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Setting IRQ's in WinXP

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FDUSMC

Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2002
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Every Clime and Place
I currently have my Video and Sound Card sharing the same IRQ. Is this bad? I'm afraid that this might be causing instabilty issues. How can you manually set IRQ's in WinXP?
 
In both Win2k and WinXP, the ACPI automatically shares IRQs, and there's no way to manually select them with ACPI enabled. The best thing to do is to leave it as it is, since IRQs CAN be shared without problem.

If you do have instability problems, then you can start worrying about changing IRQs after trying other methods to solve the instability (i.e. drivers, etc).

I have 1 IRQ shared between 5 devices (sound, video, ethernet, 2 USB controllers), and my system is fine for stability, running WinXP Pro.
 
That's the thing, I have tried everything. I've been using Win98SE because WinXP Pro keeps rebooting on me. When I say I have tried everything, I mean I have tried everthing. I'm not the only one either. I have read many posts of people having the same exact problem. Very frustrating! I get no error messages even when I disable auto restart. It sounds like a power problem but the PSU is an Antec 430w and its brand new. Plus it works fine in 98SE. My 5v line worries me (4.87-4.89) but I don't think that's it. Could XP be reading this low 5v line and reboot? Does XP use more juice than 98SE? I did notice that when I raise the Vcore to 1.95v it lasts about 10 seconds than reboots. At 1.85v it lasts a little longer. I'm now testing at 1.6v to see what happens. Weird!!!
 
Try going to Control Panel > System > Advanced > Startup and Recovery, and unchecking Automatically Restart.

Then the next time you run across the problem, if a blue screen appears (since it won't just reset on you anymore after unchecking that box) write down all the information and let us know what it says.

If it is a driver issue, that will help track it down.

Gargamel
 
Tried that. It still restarts with no error message. I'm starting to think it's a power issue. I've been running sandra burn-in for over 2 hours now at 1.6v and still no reboots. What I don't understand is why it doesn't reboot in Win98SE if it's a power problem.
 
If XP restarts with no error message and the Auto-Restart box is unchecked, there is absolutely no other answer at all that I can think of except a power issue.

As for why it doesn't reboot in 98 SE at all, have you stressed 98 as much as you have XP? Also remember that XP uses more of your system's resources because of the flashy new UI.

This is a longshot, but maybe there is an incompatibily between XP and your motherboard. Did you check the Windows HCL before installing XP?

Have you tried using a known good power supply in the system? The power supply may be broken even though it is new.

Gargamel
 
I stressed 98SE big time for about 2 weeks now without a single reboot. Every night I ran sandra burn-in for about 8 hours at 1.95v. I believe I've hit the 3 hour mark now without a reboot in XP at 1.6v so I'm pretty sure that's it. My 5v line has not moved from 4.92 while when at 1.95v it would jump between 4.85-4.89 not to mention my Vcore would fluctuate big time from 1.92v-1.98v. In what way does XP use more power than 98SE?
 
I also ran F@H 24/7. Well I ran XP overnight running 3dmark and no reboots so I finally figured it out. So I have 2 Antec PSU's a 300w and a 430w that suck:mad:. I can't OC on either running XP because I can't raise my Vcore without seeing a drop in my 5v line which then causes random reboots.
 
Yakbak, then the problem is: why does it spontaneously reboot on him in XP but not in 98. If it was a PS issue it should do it in both.

Gargamel
 
I guess XP somehow uses more power than 98SE or has some kind of regulator that when detects low voltage it reboots. I don't know I'm just guessing.
 
One simple answer would be install Win2k with all the service packs availble and see if the problem persists
 
Simple, that is, if he has a copy of Win2k lying around. :) It still sounds like a hardware problem to me, albeit a weird one.

Gargamel
 
I tried every single piece of hardware except a new CPU. I even tried a different mobo because it started doing it on my old one just not as frequently. Belive me I've been running two day's straight and streesed at 1.6v and still not a single reboot.
 
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