IRQ in W2K Pro

[joelau]

Maybe some of you guys will know the answer to this one.

I'm looking at Device manager in w2k and noticed that:
1)3com ethernet card
2)Sblive
3)SCSI adapter
4)USB universal host controller
5)Matrox G400

All these are sharing IRQ 9.
Is windows trying to trick me or my eyes ?

Regards.

[Rags]

There aren't any tricks, what you see is normal. It looks like your win2k is using ACPI.

Rags

[joelau]

ACPI ? Which means ??

Is w2k suppose to use only IRQ9 or is the IRQ info hidden ?

Regards.

[This message has been edited by joelau (edited 15 April 2001).]

[Rags]

Advance Configuration Power Interface.

It doesn't deal with IRQ's like we all have grown to love/hate, the OS has HAL that deals with the interupts itself.

In other words, if it works leave it.

Rags

[Liquid Snake]

Same here, except all my devices are on IRQ 11. No problems at all.

[joelau]

Thanks.

I'm not used to ACPI. Feel like i lost control. I prefer the good old DOS days, where everything configure thru jumper.

Regards.

[Rick]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by joelau:
...good old DOS days, where everything configure thru jumper.
</font>

Shudder, jumpers bad ACPI good
Win2000 uses virtual IRQs to get by the old 15 limit. All of mine ended up on 9. I've read the MS knowledge base bit on it but you can basically just sit back and not have to worry about it anymore for the most part. Even my SBLive didn't cause any trouble as it does in Win9x.

[Paulr]

ACPI is the greatest thing ever!!
Seriously.
You remember the good old days, a few devices and before you knew it all your IRQ's were used up, devices wouldn't share addresses and you were left with a system with free slots but nothing you could put in them!!
ACPI works 100% so long as you have a few components:

A ACPI compatable OS, WinME, Win2k, WinXP
A motherboard with a fully ACPI complient BIOS - A lot of older MB's claim ACPI but they still aren't 100% complient.
Cards (PCI & AGP) that are ACPI complient, any ISA cards and you'll have problems.

It's great, plug as many devices in as you have AGP/PCI slots, sit back and let the OS sort everything out for you, no jumpers, no manual configuartion - how good is that?

Pop along to Microsoft's & Intel's web sites and search for ACPI, they have White Papers on the technology, makes an interesting read.
Oh, BTW Intel also have a White Paper on hot swapable PCI cards, now THAT IS scary!

[SCompRacer]

There is this Abit forum I was frequenting and the majority there claim ACPI hurts their performance. They recommend installing without it or disabling it if already installed.

I have ACPI enabled in Win2000 and no one there has bested my two drive RAID 0 ATTO benchmark scores yet.

SO ACPI is good.

[Gurm]

Hardware polling has a theoretical 5%-ish performance hit due to management overhead.

In reality, the time the system saves NOT waiting around for poorly written device drivers to let go of system resources MORE than compensates.

- Gurm

------------------
Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.