re-assigning an IRQ on windows 98se

[john granville]

My s/card (midi Delta 1010 LT) is sharing an IRQ with my IRQ Holder
for PCI Steering) and I would like my s/card to use IRQ4 which is
free. Can I do this from Windows ? There seems to be no jumper
settings on my s/card or m/board to force which IRQ to use. I cannot
see anything in my bios apart from disabling plug and play and
assigning from there. I pressume this would make me have to reinstall
all my drivers for all devices if I disable plug + play and wanted to
avoid this. Basicly , I would like to know the easiest and safest way
to tell my s/card to use IRQ4 instead of the Shared IRQ it is using
(IRQ10 )

Thanks in advance for any help
John

[Thomas Bishop]

"john granville" > wrote in message
> My s/card (midi Delta 1010 LT) is sharing an IRQ with my IRQ Holder
> for PCI Steering) and I would like my s/card to use IRQ4 which is
> free. Can I do this from Windows ?

The easiest way to change a device's IRQ setting is move it to another PCI
slot. Is IRQ4 the only one available? You should be able to hit a free one
with a little PCI arrangement.

I have to ask, why are you so particular about it? Are you getting Rice
Crispies from your card? Not to be pessimistic, but I had those problems
and no amount of PCI rearranging could fix it. I had to buy a new
motherboard that didn't use a Via chipset. You may get luckier than me,
though.

[Kevin Krell]

IRQ4 is usually reserved for serial COM ports 1 & 3. If your BIOS
allows assignment of IRQs to specific slots (Plug 'n Play off) then
you have a shot. Many slots on newer systems unfortunately share IRQs
and will move together. For instance, AGP slots may share with an
adjacent PCI slot, or a slot might share with an on-board feature,
such as a SCSI hard drive interface, or a sound chip built-in to the
motherboard.

Kevin

john granville wrote:
>
> My s/card (midi Delta 1010 LT) is sharing an IRQ with my IRQ Holder
> for PCI Steering) and I would like my s/card to use IRQ4 which is
> free. Can I do this from Windows ? There seems to be no jumper
> settings on my s/card or m/board to force which IRQ to use. I cannot
> see anything in my bios apart from disabling plug and play and
> assigning from there. I pressume this would make me have to reinstall
> all my drivers for all devices if I disable plug + play and wanted to
> avoid this. Basicly , I would like to know the easiest and safest way
> to tell my s/card to use IRQ4 instead of the Shared IRQ it is using
> (IRQ10 )
>
> Thanks in advance for any help
> John

[Vladan]

On Fri, 4 Jul 2003 12:34:09 -0700, "John L Rice" >
>"john granville" > wrote in message
om...
>> My s/card (midi Delta 1010 LT) is sharing an IRQ with my IRQ Holder
>> for PCI Steering)

Which is perfectly allright and should not be changed. Should there be
second device for make PCI stearing actually happen, ie. to share that
IRQ with your sound card, than there may be a reason for change.

>> and I would like my s/card to use IRQ4 which is
>> free.

Thje moment you make that happen, youd get IRQ holder for PCI
stearing, on IRQ4 too.

>>the Shared IRQ it is using (IRQ10 )

Which is baout the most common IRQ for an soundcard.

Just don't wory, everything's fine with your IRQs.

Vladan
www.geocities.com/vla_dan_l
www.mp3.com/lesly , www.mp3.com/shook , www.mp3.com/lesly2
www.kunsttick.com/artists/vuskovic/indexdat.htm

[DG]

"john granville" > a écrit dans le message news:
...
> My s/card (midi Delta 1010 LT) is sharing an IRQ with my IRQ Holder
> for PCI Steering) and I would like my s/card to use IRQ4 which is
> free. Can I do this from Windows ? There seems to be no jumper
> settings on my s/card or m/board to force which IRQ to use. I cannot
> see anything in my bios apart from disabling plug and play and
> assigning from there. I pressume this would make me have to reinstall
> all my drivers for all devices if I disable plug + play and wanted to
> avoid this. Basicly , I would like to know the easiest and safest way
> to tell my s/card to use IRQ4 instead of the Shared IRQ it is using
> (IRQ10 )
>
> Thanks in advance for any help
> John

First, let's make a little theory. I have 2 computers and the MOBO layout
are quite similar, 1 AGP, 5 PCI and 3 ISA (ah, the good old time) ;-)

The way I understand it, it seems that the PCI slots share IRQs with an
integrated component on the MOBO. In my case, the first PCI slot shares its
IRQ with the AGP slot, the second PCI slot is alone (bingo, that's what we
are looking for), the third PCI slot shares with the ATA66 controller and
the forth shares with USB controller AND the fifth PCI slot. As you might
have guessed, I've installed my Delta 1010 card into the second slot and I
choose to share my network card with USB (slot 4 or 5), I didn't want to
share something with the hard disk controller.

Changing the IRQ for the PCI slot in the BIOS won't help because it will
also change it for the integrated device that share the same slot. For
example if I tell my BIOS to use IRQ 5 for PCI slot 4, it will also use IRQ
5 for USB AND PCI slot 5.

