The complete article referred to above:
"It sounds as if your motherboard and BIOS support ACPI (advanced configuration and power interface). If so, Windows 2000 (rather than the BIOS) takes control of installing all Plug and Play hardware, and in the process greys out the Change Settings buttons for those devices. It's common to have shared IRQs these days because the PCI bus supports IRQ sharing. As an example, my Windows 2000 PC supports ACPI and has six devices, including USB, sharing IRQ 9. For the benefit of others, you can see how the IRQs and other resources are allocated, and whether you can change them, by opening Device Manager (see below). Then click View -> Resources by Type to see the list and click + to expand a resource tree. To see the Change Setting button, right-click a device, click Properties and click the Resources tab.
In your case any conflicts are probably caused by a shared device that isn't fully ACPI compliant. Some Creative cards have received bad reports in this area. To sort this out, first check the Web site for the manufacturer of your PC or motherboard to be sure that you have the latest BIOS update. Then check the sites for your video (http://www.nvidia.com) and sound (http://www.creative.com) cards for updated drivers. You could also try shuffling the cards to different PCI slots, which on some PCs will cause different IRQs to be assigned.
Although the best solution is to install ACPI compliant drivers for all of your hardware (or to use different hardware that is ACPI compliant), the other alternative is to change the installed computer type from 'Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC' to 'Standard PC'. You can determine which type Windows 2000 has installed by right-clicking My Computer, clicking Properties and clicking the Device Manager button on the Hardware tab. Then click the + to expand the Computer tree, which displays the computer type. Don't under any circumstances try to change between these two types by changing the driver from Device Manager, because this will make your PC unbootable, as will disabling ACPI support in your BIOS (if you have this option).
The correct way to change from an ACPI PC to a Standard PC is to reinstall Windows 2000, after first disabling ACPI support in your BIOS, by booting with the Windows 2000 CD-ROM or running Winnt32.exe from that disc. (This procedure doesn't work if you boot with the first Setup floppy). In the first phase of the installation when you see the message 'Setup is inspecting your computer's hardware configuration', press F5, select 'Standard PC' from the list and continue with the installation."
Seems to suggest the problem isn't the IRQ sharing per se, but something's inability to function using the IRQ sharing W2K provides in an APCI environment. The article seems to suggest the "best solution" is to find approriate drivers and or hardware and BIOS update.
The work around of installing under "Standard PC" may provide a viable solution and is a valid point to consider, but why not attempt the "better" (not my words) solution first?
-MW
