Hardware probs and IRQ shortage

I am having some difficulty with two PCI cards that "suggest" having their own IRQ's. There just aren't enough to go around!!

I have W98SE.

One card is a Siig IDE controller card (for a 2nd HDD) and it is without reason or warning occassionally changing drive letters for the HDD (usually D:/ but sometimes I:/) and will also just not register the HDD at all (at which time the computer gives double beeps every 20 seconds from boot-up onward)!

The other card is my Adaptec FireWire card which I think is responsible for dropping frames while working on my DV camcorder editing.

Here is the IRQ list.

0 System timer
1 Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural Keyboard
2 Programmable interrupt controller
3 U.S. Robotics 56K Fax Win Int
3 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
4 Communications Port (COM1)
5 Santa Cruz PCI Audio Accelerator
5 Intel(R) 82801BA/BAM USB Universal Host Controller - 2444
5 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
6 Standard Floppy Disk Controller
7 ECP Printer Port (LPT1)
8 System CMOS/real time clock
9 Primary CMD Ultra DMA Bus Master IDE Controller
9 CMD PCI-0649 Ultra DMA IDE Controller
9 PCI OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
9 All-In-Wonder 128 PCI
9 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
9 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
9 SCI IRQ used by ACPI bus
10 Intel(R) 82801BA/BAM USB Universal Host Controller - 2442
10 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
11 Intel(R) 82801BA/BAM SMBus Controller - 2443
11 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
12 TrackMan7 (PS/2)
13 Numeric data processor
14 Primary IDE controller (dual fifo)
14 Intel(R) 82801BA Ultra ATA Storage Controller - 244B
15 Secondary IDE controller (dual fifo)
15 Intel(R) 82801BA Ultra ATA Storage Controller - 244B

My innards have been bared. As you can see, I am pretty full up!!

How do I go about accommodating these little buggers with their request? BTW, the serial port is being used by my APC UPS.

Thanks, Lar

 

Larry, Larry, Larry - this is a bear isn't it? Not knowing what your MB is, I'm going to be general here. This is called a sequential nightmare.

Go into your bios and head for the PNP page, assuming one exists. Then enable the reconfigure device settings tab. You may need to do this several times and you will be cussing me every step of the way until you finally hit on a combination that permits you to boot and permits your system to recognize all devices with no conflicts. Again ..... you will be cussing me for sending you this direction until you hit a successful setup. Keep checking the device manager too.

Second alternative is to clear CMOS, pull all cards except video, reset your bios and start adding cards back one at a time with boots after each one and Windows recognition of each and re-install (automatic) of your device drivers. I'd suggest you add Turtle beach back as the second card in PCI #3 or #4 and then put in your new controller card as the third followed by USR Modem fourth and then Firewire. Again, reboot after each and keep going until you are finished.

Lastly, you can free up a couple of IRQ's if you are lazy, but it means taking away some functionality and disabling a couple of things. Your Parallel port can be changed to standard and you can disable com ports to name a couple of options.

If I were you I'd opt for the second alternative, but I know just what you are facing and its no fun till its done. Good Luck.

 

Hey R2U, they have a word for it....... its called a mean streak!!

I have an Asus CUSL-2 with a P-3 1GHz, i815e chipset.

To find the time to do this will be difficult. BTW, there are no conflicts as far as W98 is concerned. Just these little hiccups. I will get back to you but it may be a week or two (my big 5-0 is next week).

Thanks, Lar

 

I had the exact same problem with a SIIG Ultra66 and my FIC sd11. Had to keep moving the PCI cards around to make everything work. I disabled an extra serial port I never used but finally it was either no SIIG or no USB ports!. I don't use any USB stuff so that is disabled. Not an ideal solution. One thing I did find was that the drivers in the SiiG retail box did not work . I had to get new drivers from the SIIG web site. Good luck. IRQ problems are a nightmare. I am going to buy a new Nvidia nforce2 mobo from ASUS as soon as they are available and get rid of ALL my PCI cards. O happy day!

 

Lar - enjoy the last few days of youth - hehehe.
Ed - I wouldn't go that far. Sure, some things can be tricky but I think you will find that the sequence you use in installing cards is almost (not quite) as important as the slot you use. And, it can be much easier starting from a reset CMOS compared to fixing a problem with two or more devices that don't seem to like each other.