Need Advanced Level PC Help

[Chili]

This has been driving me nuts all day and I can't seem to get it figured out so I thought I'd toss it out there in case some of you build your own systems and see if anyone can assist me.

One of my pc's recently died (bad mobo) and yesterday I put it back together with a new mobo, all was going well until I put on the new USB printer and my digital camera then we had crash city.  After a period of searching for the trouble I found that I had a pile of stuff all loaded on irq 11 these include:

1. Microsoft ACPI Power Management
2. Video card
3. Sound card
4. Network card
5. USB Root Hub
6. USB Controllers

Needless to say this is way to much for one IRQ and the system reacted accordingly.  I have tried to let the mobo/windows auto assign the irq's everything still ends up on 11.  I have tried to assign each pci slot it's own irq and after removing the device from device manager and rebooting it gives it a different irq until the next reboot when it reverts to irq 11.  I've tried physically moving the cards around to different PCI slots all with negative results.

As for other factors that you may wnat to know C: drive is running a fresh format and install of Windows 2000 Professional patched to service pack 3.

If you have any idea's I'd love to hear them as I'm fresh out and the odds of getting any decent help around here is pretty much done now until monday AM.

 

 

 

 

[Jaybird]

<SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 16pt; FONT-FAMILY: Mistral; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">“ Dewd…you’re gettin’ a Dell “</SPAN>&nbsp;

 

[kmccune]

Are there any jumpers on the board for IRQ's? (Hey you never said how new the MB was). It may help to call the MFG of the board and hopefully they can help. Did the old board fail on the new Win 200 install and HD&nbsp; format, or did it run for some time?

&nbsp;

Kevin

 

[Chili]

The Dell would sure be a headache saver at this point Jay :)

kmccune: the board is brand new and no jumpers for the irq's. I have e-mailed the manufacturer but was hoping for a miracle cure this weekend. The original machine was running XP pro and failed after getting a major power surge during a storm that also got my "surge" :think: protector.

 

[mrmodine]

Hey Chili:

It sounds to me like something is blocking the other IRQ's.&nbsp; I am assuming their are IRQ's which are available...is that correct?&nbsp; Also, are these cards all PCI and AGP or do you have some legacy ISA cards too? If you do have a legacy sound card for example, I would recommend getting rid of it :uh: .&nbsp; A decent soundblaster PCI card will run you about 40 or 50 bucks.

If you are running all PCI/AGP and you do have IRQ's free, my first check would be the system bios to see if they are being set manually.&nbsp; Usually there is a setting for Plug and Play which you want to run or the settings can be manual.&nbsp; If you have some of the IRQ's disabled, that may be your problem.&nbsp; So, in short, put the setting to Plug and Play if it is available.

One other thing about the bios, do you have a regular telephone modem in your PC or are you using broadband of some sort.&nbsp; If you are not using a telephone modem, I would disable the serial ports in your bios as they are probably not needed.&nbsp; This will almost always free up IRQ's 3 and 4 for other use.

If that still does not work, I would next remove the other cards.&nbsp; You should have already removed the USB connections for troubleshooting...if not, do it now and also remove the sound card and network card since these are not mission critical.&nbsp; Once you do that, I would boot back up and go into the device manager and manually change the IRQ of the video card to something available like number 5, 10 or maybe seven.

Then, shutdown and install the the sound card again.&nbsp; When you boot back up, I would try to manually set the sound IRQ to another of the available numbers.
Lastly, do the same as above for the network card.&nbsp; Once finished, if all is still working and the devices have accepted the settings, I would go back into the video card resources and set the card back to IRQ 11 or default.

At that point if all of the above has worked, you should be able to plug in your USB devices successfully. :yeehaw:

If none of the above works.. :debil: .then dear sir you do have a problem.&nbsp; I would think at that point you would best be served by the manufacturer but they will probably instruct you to flash the bios to the latest revision.

I sincerely hope this works for you.

Good Luck!

 

[biglou]

Chili-I was gonna say the same thing Chris did, he just beat me to it... :eek: ;)


Yeah, right. My advice would have been something like-Pound keybaord with forehead. If problem persists, go to garage and get hammer. :confused:

 

[Jaybird]

I don't think you could have found a better answer on any PC mfg help site.
Very nice job, mrmodine...although I'm like Lou and don't know if you are lying or not! :)

 

[mrmodine]

thanks Guys...lets just hope it works for him now.

Chili...let us know man.

 

[kmccune]

<SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">mrmodine, you rock !</SPAN>

<SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Do you need a job, Minnesota is nice this time of year :) </SPAN>

<SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"></SPAN>&nbsp;

<SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Kevin</SPAN>

 

[Chili]

mrmodine: Good reply. No legacy devices and all cards are pci with the exception of the AGP vid card. I have tried setting cmos to auto PnP for the PCI slots and I have also tried to manualy assign each slot its own IRQ. I've pretty much reached the end of the line for my tech skills and am waiting for a reply from the MoBo manufacturer. And I made sure to tell them in my e-mail that the board had already had the latest bios revision flashed to it and the latest via chipset drivers installed :)

Lou: You kill me that reply had me howling :)

 

[mhardee]

Originally posted by Chili
One of my pc's recently died (bad mobo) and yesterday I put it back together with a new mobo, all was going well until I put on the new USB printer and my digital camera then we had crash city.&nbsp; After a period of searching for the trouble I found that I had a pile of stuff all loaded on irq 11 these include:

As for other factors that you may wnat to know C: drive is running a fresh format and install of Windows 2000 Professional patched to service pack 3.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

If I am not mistaken, Win2K Pro uses virtual IRQ's and it is possible to assign very different assignments than before..

Below is a snapshot of mine...

I have always found the BIOS setting od auto (on ISA cards) to be the most effective and make sure that PNP OS installed is checked in BIOS.. I would be almost certain that it's a BIOS mis-setting not allowing Windows to preoperly select vitrual IRQ's..

Good luck (and I hope the attachment makes it!)..

Mark



&nbsp;&nbsp;

&nbsp;&nbsp;

&nbsp;

 

[IrishEKU]

Originally posted by BigLou
Chili-I was gonna say the same thing Chris did, he just beat me to it... :eek: ;)


Yeah, right. My advice would have been something like-Pound keybaord with forehead. If problem persists, go to garage and get hammer. :confused:

Lou's computer solution :)

 

[biglou]

I still haven't been able to find that damn "Any" key...

 

[kmccune]

Your a hoot Lou :)

&nbsp;

Kevin

 

[mrmodine]

One other thing...check this article from Microsoft...

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;252420

 

[Chili]

mrmodine: Thanks for the great link, I think I got a great lead out of it and as soon as I have some time off to tinker I'll give it a go!

 

[IrishEKU]

Chili, if all else fails....