IRQ problem in Windows XP Pro, please help!

[MoxManiac]

Hi all,

I just installed Windows XP Pro (fresh install), and most everything seems okay - except for IRQ assignments :(

WinXP has decided to dump almost all my devices onto one IRQ. My IRQ assignments are as follows:

IRQ 0 System timer OK
IRQ 1 Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard OK
IRQ 4 Communications Port (COM1) OK
IRQ 6 Standard floppy disk controller OK
IRQ 8 System CMOS/real time clock OK
IRQ 11 Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System OK
IRQ 11 NVIDIA GeForce2 MX/MX 400 OK
IRQ 11 VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller OK
IRQ 11 VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller OK
IRQ 11 WinFast TV2000 XP WDM Video Capture OK
IRQ 11 WinFast TV2000 XP WDM Audio Capture OK
IRQ 11 Creative SB Live! Series (WDM) OK
IRQ 12 PS/2 Compatible Mouse OK
IRQ 13 Numeric data processor OK
IRQ 14 Primary IDE Channel OK
IRQ 15 Secondary IDE Channel OK


As you can see, it's lumped my capture card, video card, USBm and sound card on one IRQ. Also, USB is not working.

I've tried setting both PnP OS to yes and no in the bios. I've tried manually assigning each IRQ in the bios..I've tried shutting off Plug and Play..(WinXP did NOT like that) No matter what I do, it lumps all those devices on one IRQ, despite there being plenty of other free IRQs.

I've tried going into device manager and changing the IRQs manually, but it's greyed out! And nothing I do makes it available. It's all greyed out..

My specs

Abit VH-6 II mobo
P3 1Ghz
512 PC133 SDRAM
45 GB hard drive (C: 5GB with windows, D: 38 or so GB with misc files)
Geforce 2 MX dual display
SoundBlaster Live!
SuperaExpress 56k external serial modem
Winfast TX2000/XP capture/TV tuner card


Any help would be appreciated. I need to stop this mass IRQ sharing. Thanks.

[smily_03]

that's the good old PCI Local Bus for you (AGP is part of that as well). PCI takes over a couple of your IRQ's and lumps devices into four areas: INTA, INTB, INTC, and INTD. You don't have to worry about this. On my computer i've got about 8 things running on IRQ11 (got an onboard RAID controller), and it runs perfectly fine, cool, and stable. oh, and extremely fast too. That wouldn't keep your USB from working either....

[Midknyte]

Did you try moving your pci cards to different slots? Sometimes that can make a difference. You could also try reserving IRQ11 and let the devices try to find another IRQ. That works sometimes. It's weird since you have 2/9, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 10 open.

you could try a bios update too.

[Fritz44]

Yes.........I've made it a habit of letting the PCI slot directly below the AGP slot free if I can at all help it. It caused all kinds of problems for me before I knew they were shared. I haven't (knock on wood) had a conflict since then, and my machine is packed with cards and outside resources.

Fritz44

[MoxManiac]

smily - so this much sharing is perfectly normal, even with the other IRQs free? It alarmed me because when I was running Win98SE, each device had it's own IRQ. So i'm assuming this is a WinXP thing?

Midknyte - Unfortunatly, any attempt to change IRQs (through BIOS or PCI slot switching) is unsuccessful. I got it to change to 3, but they ALL shared three. No matter what I do to move them, they all go on one IRQ. Apparently this is normal though, according to smily.

Fritz - Yeah, the first PCI slot after AGP is free, so there is no sharing in that respect going on.

Also, I fixed the USB. It wasn't USB itself, it was my device (adapter that lets me use Playstation controllers) Apparently it won't work unless I unplug it and plug it back in everytime I start Windows. I can live with that, I guess.

Thought about a BIOS update, might do that anyways. My mobo is well over a year old and i've never updated the BIOS since I got it.

Thanks for the replies and info, guys!

EDIT: Typos