AGP/PCI Common IRQ

[JimmyCW]

I have a new ASUS motherboard, an AGP video card, and a PCI sound card. I have had a boot up failure. Loaded my sound card software and when the machine started to reboot it went into a loop where it would reboot over and over when the Windows start up screen came up. I called tech. support and they told me I had the sound card in the PCI slot next to the AGP card and this would not work. They were right, I moved the card and everything worked fine.

I have two questions. This started because I had some other problems with my onboard network card. This machine had been working fine with the sound card in the PCI slot in question.

So my questions are:

1. Why have a PCI slot that you can not use?
2. Why did it in fact work for a period of time then stop working with a reload of the operating system(Windows 98)

Thanks......Jim

[Nathan]

You can actually use the first PCI slot next to the AGP one for a PCI video card. You can then have two monitors on your system. I haven't messed with that part much.

As to the second question, sorry but I can't help you there. I've got some theories, but nothing I can't prove. I suppose I'd call them hunchs or guesses.

[Bleeding Edge]

If your NOT using compressed drives the following is the most common cause for continuous reboots. If the drives are compressed, it is for a different reason but with similar symptoms.

Windows Restarts Continuously

The information in this article applies to:
Microsoft Windows 95
Microsoft Windows 98


SYMPTOMS
When you start your computer, Windows may restart continuously


CAUSE
This behavior can occur if Win.com is called from the Autoexec.bat file using the /W or /WX switch.


RESOLUTION
To resolve this issue, follow these steps:

1. Restart your computer.


Windows 95:

Restart your computer. When you see the "Starting Windows 95" message, press
the F8 key, and then choose Safe Mode Command Prompt Only from the Startup
menu.


Windows 98:

Restart your computer, press and hold down the CTRL key after your computer
completes the Power On Self Test (POST), and then choose Safe Mode Command
Prompt Only from the Startup menu. For more information about Windows 98
startup, see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

ARTICLE-ID: Q178548
TITLE : No "Starting Windows 98" Message at Startup

2. Type the following line and then press ENTER:

edit autoexec.bat

3. Locate the line that reads:

win.com /W

-or-

win.com /WX

4. Remove the "win.com" line.
5. Save and then close the Autoexec.bat file.

6. Restart the computer.



MORE INFORMATION

The /W and /WX switches are typically used to restore the original Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files and restart the computer after you restart your computer in MS-DOS mode. The /W switch on the Win.com line causes Win.com to rename the current Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files to Config.app and Autoexec.app, restore the original Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files from the Config.wos and Autoexec.wos files, delete the Config.wos and Autoexec.wos files, and then display the following message:

Press any key to continue...

When a key is pressed, the computer is rebooted to Windows. If the /WX switch is used instead of the /W switch, Win.com performs the same steps, but does not display the above message.
When the /W or /WX switches are used in the Autoexec.bat file after you restart your computer in MS-DOS mode, the original Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files are successfully restored from the Config.wos and Autoexec.wos files, and Windows starts normally after the computer is rebooted. However, if you use the /W or /WX switch in the Autoexec.bat file at any other time, the Config.wos and Autoexec.wos files do not exist and the current Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files remain in the root folder of the boot drive. Because the /W or /WX switch remains in the Autoexec.bat file, Windows restarts continuously.



[This message has been edited by Bleeding Edge (edited 03-24-99).]

[JimmyCW]

Thanks for the responses.

In my case the fact that the sound card WAS in the slot next to the AGP slot was the cause of the reboots. When I moved it everything work correctly.

Does this mean I should never put anything in this PCI slot......except a second video card? I would like to add a TV tuner card to the PC, would this fail also if I placed it in the slot in question. And if this is the case can the bios share IRQs if these two cards are both video cards? I wo

The space is not a problem, I am just trying to learn something.

Thanks.....Jim

[CMonster]

In the beginning, when the AGP and sound card worked, did you have a PCI video card and also the sound card installed and then remove the PCI card and install the AGP card? The order of installation may have allowed Windows to assign non-conflicting resources to the AGP card.

[JimmyCW]

No I am using the same video card and sound card in the machine. I am sure the order of placement was the same as well because the video card always comes first so you can get the machine up, then other things. I am not sure what the order of any software might have been but that should not have been part of the problem........I think.

My onboard network card seems to be bad, TC Computing is sending me a new one. If it gets here tonight I will get to reinstall the whole thing (hardware) over the weekend. I hope it will come up and not require any changes to my drivers or software.

Back the the question at hand. Do most if not all machine with AGP video cards leave the adjacent PCI slot empty?

[Gentle Giant]

Is what your talking about specific to a board, or is this General. I have an Adaptec
Scii card in the slot next to the AGP and have not noticed any problems. I have a Soyo
MB

[moto]

I am about to get a fic-503+, and I read at their website that if I put an AGP card in, then I should not use the PCI slot next to it because they will share an IRQ. This kind of bugs me because after I put in the SCSI and network card, I will have no more PCI slots. My old motherboard would make the SCSI and network share the same IRQ(although I had other free IRQs, **** plug and play) and I never had problems. That may be because I was using Windows NT though; I read somewhere that Windows 95 doesn't like shared IRQs.

[hitman]

there is an option not to have a irq assigned to the video card in the bios, how would that effect an agp and pci slot together?

[augidog]

i can't help you with the answer to why the AGP and PCI-1 slots share an IRQ, but here is a solution to gaining a little more control over IRQ allocation...manually assign whichever IRQ you would like your AGP slot to use to PCI slot 1. if you do have a PCI component that will work while sharing with video, more power to you. i have AGP,DVD decoder,TV/FM, and sound. I was forced to use a ISA network card because i could not find any combination that would work while sharing an IRQ with my video.
BTW do you have a sound card that wants another IRQ for DOS? if so, and you don't need it, disable it.

[This message has been edited by augidog (edited 04-08-99).]