Question on XP an IRQ sharing...


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Hey All. Gotta quick question. YEsterday I threw together a budget 500 mhz Celron system. I threw in a 3 Com net card and my old 32 meg Diamond Viper 770 Ultra. Figure a TNT2 isn't bad for another UT gaming system : ).

Well, the problems came with the LAN game we ran. Both the 3 COM and the Video card are sharing IRQ 11, so I'm getting framerates of about 15-20 over a Lan with all the detail settings on low and at 640 x 480 res. The only thing I can think of is the IRQ sharing is killing everything.

I moved the 3 com to anothe rPCI slot, but it didn't take on a new IRQ. Then I changed teh 3 com with a netgear card, and it also feels right at home on IRQ 11.

I went into BIOS and disabled IRQ 11, and they both moved to 10. So I went into BIOS again and disabled 10, so they switched to 5. Arrrgghh!!!

I re-enabled all IRQ ports so that they went back to 11, but I'm stuck. I'm using teh latest detonators for the TNT2, and windows won't let me reassign IRQs manually. Any suggestions? Thanks all. :)

SilverWulf

PS - I used to play UT on a 333 Celron with a monster 2 and less RAM, and it was WAY better, that why I know it's screwed up somehow...

System Specs

Cel 500

32 Meg Viper 770 Ultra

128 RAM

6 Gig HD

Netgear 3. something Net card (or 3 com, take yer pick)

Integrated sound card

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XP and 2k's controling of IRQ's is quite poor! i take it both the TNT2 and NIC are PCI? what it does is give the PCI bus one IRQ and then you cant give them more,

http://support.euro.dell.com/uk/en/kb/docu...=TT1061040&tag=

check out this link might help!

also try switching off plug n Play in the bios i've been told that might help you move them around! i'm also having a problem with IRQ's on a laptop with PCMCIA cards, that XP wont let me give each card its own IRQ when i have like 3 that are not in use! if anyone knows a way to fix the problem let me know!

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ACPI is a more avanced (technologically) than APM. However, ACPI requires and is controlled by software. While APM has some software controls, mostly they are controlled by BIOS.

IF you can change to APM in BIOS, then first go to the system Control Panel --> Hardware tab --> Device Manager

View the Computer icon and click on Computer. You should see the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC, if you see Standard PC, then your BIOS doesn't match the installation.

To change the PC from ACPI to APM, you actually UPDATE the driver for the ACPI PC (HAL). Manually select the Standard PC (HAL) option. Upon reboot, MAKE SURE your BIOS is set to APM.

Note: Some newer PC boards have problems (in BIOS) correctly using APM instead of ACPI.

Very important note: Once you convert from ACPI to Standard PC you cannot reconvert to ACPI. You can only reinstall to make the PC ACPI compliant again.

Once APM is set, you can manually select the IRQ's in BIOS and move the PCI cards around in their slots.

The Dell/Microsoft faq (compilaton reprint), listed above by dead_smed is good, but I believe its over cautious of the dangers of changing the HAL from ACPI to APM. If your board/BIOS is newer, what Dell/Microsoft says is very relevant. If your board is older (and still supports ACPI and APM) like my 1998 board BX chipset, then their warning is probably unwarranted. ACPI is designed to be software controlled, therefore their statement that the Windows 'sets' the ACPI settings at installation is correct and important, especially for newer chipsets. [for example the Intel 8xx chipsets]. In any case, I haven't ever had problems changing from ACPI to APM, even on newer Intel 8xx boards.)

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