You might have a newer MOBO with more integrated devices (sound chip,
network, 2 or 3 USB controller) which won't have a PCI slot not shared. In
that case, disable the device in the BIOS that use the same IRQ than the PCI
slot you want to use (sound chip or third USB controller, may be). If you
have decent documentation with your MOBO, it should tell you what component
is sharing with each PCI slot. If not, you may be able to figure it out by
moving PCI cards in the computer and check the info (press Pause) that is
displayed before Windows takes over when you turn on the machine.

You want to use IRQ 4, don't worry about it. I have never been able to use
IRQ 4 for anything else than COM1 (first serial port) or force it on an
older legacy ISA card, usually, PCI cards will use IRQ 3 (if available), 5,
10, 11, 12 and 14/15 (if availables). In other words, IRQ assignments for
PCI cards are slot dependent,

As far as the "IRQ holder for PCI steering" is concerned, It looks like it's
a virtual device that Windows creates for every PCI card that you install, I
think it allows to share IRQ under Windows.

So find a slot that do not share IRQ with another HARDWARE component and
don't worry about "IRQ holder for...", you won't be able to get rid of it
anyway.

Hope it helps

Dominique

[DG]

I forgot : "ALWAYS TOUCH THE COMPUTER CASING BEFORE TOUCHING A CARD INSIDE"

To avoid EM discharge; those can destroy a component real fast.

Dominique

[John L Rice]

"DG" > wrote in message
...
> "john granville" > a écrit dans le message
news:
> ...
> > My s/card (midi Delta 1010 LT) is sharing an IRQ with my IRQ Holder
> > for PCI Steering) and I would like my s/card to use IRQ4 which is
> > free. Can I do this from Windows ? There seems to be no jumper
> > settings on my s/card or m/board to force which IRQ to use. I cannot
> > see anything in my bios apart from disabling plug and play and
> > assigning from there. I pressume this would make me have to reinstall
> > all my drivers for all devices if I disable plug + play and wanted to
> > avoid this. Basicly , I would like to know the easiest and safest way
> > to tell my s/card to use IRQ4 instead of the Shared IRQ it is using
> > (IRQ10 )
> >
> > Thanks in advance for any help
> > John
>
> First, let's make a little theory. I have 2 computers and the MOBO layout
> are quite similar, 1 AGP, 5 PCI and 3 ISA (ah, the good old time) ;-)
>
> The way I understand it, it seems that the PCI slots share IRQs with an
> integrated component on the MOBO. In my case, the first PCI slot shares
its
> IRQ with the AGP slot, the second PCI slot is alone (bingo, that's what we
> are looking for), the third PCI slot shares with the ATA66 controller and
> the forth shares with USB controller AND the fifth PCI slot. As you might
> have guessed, I've installed my Delta 1010 card into the second slot and I
> choose to share my network card with USB (slot 4 or 5), I didn't want to
> share something with the hard disk controller.
>
> Changing the IRQ for the PCI slot in the BIOS won't help because it will
> also change it for the integrated device that share the same slot. For
> example if I tell my BIOS to use IRQ 5 for PCI slot 4, it will also use
IRQ
> 5 for USB AND PCI slot 5.
>
> You might have a newer MOBO with more integrated devices (sound chip,
> network, 2 or 3 USB controller) which won't have a PCI slot not shared. In
> that case, disable the device in the BIOS that use the same IRQ than the
PCI
> slot you want to use (sound chip or third USB controller, may be). If you
> have decent documentation with your MOBO, it should tell you what
component
> is sharing with each PCI slot. If not, you may be able to figure it out by
> moving PCI cards in the computer and check the info (press Pause) that is
> displayed before Windows takes over when you turn on the machine.
>
> You want to use IRQ 4, don't worry about it. I have never been able to use
> IRQ 4 for anything else than COM1 (first serial port) or force it on an
> older legacy ISA card, usually, PCI cards will use IRQ 3 (if available),
5,
> 10, 11, 12 and 14/15 (if availables). In other words, IRQ assignments for
> PCI cards are slot dependent,
>
> As far as the "IRQ holder for PCI steering" is concerned, It looks like
it's
> a virtual device that Windows creates for every PCI card that you install,
I
> think it allows to share IRQ under Windows.
>
> So find a slot that do not share IRQ with another HARDWARE component and
> don't worry about "IRQ holder for...", you won't be able to get rid of it
> anyway.
>
> Hope it helps
>
> Dominique
>


Good advice. This whole IRQ / slot sharing thing is a pain. There should
be a law that says if there is a card slot, it gets a dedicated IRQ. Same
for onboard devices. Wouldn't that be slick, no matter where you stuck a
card, there wouldn't be any IRQ sharing problems?

So the chip set dudes need to fix it on their end and the OS dudes need to
fix it on their end so the mobo dudes can make motherboards that are really
easy to setup and use.

John L Rice

[Laurence Payne]

>Good advice. This whole IRQ / slot sharing thing is a pain. There should
>be a law that says if there is a card slot, it gets a dedicated IRQ. Same
>for onboard devices. Wouldn't that be slick, no matter where you stuck a
>card, there wouldn't be any IRQ sharing problems?
>
>So the chip set dudes need to fix it on their end and the OS dudes need to
>fix it on their end so the mobo dudes can make motherboards that are really
>easy to setup and use.

You've got it already. Just use the slots that don't share, and set
them up as Legacy Devices in BIOS. Trouble is, most people want more
devices in their computers than that approach allows :-)