From: Earl Truss :Subject: [PCBUILD] New system problems?


> This is a long one ... be prepared.
>
> I've just upgraded to a new ATX case and motherboard.  I ran into quite
> a few problems and it took a full day to get it working properly.
> Everything appears stable and working fine at the moment but I'm not
> sure if some of the results are going to get me into trouble later or
> not.  I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice or
> explanations for some of the things that happened ...
>
> The new system is:
>
> Antec ATX case / 250W power supply
> TekRam P6Pro-A+ slot 1 motherboard / Award BIOS /  VIA Apollo Pro+
> chipset
> Celeron 466MHz CPU - socket 370 with IWill Slot 1 adapter (running
> normal settings)
> 128MB RAM in two 64MB PC100 DIMMs running at 66MHz
> Western Digital 8GB hard drive running at UltraDMA/66 - only drive on
> this channel
> Toshiba 44x CD-ROM running at DMA33 - secondary master
> Memorex CD-RW - slaved to CD-ROM
> Banshee PCI video card
> 3Com network card connected to cable modem
> NetGear network card connected to local network on four-port 10Mbps hub
> Creative Awe64 ISA sound card
> Single port parallel ISA card at LPT2 with tape drive connected
> Scanner and printer daisy-chained off motherboard parallel port at LPT1
> Mouse on COM1 - COM2 enabled on motherboard but nothing connected
> USB ports disabled
>
> I installed by shutting down the old system, moving hardware to be
> re-used in the new system to the new case (hard drive, ISA and PCI
> cards), restarting in Safe Mode, deleting all devices in Control Panel,
> shutting down and restarting my system to let Windows reinstall
> everything.  The system would lock up on boot.  Removed all the cards
> except video card and it worked OK.  After all the devices were found
> and installed, tried putting back the cards one at a time until it
> failed again.  Found that problem #1 below was the cause of the lockup.
>
> 1. When the NetGear card was first installed, it was assigned IRQ12.
> The system would lock up on boot, just after the Windows startup
> display.  The manual mentions that IRQ12 would be used by the on-board
> sound chipset if I had one and says that any driver installed on this
> IRQ must be "sharable".  I'm not sure what they mean by this.  I finally
> had to work around this problem by assigning IRQ12 to the ISA bus so PNP
> would not try to use it.
>
> 2. On the second try, the NetGear card was assigned IRQ9.  This is the
> "redirection" IRQ.  When I tried starting my system this way, something
> clobbered my Autoexec.bat and my registry.  Windows restored a backup -
> wiping out all the changes I had made up to this point.  I did this
> again before deciding this was probably a bad idea and disabling IRQ9 by
> assigning it to the ISA bus.
>
> 3. This caused the NetGear card to take IRQ5 and displace my sound card
> which needs to be on IRQ5 for some programs to work.  Assigned IRQ5 and
> IRQ7 to ISA bus so they would be used by ISA cards.
>
> 4.  NetGear card moved to IRQ10 - the same IRQ as the 3Com network card!
> Apparently this does not cause a problem as everything seems to work but
> I've never run into this before.  Is this going to cause a problem some
> day?  Can other IRQs be shared by other PCI cards?  Is there some way to
> force IRQs to be shared like this between given devices rather than just
> a random assignment?  I've not enabled the USB ports yet as I have no
> USB devices at this time but would like to get a USB scanner and would
> need an IRQ for it.
>
>   IRQ #           Device
>   0    System timer
>   1    Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural Keyboard
>   2    Programmable interrupt controller
>   3    Communications Port (COM2)
>   4    Communications Port (COM1)
>   5    Creative AWE64 16-bit Audio (SB16 compatible)
>   6    Standard Floppy Disk Controller
>   7    Printer Port (LPT1)
>   8    System CMOS/real time clock
>   10    3Com EtherLink 10/100 PCI For Complete PC Management NIC
> (3C905C-TX)
>   10    NETGEAR FA310TX Fast Ethernet PCI Adapter
>   10    IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
>   10    IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
>   11    3D Blaster Banshee PCI/AGP
>   11    IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
>   13    Numeric data processor
>   14    Primary IDE controller (dual fifo)
>   14    VIA Bus Master PCI IDE Controller
>   15    Secondary IDE controller (dual fifo)
>   15    VIA Bus Master PCI IDE Controller
>
>   DMA #           Device
>   1    Creative AWE64 16-bit Audio (SB16 compatible)
>   2    Standard Floppy Disk Controller
>   4    Direct memory access controller
>   5    Creative AWE64 16-bit Audio (SB16 compatible)
>
> 5. Several times on startup Windows would find a unknown device and try
> to install software for it but not be able to find anything so I would
> wind up with an "unknown device" entry in Control Panel that I could not
> figure out how to identify.  It eventually went away so I assume it was
> just a problem with something not being installed properly because of
> the above problems.  Any way I can identify an "unknown device" like
> this?
>
> 6.  I notice that sometimes sounds will be choppy - especially when the
> disk is being accessed heavily at the same time.  I blame this on DMA
> being shared between the disk and the sound card.  Is this probable?  Is
> there some way around this without slowing down the disk?
>
> 7.  A really minor problem - Before the upgrade the active title bar on
> Windows would fade from a dark color on the left to a lighter shade on
> the right.  It's just a solid dark color now.  I see under display
> properties, appearance where I can set two different colors for the
> active title bar and it does appear that way after I change it ... until
> the next restart and then it's right back to a solid dark bar again.
> Anyone know what is happening here?
>
Earl,

PCI cards can share IRQ's, but some cards can't share IRQ's.  Many SCSI
cards, some NIC's and some Video cards (the GeForce doesn't like to share an
IRQ) won't share IRQ's.  There are ways to force PCI cards to share IRQ's
depending on the OS your are using and the motherboard.  The AGP slot and
the 5 PCI slots share 4 IRQ's.  Usually the AGP slot and 1 PCI slot (usually
the slot next to the AGP slot) share an IRQ.  Two other PCI slots share an
IRQ, leaving 2 PCI slots that do not share an IRQ.  This configuration
depends on your motherboard and should be found in the documentation for it.
Some motherboards allow you to assign IRQ's to the PCI slots so that you can
force some cards to share IRQ's by forcing the assignment in the BIOS or by
placement on the motherboard.  I checked the manual on your motherboard and
it did not have this functionality in the BIOS, nor could I find information
on which PCI slots share IRQ's.

You did not mention which OS you were using but Win95 would let you reassign
resources through "Device Manager" on some cards.  I have not found this to
be true with Win98 or Win98se.  When you try to reassign resources through
"Device Manager" in Win98 and Win98se you will get a message that says "You
cannot change this resource" or something like that.  This leaves you to
move cards in the slots, adjust IRQ setting in the BIOS (if you can), or
assigning PCI slots to the ISA bus to force IRQ settings.  Plug and Pray can
still be just a shot in the dark.

From the manual I see that your motherboard does have a PS/2 mouse port
which is assigned to IRQ 12.  Since you are using a serial mouse, you might
check to see if you can disable the onboard PS/2 mouse port.

The manual says that this motherboard comes with on board sound, did you
disable the "Onboard Sound chip" option in the BIOS?  This option is enabled
by default if your motherboard has the onboard sound.

Mary Wolden

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