No IRQ 9?

[jmatrix]

Here's a weird one! Iv'e got 3 BX boards all running WIN98 with similar components. On one of the boards WIN98 will not use irq 9. It doesn't matter whether I set the board for auto plug n'play or whether I manually configure. To free up an irq, I switched from a ps/2 mouse to a serial mouse to free up irq 12. Now here's where it really gets weird...I needed to install a second NIC card in this computer for my network (the other NIC is connected to my cable modem).Since I was out of irq's, I was praying that WIN98 would assign this new card irq 9. lo and behold, I fire the ******* up, and plug n'play assigns the new card irq 11 (this irq is already occupied by the AGP3dfx Voodoo3). I open Devise Manager to check for conflicts...and there are none! It shows the second NIC card, the edfx Voodoo3 and pci holder all assigned irq 11. The are no yellow exclamation marks, no evil conflict messages and all cards are operating properly.What gives here!. irq 12 (freed up because of serial mouse) is assigned the "holder for pci steering" and "pci to usb host", and no entry at all for irq 9. All my other set-ups use irq 9 with WIN98. Does anyone know what's going on here. Your input would be greatly appreciated.
"Baffled in Boston",
Paul

[jokostel]

first of all you dont need the irq
enabled for agp to work properly.......

[800XL]

Looks like the bios on that board allows for IRQ sharing. Not exactly a bad thing, but you are right, it is suboptimal. You might check the bios to make sure IRQ9 is set to Plug and Play and not Legacy ISA in the bios. It could be effectively turned off for windows pnp use. Odd problem though.

[Bleeding Edge]

In addition to 800XL's insights, check to see that PnP OS is set to enabled. This lets Win98 take care of the PnP resources.

[socalgal]

Have you checked to see if it got reserved somehow?
Computer Properties/Reserve Resources

[jmatrix]

irq 9 not a "reserved resource", "pnp os" is enabled, and all irq's set to pnp in the bios et-up. Still weird though!
Paul

[Gentle Giant]

In an Award Bios, I believe in the Power Management section there is a Primary INT area that when ON diplayes IRQ#'s as Prmary or
Secondary - (9 being a Redirect of IRQ2)-this should perhaps be set to Secondary. I dont know if this wil be of help but I know of a Mouse-Sound Card problem that was related to this.

[CMonster]

IRQ9 can be a wierd and stubborn one:

The original PC had only 8 interrupt lines, numbered 0 to 7. When the AT was designed, a second interrupt controller was added to provide 8 more interrupt lines (numbered 8 to 15). This second interrupt controller had to deliver its signal through the primary controller on the motherboard, and IRQ2 was chosen for the task ('cascade' from second controller). Unfortunately, some earlier cards had already made plans to hook into the IRQ2 signal wire, so on newer machines with the second controller, that signal wire now leads to IRQ9 on the second controller. The bottom line: For hardware purposes, IRQ2 and IRQ9 should be considered the same interrupt signal, and should not be used together in the same system.A+ Certification Study Guide - Syngress Media, Inc

Could that be a factor? I don't know if it's relative, but I remembered your post when I read that.

[This message has been edited by CMonster (edited 06-19-99).]

[jmatrix]

Cmonster's explanation sounds logical, but...all pc's use irq 2 for the "Programmable interrupt controller"...so therefore, all pc's automatically use irq 2. On my other two computers at home they also use irq 9 for the CL Sound Blasters and there are no conflicts. I've got 24 work stations at my office all using irq 2 for the controller and irq 9 for varying devices such as NIC cards, Sound Cards, etc. This still doesn't explain why one of my three home computers will not use irq 9 either thru plug n'play or user defined! Still very weird! Thanks for all the input...someday I'll find a really simple answer to this question. At the moment, I'm amazed that presently on this very machine, irq 11 is being shared by my network NIC card and my Voodoo 3 and both are working just fine. In fact, the 3dfx Voodoo 3 2000 AGP is overclocked to 166mhz w/o any problems...go figure.
Thanks to all,
Paul

[This message has been edited by jmatrix (edited 06-21-99).]