cluttered with stuff that the regular uninstall programmes leave quietly behind.
Sorry about the essay.

Again thanks for your input.

Dave

[ayoub_ibrahim]

look like you need to free up some irqs to redistribute your hardward. try disabling sb emulation in device manager & disable your COM ports in bios if you don't use them! hopefully on rebooting, windows will rearrange your hardware more evenly!

[The PIT]

You've installed in acpi mode so it's fine don't worry. Is everything running properly?
If so don't fix what ain't broke.

[deejay]

Thanks for the advice Ayoub. I'll give that a whirl.

Cheers

Dave