IRQ sharing

Cochise · Post by **Cochise** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 6:50 am

I've succeeded in have a not shared IRQ for my Luna board, but having now added another one I found myself with this problem again for the new board.

In the bios setup I can see an option for reserve IRQ (from 3 to 15) or assign it to generic PCI devices.

So if I:
- uninstall any item using 1 of those IRQ
- reserve this IRQ
- uninstall CW driver sharing IRQ
- reinstall the item removed in the first step
- reassign the IRQ to PCI devices
- reinstall CW driver
I could obtain no shared IRQ for CW board.
But IRQ assignament really go over my knowledge, so I'm in fear that all this work could be totally useless.

Is there any way to obtain this result without deactivate most of the hardware items?
Please help!

[ This Message was edited by: Cochise on 2005-06-17 07:50 ]

symbiote · Post by **symbiote** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 8:04 am

If you run XP in Standard Mode, you can turn off IRQ steering (automatic IRQ assignment by XP.) In ACPI mode, XP will assign IRQs by itself and ignore any/all BIOS settings pertaining to IRQs. I'm not sure there's a way to turn off IRQ steering in ACPI mode, so you'll have to mess around with shuffling cards around in different PCI slots to get proper IRQ assignment.

Cochise · Post by **Cochise** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 9:32 am

Right, I've forgotten that.
So I must reinstall in Standard PC mode or let ACPI share that IRQ. It seems no clear conflicts... but I'll reinstall.
Thank you.

[ This Message was edited by: Cochise on 2005-06-17 10:47 ]

symbiote · Post by **symbiote** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 10:17 am

I think you might be able to remove ACPI and switch to Standard Mode without re-installing everything, might be worth a try before going thru all the trouble. Try searching for other threads with "ACPI" "remove" and "Standard Mode" and you should be able to find a complete procedure.

Cochise · Post by **Cochise** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 10:36 am

I know it's possible but unsafe...

Post by **Guest** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 12:21 pm

it is not the same. redoing the OS in standard mode eliminate all problems that may rise from simply switching it.

Cochise · Post by **Cochise** » Sat Jun 18, 2005 11:55 am

Thank you all.

Considering the error messages I get from non CW apps, I think it's better to reformat the OS partition and, calmly and carefully, rebuild the system.

Post by **garyb** » Sat Jun 18, 2005 6:18 pm

that usually helps...

you are still likely to run out of irqs with standard mode, however. i'd run acpi and disable the parallel and serial ports, the onboard audio and lan if you're not using it. also, in the device manager, you can disable 1 of the usb ports to gain an irq if need be(keeping one). i would also disable usb 2.0 in the bios as you are very unlikely to need that(saving an irq).....

[ This Message was edited by: garyb on 2005-06-18 19:22 ]

valis · Post by **valis** » Sat Jun 18, 2005 9:44 pm

Garyb speaks the wisdom of moderate steps before extreme...also ACPI mode is far superior in WinXP. Standard mode is a last resort unless you're on Win2000.

Cochise · Post by **Cochise** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 7:00 am

That's true; I most probably shall run out of IRQ in Standard mode with this MB.
All the issues mentioned by garyb are already disabled in ACPI mode.
But I've a Intel 82801FB/FBM ultra ATA storage controller issue under IDE ATA/ATAPI controller (togheter with primary and secondary IDE channel). Maybe I can disable this since as I'm using raid. Or not? I hope Microsoft won't let me disable it if it's essential.

However CW board share it's IRQ with just another device (onboard LAN adapter DSP), and they never work togheter, so I think no interrupt request from Marvell LAN device while Luna is working. (Won't disable LAN; it's the only way the DAW is connected with the outside...)

[ This Message was edited by: Cochise on 2005-06-19 08:12 ]

Post by **garyb** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 12:05 pm

that should be no problem.

kaju · Post by **kaju** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 12:31 pm

Valis,
you saved my day! I was about to reinstall my whole system, just to get it working as Standard Pc. Now I see it won't be necessary.

I was able to get an unique IRQ for my Luna card by changing it to another PCI slot.
I studied the D865perl documentation and figured out that slots #1 or #2 could be the best ones.
Luna is now sitting in slot #2 and having an unshared IRQ 22.

Now I have 15 IRQ numbers reserved and still 8 IRQ's free: numbers 4,5,7,10,11,17,20 and 21.

Is there any way I could get these "free" IRQ 's to active use?
I mean if I need, or is it just that this Windous lottery will let me have an IRQ number or won't let it, depending on the phase of the moon or the weather in Mars?

kaju

[ This Message was edited by: kaju on 2005-06-20 13:32 ]

valis · Post by **valis** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 2:28 pm

I control things solely by mapping out my IRQ's that are shared when I first recieve a new motherboard. I use a DOS boot cd with some simple utilities and I hand move pci cards around until I have a picture of my IRQ sharing for all slots. Then I position things accordingly and let the APIC controller (on the motherboard) handshake with ACPI in WinXP. Anal but it works.

(I've been manually mapping IRQ's since 1988 btw, although there weren't nearly as many onboard devices that shared under the old ISA controllers).

[ This Message was edited by: valis on 2005-06-20 15:29 ]

Cochise · Post by **Cochise** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 5:48 am

On 2005-06-20 13:31, kaju wrote:
Valis,
you saved my day! I was about to reinstall my whole system, just to get it working as Standard Pc. Now I see it won't be necessary.

I was able to get an unique IRQ for my Luna card by changing it to another PCI slot.
I studied the D865perl documentation and figured out that slots #1 or #2 could be the best ones.
Luna is now sitting in slot #2 and having an unshared IRQ 22.

Now I have 15 IRQ numbers reserved and still 8 IRQ's free: numbers 4,5,7,10,11,17,20 and 21.

Is there any way I could get these "free" IRQ 's to active use?
I mean if I need, or is it just that this Windous lottery will let me have an IRQ number or won't let it, depending on the phase of the moon or the weather in Mars?

kaju

[ This Message was edited by: kaju on 2005-06-20 13:32 ]

I've the 17 for Luna and LAN.
Don't want that one. Cabala foresee bad things with that number

[ This Message was edited by: Cochise on 2005-06-22 06:49 ]