xp and IRQs

[shifty]

I just finished installing winxp on a computer and everything went ok.I was just wondering why it piled everyting on one IRQ.I have the video,lan card,sound card card and modem all on IRQ 10.I tried moving the cards to different slots but it does no good.The system seems to be running fine but there are so many unused IRQs.I had win98 on it before I installed xp and everything was on it's own IRQ.It's an Abit KG7 Raid,Gforce4 440mx video,Creative sound card,WD hd,Linksys lan card.Should I be concerned about it?

[andyms18a]

xp uses vertual irqs and it dont nead all the hard ware on difrent ones like 98/me so just let it set up how it wants and you will be fine

[TwoRails]

Hi Shifty,

Did you enable APIC in the BIOS? That should make a difference.

TwoRails

[shifty]

Yes I do have it enabled.I didn't change it when I installed xp.If I disable now would it do any good?If disabled it would let the bios assign IRQs vs the OS assigning them if I understand it correctly.I think I would have to reinstall xp though.It's a fresh install so it wouldn't be a problem.

[shifty]

I went back and checked the bios and I don't see an option for APIC but in the Power Management menuI see ACPI.Time to read the manual.

[TwoRails]

Oh, and also set the choice for "PNP OS" to NO!! Not yes!

[shifty]

There is no option for PNP OS either.It does have an option for ESCD,manual or auto. all the IRQs are assigned to pci devices.Not sure about this.

[TwoRails]

Is this an older mobo? Have you looked for a newer manual online? I know Asus is pretty good about updating their manuals.. but don't know about Abit for sure but I'd imagine they are too.

[lil Jimmie]

Originally posted by andyms18a
xp uses vertual irqs and it dont nead all the hard ware on difrent ones like 98/me so just let it set up how it wants and you will be fine

I agree.

[Cricket]

Originally posted by shifty
Should I be concerned about it? No, don't worry about it...that's how WinXP works. Your system is running fine, there's no need to "fix it".

:) Cricket

[TwoRails]

I must be confused... I've always heard that is one of the "selling points" of XP, that it will use a seperate IRQ for each device. Being a Win 98.2 holdout, I've only built 2 XP boxes (my 3rd one is in the works) but both have so far automatically assigned different IRQs to everything -- using 20 or more IRQs.

Maybe it's the difference with mobos (I use Asus) but it does seem strange in my small XP experience that shifty's build would use only one or two IRQs instead of 20 or more... ????

I'm clueless.... :( :)

[lil Jimmie]

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q314068

[TwoRails]

Interesting reading, lil Jimmie ! :) Thanks!

At least I was right on setting PNP to Disabled in BIOS, but the article does yield a question that may be related:

I have ACPI Disabled on my personal box. The above article indicates that XP handles things (IRQs) differently in that case.

For curiosity, shifty: do you have ACPI (not APIC) enabled or disabled?

TwoRails

[lil Jimmie]

Originally posted by TwoRails
I have ACPI Disabled on my personal box.

TwoRails

Why??? :confused:

I hope I'm not misunderstanding you here but are you saying you are using a Standard PC HAL or ACPI PC HAL

[shifty]

The board is an Abit KG7Raid.It's about two years old.Running an xp1600 and ddr pc2100.I see nothing about ACPI.I have seen it before on other boards.I've always left it enabled.http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/manual.php?categories=1&model=30 Here's the manual if you want to look.thanks

[TwoRails]

Originally posted by lil Jimmie
Why??? :confused: Not really sure, but probably an old Win 98 habit where it didn't alway play well... Part two is that while video encoding and the like, I would run into problems if the monitor or one of my HDs would shut down -- sometime requiring a reboot (reset) wasting all my efforts... Other than that, no real or good reason ---

[TwoRails]

Shifty: Can't get the manual to download... server not found... But I did notice that the last update was back in 1998! I can't remember dates right now, but your BIOS may just not have all features, like APIC.... I didn't look for any BIOS updates.

[shifty]

If I go into the device manager and click My computer it shows ACPI.So I guess it is using it wheather I wanted to or not.Looks like I can't disable it.

[shifty]

I couldn't download it either.Might be a problem with their server.The board came with drivers for win2k and I don't think ddr was out in 1998.I think it's an early 2001 board.

[lil Jimmie]

You can't disable it but you can change it to a Standard PC HAL, but if you are not having problems then leave it as is.

[shifty]

I have to leave for a few hours but I'll check back later.This is interesting.Thanks.

[Cricket]

Originally posted by lil Jimmie
if you are not having problems then leave it as is. I agree with lil Jimmie...if the computer is running well, there's really no need to fix it.

:) Cricket

[TwoRails]

I agree, also. But I still have curiousity on the "why" part... :) - good thing I'm not a cat, eh? LOL

[crjdriver]

Abit boards from that era do not have the option to disable acpi [without modding the bios file]. The option is there it is just hidden. I have modded a few bios files for people that were having irq conflicts, however if it works just leave it alone. You can run into more problems disabling acpi.

[shifty]

I'll leave it alone.It's playing games fineeven though the video card is on the same IRQ as three other cards.Well I learned something else.ThanksTwoRails,jimmie,cricket,crjdriver,andyms.

[Blakhart]

Acpi will help your system run cooler, and it will bench faster.
As to apic, if you see all your irqs as one number, no matter. They aren't really all on the same irq, that's just a placeholder number to show you. The apic controller gives out an irq to a device as it has the irq to give and the device has priority to do so at the time. The apic controller holds the irqs in a "pool" and lets a device have one when required. That is how you can get more than 16 irqs, wich x86 architecture is stuck with.
Some thoughts for ya.

[shifty]

Thanks Blakhart.You explained that well.I'm beginning to understand what's going on here.