G200 secondary adapter doesn't like Hauppauge WinTV

[Oliy]

Hi all,

I have the following setup:

3 x 17" LCD monitors
2 are running off my Radeon 9600, and I bought a G200 off ebay to use the third.
I have a Hauppauge WinTV PCI adapter also.

Everything works fine in Windows except for two things.

1. Pressing "Advanced" from the display settings window (to get to the refresh rates and colour correction etc) - the computer hangs for a second then restarts, no exceptions.

2. Running WinTv with the G200 enabled - the program starts, the display on the G200 goes blank, then the program crashes before it shows anything, and the G200 display comes back on. If I disable the G200 then WinTv works fine. This isn't acceptable tho because I would only have one available monitor when the TV was on!

I have tried all combinations of drivers for all three devices, from the ones Windows installs automatically to the latest off the manufacturer's website, and now I'm at a loss what to do - is there any trick I need to do in order to get it working?

Thanks
Oliy

[Nowhere]

Hmmm...there exist cards which doesn't like sharing one IRQ with each other. HAve you tried to move your cards in different PCI slots?

[Oliy]

You're right, they're both sharing IRQ 19.

Unfortunately I don't have any free PCI slots left, and they are arranged by power dissipation to keep them as cool as possible, is there a way I can force them to adopt an IRQ through windows, I'm sure I used to be able to through Device Manager but the "Use automatic settings" box is greyed out so I can't untick it.

[Nowhere]

In my opinion - it's OK and completelly adequate simply if your PCI cards don't exhibit thermal problems - there's not much need in "keeping them cool" that way, because if they ARE too hot and cause instabilities, it's usually sign of faulty hardware. That, and: power dissipation of your system remains the same anyway. Oh, and also even G200, for example, doesn't draw much power, especially if you're using it as 2D adapter (I have even one G200 without radiator...although I think this is some newer model made in 0,18um or something...).

So I still suggest giving it a go...one change could be enough. Unfortuantelly, both graphics cards and TV cards (and also many sound cards) seems picky when it comes to sharing IRQ.

Perhaps you should list all your PCI devices, so somebody knowleadgable could recommend which two give you biggest chance of succes.


However, if you'd only like to manually assign IRQs...sorry, I can't help you, never had to do this so I don't know much (but I wonder why some thought that even if it's possible, it takes some sacrifice, popped in my head...)

[Oliy]

Ok, here are my PCI devices:

WLAN card
Hauppauge WinTV card
Matrox G200 card

And of course an AGP Radeon 9600.

The reason I have no slots left if because the Radeon and the WinTV card both take up an extra PCI slot each.

I guess I could try swapping some cards around, I'll give it a go next time I turn my PC off!

Thanks

[Nowhere]

(not many choices for rearragement it seems)

However, I wonder...what kind of WinTV card is it if it takes 2 slots? (the thing that you want free slot next to Radeon is of course understandable)

[Oliy]

I've re-arranged the cards, and made sure that the G200, WinTV and Radeon all have different IRQs (17, 18 and 19 respectively). Unfortunately this has made no difference, both problems detailed above still exist!

[Nappe1]

OLiy: are you using Matrox drivers for G200 PCI? the ones coming with windows won't nesessarily support hardware video layers.

[Oliy]

Aha! Finally got it working. Not so much from knowing what I was doing, as by trying lots of different combinations. They are now both on the most recent drivers from either company, and the TV works on either of the screens running on my Radeon, but not on the G200. I can live with that!

Thanks for all your help. Sorry I can't provide a definite solution, but uninstalling everything and reinstalling it all again is what did it for me!