How do I manually Change an IRQ?

[KenWright]

Been having problems with my Soundblaster 5.1 in that I get horrible crackling noises when I play anything, and these are amplified enormously by any movement on the mouse when it crosses hyperlinks for example.

I've tried changing soundcards, speakers, uninstalling/reinstalling the soundcard, changing PCI slots blah blah blah, but all to no end. Someone in the newsgroups then mentioned that they had seen this happen with shared IRQs, and that the soundcard shouldn't share with anything else, so off to Device manager I go and take a look at resources by connection, and lo and behold it is shared with one of my USB hubs (probably the one with the mice on it!!).

I then trawl the groups/forums for advice on IRQs and it seems that you can go into the BIOS and do this manually, but I'm a tad nervous of going in there, so if anyone could help out with some step by step advice on how to manually change the IRQ setting, it would be much appreciated. I don't seem to have all the numbers used, but some are used many times, eg:-

Direct memory access (DMA)
Input/output (IO)
Interrupt request (IRQ)
(ISA) 0 System timer
(ISA) 1 PC/AT Enhanced PS/2 Keyboard (101/102-Key)
(ISA) 3 Communications Port (COM2)
(ISA) 4 Communications Port (COM1)
(ISA) 6 Standard floppy disk controller
(ISA) 8 System CMOS/real time clock
(ISA) 12 Microsoft PS/2 Port Mouse (IntelliPoint)
(ISA) 13 Numeric data processor
(ISA) 14 Primary IDE Channel
(ISA) 15 Secondary IDE Channel
(PCI) 5 ALi PCI to USB Open Host Controller
(PCI) 5 Realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast Ethernet NIC
(PCI) 5 VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller
(PCI) 5 VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller
(PCI) 9 ALi PCI to USB Open Host Controller
(PCI) 9 NVIDIA GeForce2 Ti
(PCI) 10 ALi PCI to USB Open Host Controller
(PCI) 10 Generic 56K HCF Data Fax Modem
(PCI) 10 VIA AC'97 Audio Controller (WDM)
(PCI) 11 Creative SB Live! Value
(PCI) 11 Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller

The other worry is what to set it to, because I have two entries that seem to refer to Audio, ie the VIA AC'97 entry and the Creative SB Live! entry. Should both of these have their own unique IRQ, or could they share?

That last PCI to USB host, can I change that to 5 instead of 11? There seem to be a number of USB related entries mostly on IRQ 5, but also one on 10 and one on 11, which is probably causing my problems I think.

Help!!!

Many thanks in advance

Regards
Ken...............








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It's easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission

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[bcastner]

You have to reinstall XP, and force a Hal change.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=299340

If you choose a "Standard" Hal you disble IRQ steering, and can manually assign IRQs.

But honestly Ken, you do not want to do this.
Replace the sound card. It is not an IRQ issue, per se. It possibly is a driver issue, but more likely your sound card has died.

Anybody in the UK with a sound card for this guy?

Ken, you really, really do not want to get into setting IRQs manually with an ACPI compliant workstation.

 

[bcastner]

Sometime MS KB articles are not particularly clear reading for mere mortals. My link above includes:

"Force in a system HAL
To prevent Windows XP from automatically determining the system HAL during the upgrade or the installation of Windows XP, you can manually force in a system HAL. To force in a system Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) during an upgrade or installation of Windows XP, follow these steps:
During the Text-mode phase of the Setup program, when you receive the following message across the bottom of the screen, press F5:

Press F6 if you have to install a third-party SCSI or RAID driver."

Ken,
If you insist on manual IRQ assignments, press F7 during a repair/upgrade of XP and when the setup prompts you to push F6 for installing SCSI or raid adapter drivers. Pushing F7 when XP asks for F6 installs the "standard: hal, which disables IRQ steering and allows manual IRQ assignments.

And if you are tempted to ask me why you push Function Key F7 when the installation clearly asks you to push F6, I have no good answer.

But I think a new sound card is the better bet than mucking with IRQs.

 

[KenWright]

LOL - Hi Bill, I think you're trying to say I shouldn't do this

When you say the soundcard has probably died, would that not mean that I'd get nothing out of it, or would I still get the symptoms I'm having?

Cheers
Ken............

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It's easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission

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[bcastner]

Ken,

#1. No, you should not do this change to your HAL
#2. It would be nice if hardware devices such as your sound card died a nice clean death. Far too many computer products just work intermittantly, or not at all, without a wit of an error message.

My choice:

. remove the card
. replace it with a SoundBlaster Audigy card:

http://www.soundblaster.com/

And you know I still owe you, so I am going to give you good advice.

(Ken was kind enough to enhance my MVP picture so I did not look on the verge of death).

 

[KenWright]

LOL - I'm taking your advice Bill and leaving it alone. I figured I'd try disabling every device that shared the IRQ and it made no difference whatsoever, so just changing it to another unique IRQ probably won't help me I guess.

For the moment i'm just going to hook up to onboard sound and live without the 5.1, but at least my kids can play their games

I also wouldn't want to play with a reinstall anyway till I've got a slipstreamed version of Win XP with SP2, so I may have a go at that later for something to do.

Cheers
Ken...............

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It's easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission

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[bcastner]

On Monday I intend to write an XP Slipstream "How to". (You cannot download the necessary "Network" full Service Pack 2 until then).

Stay tuned.

As for the sound board, if it worked and then stopped, it need to be replaced. (Messing with the IRQs was a non-starter as far as I was concered).

Did you:

. Use Device Manager an uninstall the Device, reboot, and let the XP New Hardware Wizard reinstall?

. The following works in tough situations. I do not suggest this generally, but I want you to try it:

http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/t1066427444

 

[micker377]

If you are using a sound card, why is AC 97 (onboard sound) still turned on? Disable it in Bios and see (hear)what happens.

 

[werD420]

For Real Man You should disable onboard sound from cmos