At 16:44 08/02/01, Paul Anderson wrote:
>I am sort of new to Windows 2000 and I was wondering if
>someone could help me out. My video card, sound card, network
>card, and USB all are using IRQ 11...So how can I change the
>IRQ that windows is using?

If your computer is specified as an "ACPI Uniprocessor PC" in
Win2k's Device Manager, all PCI devices share one IRQ. This is
by default the way Win2k enumerates devices if your computer's
BIOS has ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface)
enabled.

This should work correctly provided all devices have
competently written device drivers. (Win2k differentiates the
PCI devices[*] by their PCI number instead of by interrupt.)

     [*] Besides devices in PCI slots, some devices on the
         motherboard use the PCI bus.

If you move devices to different PCI slots, I'm guessing
that their behavior might possibly change but you should
still see them sharing the one IRQ in Device Manager.

If you want each device to have a separate IRQ, you will
have to re-install Win2k as an upgrade and specify
"Standard PC" after pressing F5 when Setup generates the
following informational message: "Press F6 if you need to
install a third party SCSI or RAID driver." An upgrade
reinstall should retain your settings and installed programs.

Do not disable ACPI in your computer's BIOS unless you are
going to do a reinstall. Doing so can prevent Win2k from
booting.

Under no circumstances should you attempt to change your
computer type from "ACPI Uniprocessor PC" to "Standard PC" in
Device Manager while Win2k is running. Microsoft states that
"doing so will result in your computer not starting properly
or at all. This occurs because the Plug and Play device tree
that would be loaded is for ACPI, and it does not get
reconstructed or revert to a standard HAL [**] Plug and Play
device tree" when the HAL is changed. "Win2k might not be
able to find the boot device...or data could be lost." Even
if Win2k were to seemingly boot correctly after the HA change,
it might be unstable and the system should be in such a state
that any hardware change could make the system inoperative.

     [**] HAL = Hardware Abstraction Layer. There are different
          HALs for the various computer types seen in Device
          Manager.

For reference, see either of the following:

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q216/2/51.ASP
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q237/5/56.ASP

Regards,
Bill

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