I'm having problems with the IRQ's in my computer with W2K Pro. I found out that all the PCI devices are sharing the same interrupt (11) and there are some others available but not in use. You can't change the device's IRQ manually because the system disable this option. I have a network card, sound card, Video card and IDE controllers sharing the same IRQ. You can notice that the mouse movement is not smooth, sometimes it stops. My mother board is a ABIT BE-II which support ultra DMA. I also have a 7200 RPM hard disk working at 66 with HighPoint drivers installed. I also upgrade the BIOS to the latest version to see if this could solve the problem, but it couldn't.
My questions are: Is this a W2K or BIOS problem? The fact that Im using Ultra DMA controller can influence on this problem. And how can I solve it?

Hi,
we have discussed this IRQ probs quite often this month. Please have a look to similar themes as "IRQ settings" from Sept. 2.00 a little down here.

If trouble, you must change from ACPI-PC to Standard-PC as it is described in these FAQs.

Irq problems should be a thing of the past in Win2000 or so Microsoft would have us believe!!

IRQ sharing is acceptable in some situations. It is not unusual to find that your Bios has allocated the same IRQ for your NIC and , say, the sound card. This does not mean that there will be problems. If the IRQ for any peripheral is active and a request is beinjg made to the CPU, simultaneously, problems can occur. Most times it will be okay. Requests are instantaneous, in human timescales. But, it is true that conflicts can occur but, are not reported in diagnostics. This is because Windows is stupid and, to some extent relies on the Bios Plug N Play system to sort it all out.

Disable the Plug N Play in the CMOS and take control. Use any driver diags disk that you may have for your NIC or other peripherals. You can dictate what IRQ is applied to which card. However, this MUST be done in REAL DOS, not in a DOS window within Windows. Also, it is best practice to do a 'clean boot, to Boot disk or MS-DOS 6.22 Disk 1. Then you have a free run without any TSR problems.

Be firm, take control and remember to write down what IRQ and I/O parameters you have set in DOS so that you can shove them down Window's throat on reboot.

Happy trails

For what it's worth, I have experienced exactly the same problem on my Tyan Trinity 400 M/B (Via Apollo Pro 133 chipset)with Win 2K, right down to the IRQ 11 allocation for everything non-system, including the GeForce card.

e.g. My modem locks up the system as soon as it's activated. I can uninstall the modem and re-install it without a re-start and get a different IRQ allocation, i.e. IRQ 7. The modem (and the rest of the system) then works fine until I re-boot. IRQ 11 again!

I'm pretty sure this is a Win 2K problem. I don't see it at all in Win Me. I've upgraded the Via drivers to the latest Win 2K versions, but that didn't help.

BILL WHAT ABOUT SOME HALP HERE?? ANYONE!!