Setting IRQ for Video Card

[drakoczy]

Hey all,

I just installed a LeadTek Gforce 2 MX card in my Machine. All seems to be working well, but I read where it is better to run a Geforce card on an IRQ which is not shared with other devices. Currenty my card is sharing IRQ 11 with my Vortex based Sound Card, my NIC card, my PCI to USB Universal Host Controller, and three entries for IRQ Holder for PCI Steering. From my IRQ Resource list the only IRQ that has no device assigned to it is IRQ 4. When I tried to re-assign the IRQ for my Geforce card the system (WIN98) told me I'm not allowed to change the IRQ. Can Anyone offer insight on how I can get my Geforce2 card onto its own IRQ? or since it seems to be working ok at this time should I just leave it alone.

System Specs:
Abit BH6 Mother Board
LeadTek WinFast Geforce2 MX 32Mb
160 Mb PC100 Memory
Celeron 566 Oc'd to 850
Vortex 2 Sound Card
Win 98 4.10
SMC EZ 10/100 Network Card
US Robotics Int PNP 56k

Thanks in advance

[jaida]

I would just say if its working fine then leave it alone.

It doesn't hurt performance if it shares an irq with other devices.

[Imperion1]

But if you still want it on its own IRQ, you can disable the IRQs for Com1 and Com2 in your bios. This will free up 2 IRQs and then usually reassign the video card to one of these IRQs.

Forgot, PCI slot1 shares the same IRQ with the AGP slot, so anything in PCI 1 will still share the IRQ with the AGP. With my BH6 I put the sound card on PCI 2 and the NIC card on PCI 5. I use PCI 1 for video capture cards.

[This message has been edited by Imperion1 (edited 04-15-2001).]

[drakoczy]

Thanks...

I check my slot assignments and let you know.

-- Dave Rakoczy

[jared]

ach; i'd say it doesn't matter at all what you have for ram in the pc; but anyway...

4 cards on irq 11 ? gak!

the 'IRQ holder for PCI Steerings' are gonna be there - one for each device which actually has that IRQ -- think of them as mirrors or placeholders.

i have an m/b which is fullbore PnP "hey, you're a dufus user so we don't give you any options in the BIOS" wonderfest -- it's a dell m/b, if that explains it... ; anyway, i had a circusf'ck in the win98 with IRQs, and it all got better by me going in thru safe mode, removing all the irq holder pci steerings, as well as any PnP "device" ( not a 'system device' - but sound cards and the like ); turn pc off; jumper the 'cmos reset' , power pc up; turn off, put jumper back where it belongs ; power pc up; start windows; let it redetect all the devices...

it was no biggie, as i had all the drivers scattered about the HD; and as it turned out, i ended up with free IRQs, where before i had the same type of deal you had -- video card was sharing IRQ with the net card, etc...

near as i can figure, the m/b had retained knowledge of past cards ( no longer in the PC ) which it had assigned an IRQ to, and therefore it didn't give that IRQ out anymore.... .

at any rate, it "fixed itself" ( <- something i suppose is only applicable when talking about windows and PnP... ); and all my cards are on their own IRQs, which is how i feel it should be.

PnP is the greatest disaster to ever hit the PC market,....

[NDC]

That's why most of us just "PLUG & PRAY" http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif