Every Device Wanted to use IRQ 11 !

Dyre Straits · Jan 8, 2004, 11:57 AM

I've never seen anything quite like it. My son's computer, ABIT TH-7, using 98SE started acting up. First he noticed the computer locking up a lot. Then he lost the network connection. Things got so bad he just shut it down.

I brought it into the office here and started looking at things. My jaw dropped when I did a check on the IRQ settings. EVERY single physical device: Video Card, Sound Card, NIC card....etc. etc. was being assigned to IRQ 11! I even moved the NIC card and it STILL wanted to use IRQ 11.

It took me a little while, but I DID get it sorted out. One thing was a bad NIC card. (Old LinkSys 100TX.) Another thing was a network cable gone bad. He had routed it in a high traffic area and I believe it just got pinched and shorted out.

I installed a new NIC card (NDC-brand) and left it unplugged from the network. I had to also force an ESCD Update and things 'seem' to be functioning better now.

But, I don't recall ever seeing all devices attempting to use the same IRQ before. That was strange.

The_Neon_Cowboy · Jan 8, 2004, 12:50 PM

That was strange.

Dyre Straits · Jan 8, 2004, 02:54 PM

OK, it gets even stranger now:

After a couple of reboots, it's back to wanting everything on IRQ 11! This is even after setting up MANUAL IRQ assignments for the PCI slots!

Makes me wonder if the PCI BUS is messed up.

rogeld · Jan 8, 2004, 03:29 PM

One thing that worked for me, mind you this was for an old PII, was disabling the use for IRQ11 and forcing the devices to find a different IRQ. Somehow I doubt that it will work for that since it seems a tad more extreme than what I was trying to work through, but it is worth a shot at least. Might try finding some hardware diagnostic software that you can boot from a floppy disk. I will try to find one I have used before that is specifically designed to check the PCI subsystem. Good luck in the meantime.

Dyre Straits · Jan 8, 2004, 03:35 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by rogeld
One thing that worked for me, mind you this was for an old PII, was disabling the use for IRQ11 and forcing the devices to find a different IRQ. Somehow I doubt that it will work for that since it seems a tad more extreme than what I was trying to work through, but it is worth a shot at least. Might try finding some hardware diagnostic software that you can boot from a floppy disk. I will try to find one I have used before that is specifically designed to check the PCI subsystem. Good luck in the meantime.

That's actually not a bad suggestion.

Before I do that, though, I'm going to reinstall the mobo drivers after checking to see if ABIT has a more recent setup.inf.

rogeld · Jan 8, 2004, 03:38 PM

Worth a shot if anything, right? Been having a heckuva time finding the software but drop me a pm and I will just email it to you once I find the file. Just means sifting through a pile of discs...that aren't labled..bah.

Dyre Straits · Jan 8, 2004, 06:55 PM

I went into Safemode and removed all the IRQ Steering items listed in the Device Manager|System list.

I also installed the newest setup.inf for the motherboard. I forced an update of the ESCD.

The video card is now on IRQ 9. But, the RAID controller, USB Controller, SB Value, and NIC card all want to share this IRQ 11.

One other aspect of this: His OS is 98SE, BUT, the motherboard supports ACPI and I'm wondering if that's actually active, but 98SE isn't showing anything over the 16 IRQs?

We're about ready to pull out a few cards and reinstall Windows.

PangingJr · Jan 9, 2004, 12:55 AM

i've seen this prob in win2K with the ACPI installed many times.. in win98 i'm not sure.

Dyre Straits · Jan 9, 2004, 12:10 PM

I was finally able to find a PCI slot combination that forced a change in the IRQ assignments. The RADEON is now on IRQ 9 and the sound card and NIC are reassigned, too.

However, the computer was still locking up after only a few moments in standard Windows (98SE).

I had already completely Defragged Drive C. It went without a hitch...although took quite a while.

I attempted to run ScanDisk on his Drive D and it would never complete the Standard scan with Automatically Fix Errors. It would get to about 75% complete and just sit there....hour after hour after hour. I could tell there was activity by the very, very slow animation on screen and the flickering light on the motherboard. (I've even run a separate 80-pin cable to this drive to get it off the same IDE channel as the system drive. He had a vacant HPT IDE slot I could use.)

