PCI slots 1 & 5 conflicts - any solutions?

Hi,

This isn't really an overclocking question, but I wondered if anyone could help anyway.

I'm currently running a Celeron 466 in a Soyo 6BA+III (BX chipset) and I have discovered that I cannot find any combination of cards that will run together in PCI slots 1 and 5. The BIOS only allows assignment of the same IRQ to both slots together, not each individually, so that doesn't solve anything. This is with no overclocking. I have flashed the latest BIOS update. Win 98SE. It's sad to think that the fifth slot is useless. Can anyone help?

Thanks very much.

run win2k pro, you won't have that problem

Do you have a AGP or PCI video card? As far as I know, the first PCI slot is always shared with the AGP. That might be part of the problem as well. It's also usually paired with the last PCI slot as well. Try moving the cards around. I usually set them up in the following order.
-AGP: Video card
-PCI #1: (nothing)
-PCI #2: Modem (I don't have one, but it's how I set up machines at work)
-PCI #3:Network card
-PCI #4:Sound card

I can't think of anything else, other than a decoder card, SCSI or RAID controller that you might be running. I don't think you really want to dish out the cash for a new OS. There's only a few cards that allow IRQ sharing.

To Crystal Method,

I'm running AGP video. Yes, AGP,1,and 5 all share the same IRQ. I am using a Highpoint ATA-66 controller in one of the slots. Also SB live, ATI Wonder TV card, and NIC. The 5th card I wanted to use was a modem for when cable is down. No combination of cards work. Looks like I'll just have to swap out the NIC for the modem when I need it.

Are all motherboards configured this way with AGP,1 and 5 sharing IRQs? What about the boards with 6 PCI slots?

To Mark,

If my motherboard dictates that AGP,1 and 5 share an IRQ, how can Win2k pro change that? Isn't that a hard-wired situation?