IRQ settings

Elouan Le Bretton · Nov 2, 2003

I have a Abit Kt7a and Athlon 1GHz, and a bunch of stuf in AGP and PCI ports (see next). I found some weird problem on my computer: everything seems to be working fine, but when I look in system information, ALL my peripherals share the same IRQ: video card, sound card, USB port, TV card, network card.... they al share the same IRQ 11. If I check in hadware management it's the same That doesn't sound right by me: should I do somethnig? and what?

Skid · Nov 2, 2003

If you're using Windows XP, that's perfectly normal and nothing is wrong.

"Elouan Le Bretton" wrote:

I have a Abit Kt7a and Athlon 1GHz, and a bunch of stuf in AGP and PCI

ports

(see next).
I found some weird problem on my computer: everything seems to be working fine, but when I look in system information, ALL my peripherals share the same IRQ: video card, sound card, USB port, TV card, network card.... they al share the same IRQ 11. If I check in hadware management it's the same That doesn't sound right by me: should I do somethnig? and what?

dr_hardware · Nov 2, 2003

I believe that's common with Windows 2000 also...

"Skid" wrote:

If you're using Windows XP, that's perfectly normal and nothing is wrong.

"Elouan Le Bretton" wrote:

I have a Abit Kt7a and Athlon 1GHz, and a bunch of stuf in AGP and PCI ports (see next).
I found some weird problem on my computer: everything seems to be working fine, but when I look in system information, ALL my peripherals share the same IRQ: video card, sound card, USB port, TV card, network card.... they al share the same IRQ 11. If I check in hadware management it's the same That doesn't sound right by me: should I do somethnig? and what?

Elouan Le Bretton · Nov 2, 2003

yop, I forgot to say I had W2k installed on my system.... So your saying that Win2000 is causing this? it cannot use several IRQ???? I find this odd... anyway if its normal, then I'm happy

thaks guys

"dr_hardware" a ï¿½crit dans le message de

I believe that's common with Windows 2000 also...

"Skid" wrote:

If you're using Windows XP, that's perfectly normal and nothing is

wrong.

"Elouan Le Bretton" wrote:

I have a Abit Kt7a and Athlon 1GHz, and a bunch of stuf in AGP and PCI ports
(see next).
I found some weird problem on my computer: everything seems to be working fine, but when I look in system information, ALL my peripherals share the same IRQ: video card, sound card, USB port, TV card, network card.... they ...

same

That doesn't sound right by me: should I do somethnig? and what?

TomG · Nov 2, 2003

on a PCI based system, it is normal. it is not that the OS cannot use more than one IRQ it is that the OS is perfectly happy with all devices on *one* IRQ.

Richard Hopkins · Nov 3, 2003

"Skid" wrote:

If you're using Windows XP, that's perfectly normal and nothing is wrong.

Not strictly correct Skid. It's normal to see this on Win2k. On a WinXP system, under normal circumstances the ACPI controller will spread the IRQ's out as far as the INT channels and presence (or otherwise) of an APIC allow.

Skid · Nov 3, 2003

"Richard Hopkins" wrote:

"Skid" wrote:
If you're using Windows XP, that's perfectly normal and nothing is

wrong.

Not strictly correct Skid. It's normal to see this on Win2k. On a WinXP system, under normal circumstances the ACPI controller will spread the IRQ's out as far as the INT channels and presence (or otherwise) of an APIC

allow.

Thanks, Richard.

I am seldom "strictly correct," as my wife will be happy to confirm. Sometimes, however, I come surprisingly close to the facts by accident.

On my XP box there are indeed multiple IRQs in use, but several devices do share the same IRQ without causing any problems.

Richard Hopkins · Nov 4, 2003

"Skid" wrote:

I am seldom "strictly correct," as my wife will be happy to confirm. Sometimes, however, I come surprisingly close to the facts by accident.

On my XP box there are indeed multiple IRQs in use, but several devices do share the same IRQ without causing any problems.

MS came in for a bit of criticism from the techy community for Win2k's default behaviour of putting all the PCI devices on a single IRQ. The counterlogic was that if there are multiple interrupts available for allocation, along with new devices like chipsets with more than four INT channels, and APICs for making even more available, why have everything sharing if you don't have to?

In response, in the early stages of the XP beta program, MS made great play of the "new" OS's ability to allocate IRQ's much better, and so it usually proves.

You're dead right though, under most circumstances, PCI devices will successfully share interrupts with no problems.