OK, So How -Do- You Change IRQs In XP?

[Suntower]

Hello,

As copiously documented, I replaced my previous mobo last month with an AMD X2 based Gigabyte Uli-chipset deal with 2 UAD-1s and a Poco.

So, I've been futzing with how to get them all to play nicely together. No matter what I try, the Poco always seems to share an IRQ with another device.

By swapping PCI slots, I got it to share the same IRQ as my Ethernet card and that seems to work OK. (My guess being that this is because there ain't much net traffic whilst running the DAW software.)

I'm willing to leave well enough alone, but this makes me wonder: other than moving PCI slots, how -does- one change an IRQ assignment in XP Pro? I see others here talk about having 2 UAD-1s on the same IRQ. My question is this:

How the heck do you do it? As I recall from the dark ages, one used to be able to go into Device Manager and FORCE a device to a particular IRQ. But whenever I try to do this, -every- time the Edit button is grayed out.

So... What's the trick? If I really -did- want to muck with it, how is it done?

TIA.

---JC

 

[JuergenW]

(AFAIK) it´s still the deal with PCI that the IRQ´s are shared due to
the design of mainboard. Even forcing IRQ´s by Bios or Windows XP
doesn´t help with IRQ conflicts. This is because the \"lanes\" of the
PCI-bus are fixed and shared by all components.

 

[secretworld]

Hi, about getting uad1´s to share an irq! On some mobos like mine, slot 1 and 5 share an irq so if you insert uads in slot 1 and 5 they automaticly share. Check your mobo manual if this is true for your mobo. 13 slot magmas also share evrery 3 or 4 slots so it´s easy to get uads on 1 irq in there. If you ever get problems with the sharing networkadapter , it is easy to turn the netork adapter of in either device manager or in network connections (translated from dutch so not sure what it´s called in english, it´s an option in the start menu)

 

[Jim Roseberry]

Hi JC,


There's no way to manually assign an IRQ to a particular piece of hardware.

IOW, IRQs are allocated to slots and onboard (mobo) hardware.
Some of those slots/hardware share an IRQ. There's no way around this.
Some mobos let you change the IRQ, but the shared slot/hardware will both move to the new assigned IRQ.

UAD1s are happy to share an IRQ with USB/Ethernet controllers.

As you have found, swapping slots is really the only way to control IRQ allocation.

 

[jcat]

You can still do what you want, but you have to install Windows in \"Standard PC\" mode instead of ACPI mode. Then you can specify IRQ settings.

But there's absolutely no point. Sharing IRQ's really shouldn't be a problem on most modern motherboards. If you're not experiencing any trouble, then why bother? There's not really any advantages these days.

IRQ sharing is blamed for a lot of problems that probably aren't caused by it...



Cheers,

jcat

 

[Jim Roseberry]

You can still do what you want, but you have to install Windows in "Standard PC" mode instead of ACPI mode. jcat

And that can cause other problems...

 

[jcat]

You can still do what you want, but you have to install Windows in "Standard PC" mode instead of ACPI mode. jcat

And that can cause other problems...

Of course. But I'm saying there's no point worry about IRQ's most of the time anyway!



Cheers,

jcat