Gerry, Actually, the problem is, supposedly, that windows is constantly, with each install of Win98SE, putting TOO many devices in the same system IRQ value, by itself, since it is finding all the daughter boards installed in the system right when the install happens - in this case, it is IRQ 5. This includes the sound card, DVD decoder card, the LAN card, and 2 system devices. The tech at Creative Labs thought that this many devices all sharing the same IRQ was a MAJOR problem waiting to happen, and would end up giving me the kinds of problems I have been having with the system after Win98SE was installed - that is, totally random problems with the windows registry, system problems, and other things happen, on a random basis. That was the reason for his sugguestion of taking all the boards but video card out, and then do the Win98SE install. Once the system was up and running, then install each board and its drivers and software, one at a time. This would, hopefully, get windows to distribute the drivers and related items among the various IRQs, instead of lumping them all together in one single IRQ.
BUT, I am wondering if the problem revolves around a different problem entirely - that is the hardware, drivers, and/or related software, for the sound card itself. I used to have a Creative Labs Live MP3+ 5.1 card in the system - after I got the updates off of Creative's web site, and installed them, I never had any problems with my system with that sound card operating at all. BUT, after the Audigy MP3+ card came out, I got that card and installed it in the system in place of the Live 5.1 card. What I am wondering is if the Audigy card or its software is what is actually the problem in my system, rather than the issue of doing the install with each daughter card, one at a time??? The reason I get to wonder is that the system problems I seem to get all come about after the software for the Audigy card is installed. Up to that point, the system never seems to have a problem with working correctly. BUT when I installed the Audigy sofware, it seems to get unstable, and the random problems I get start to show up. So I am not totally sure any more if the problem is the IRQ issue or the software for the Audigy card??? So Gerry, I am wondering if you have seen anything with regard to either problem - too many system devices assigned to one IRQ, or the Creative Labs Audigy card's related items - being a logical cause of my Win98SE instabilty. The way things have been going, I am getting ready to go back to the Live 5.1 card if it will get me back to a stable system, though I do like many of the features of the Audigy card. BUT, features dont do me a hill of beans good if the system will not remain stable to use them :-( Ralph "Gerald E. Boyd" wrote: > > At 01:46 PM 1/24/02 -0800, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote (in part) the > following: > > [snip] > >One thing I am wondering, after multiple re-installs of Win98SE on my > >system at home, and having one problem after another showing up (nothing of > >the problems is consistant from one install to the next - some problems > >will show up VERY quickly after the install; on others, a problem will show > >up quite some time later, after re-installing any number of programs I use > >BUT it results in the same - reinstall of Win98SE from scratch), I finally > >talked to a level 2 tech at Creative Labs, we looked at the IRQ usage under > >device drivers under my computer, and found that windows, apparently from > >finding all the daughter boards installed in the system from the start of > >the install, assigned about 6 devices to IRQ 5. He sugguested that I do > >another re-install but this time take all boards but video out, do the > >install, and then re-install each board separately with its software, to > >hopefully eliminate this problem. > > > >Has anyone had experience with this happening to them and this fixing the > >problem??? And can this type of problem cause all the random types of > >instability that I have had occur in windows??? > > This behavior (reinstalls show different IRQ values) is caused a feature > called IRQ Steering. By using PCI bus IRQ steering, Windows can dynamically > assign or "steer" PCI bus IRQs to PCI devices. There is a Knowledge Base > article that describes this behavior: > > Description of PCI Bus IRQ Steering (Q182604) > http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q182604 > > If you need to disable this feature to force a specific device to use a > specific IRQ, see: > > How to Disable PCI Bus IRQ Steering in Windows (Q182628) > http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q182628 > > -- > Gerry Boyd ============= PCWorks Mailing List ================= Don't see your post? Check our posting guidelines & make sure you've followed proper posting procedures, http://pcworkers.com/rules.htm Contact list owner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Unsubscribing and other changes: http://pcworkers.com =====================================================