So, I unchecked the Automatically Fix Errors and ..... WOW....does that HD have 'em!!! Cross-links, files (or part of them) in invalid locations......

The progress indicator is just now reaching the 75-80% position and I'm getting TONS of these 'invalid location' errors.

We'll see what happens once all of this is completed.

EDIT: After nearly 18 HOURS, I finally was able to complete the ScanDisk operation on Drive D! It ended up being a combination effort of Automatically Fix Errors vs. Manually deciding which function to use for the errors. I'm now in the process of Defragging this HD to see if it helps the access time. It's HORRIBLY slow to respond when trying to access it.

PangingJr · Jan 9, 2004, 07:09 PM

replace the win98 Defrag.exe file with the winME version 4.90.3000 aprox size 210KB.. will get you a better/faster defrag..

Dyre Straits · Jan 9, 2004, 09:08 PM

After FINALLY getting a finished ScanDisk.... the Defrag worked like a charm. I always do a Defrag in Safemode, though.

We'll see what happens now, but, that D: drive is just REAL sluggish. Not sure why. It's on its own IDE channel without anything connected with it. I have a gut feeling it may be about ready to bite the dust.

drakesteakn · Jan 9, 2004, 10:21 PM

that is very possible. i got a drive here that just went bad. it started to be slow and the defrag wouldn't get the fragmentation below 1.5%. so i backed up my stuff and the next week it crashed hard.

PangingJr · Jan 10, 2004, 01:55 AM

Config your News account in OE, using this server : "msmews.microsoft.com", in newsgroup subscriptions try adding microsoft.public.win98.pnp and/or .power_mgmt
you may find same prob as yours in there,

here're some of web beased versions i found in the general group re ACPI and IRQ 11, i didt read much of it, there're too many. Hope you find something there.

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...e+Search&meta=
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...=Google+Search

Dyre Straits · Jan 10, 2004, 02:55 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by panging
Config your News account in OE, using this server : "msmews.microsoft.com", in newsgroup subscriptions try adding microsoft.public.win98.pnp and/or .power_mgmt
you may find same prob as yours in there,

here're some of web beased versions i found in the general group re ACPI and IRQ 11, i didt read much of it, there're too many. Hope you find something there.

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...e+Search&meta=
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...=Google+Search

Thanks for the links and suggestions.

At this particular juncture in this effort, I'm quite convinced there are some serious problems with the D: drive. We started up a Thorough Scan on the drive late last night and it finally completed this morning. BUT, there were a few messages stating, "scandisk could not finish....because it could not create a file."

Our next attempt to totally disconnect the D: drive and see what happens.

PangingJr · Jan 11, 2004, 01:31 AM

You're Welcome, and any times.

i like to know abit about it myself (all the devices took same IRQs) since this happens in win98... just couldnt find good info and any direct answer to it yet. i believed it has something to do with the hardwares whichs using PCIs in your systems conjunction with the Mobo and ACPI.

as for the D drive, if you find windows works in a beter condition after you removed the drive and you knew the prob is ended right there, you can try connecting the drive on your XP machine and do a disk check from there.

Dyre Straits · Jan 11, 2004, 03:05 AM

UPDATE:

I'm still convinced that the D: Drive is defective in some way. With that drive connected almost anytime we try to access it for even a few seconds, things mess up and eventually just lock up.

BUT, earlier this evening we were even getting corrupted graphics. Things like dotted lines horizontally across the screen....random pixels not being active.....etc.

The card was a RADEON 7200 64 MB card. (It was purchased new a little over a year ago by my daughter-in-law who replaced it a few months ago with my 8500 128 MB card.) I've put in my son's previous Rage Fury Pro 32 MB card and things seem to be a 'little' more stable.

EDIT: He's been playing NeverWinter Nights for about 3 hours without a single lockup since the last change to the Fury Pro card.

Dyre Straits · Jan 25, 2004, 09:17 PM

Another Update on this particular situation:

I've removed his D: drive and put it into another system in order to run a full thorough Scandisk on it.

It locked up the system under normal 98SE.

I've since booted into Safemode and started it up again. BUT, the progress status is skewed compared to the number of sectors scanned vs. the total number.

Here's a photo:

EDIT: Aha! I figured this out on my own. The 'window' that's keeping track of progress is TOO SMALL to show the complete status bar. I'm posting this in case anyone else gets confused at some time.