PCA Forums

Well, I am still getting semi-random crashes in WinXP, even after resolving my IRQ channel problem. Looking at the resources on my system, I see that I have some tempermental devices sharing IRQs:

IRQ 18 - Creative SB Live! Value (WDM)
IRQ 18 - Nvidia GeForce2 GTS
IRQ 19 - 3COM 3C920 Integrated Fast Ethernet Controller (3C905C-TX Compatible)
IRQ 19 - OPTi82C861 PCI to USB Open Host Controller

Just for knowledge's sake, here is my IRQ Channel Layup:

AGP - INT B/C - GTS
PCI1 - INTA - Adaptec 19160
PCI2 - INTB - Empty
PCI3 - INTA - Empty
PCI4 - INTB - Empty
PCI5 - INTC - SB Live
PCI6 - INTD - USB card
LAN - INTD - integrated

I know that the SB Live and the onboard LAN are fairly tempermental about sharing IRQ channels. The problem (I think) is that, even though they are on separate channels, WinXP is still assigning them to the same IRQ. It also won't let me manually assign resources from Device Manager.

I know in Win2k, ACPI needed to be disabled in order to assign IRQs manually. My problem with that was that when ACPI was disabled, I lost the ability to auto-power down when I shut down. IS this sitll a problem in WinXP? Any suggestions are appreicated. Thanks.

The SBLive is almost certainly the one causing problems. It's well known to have issues with PCI IRQ Channel sharing. I wound up having to disable ACPI to get mine to work properly on my last rig (not something you want to do unless you have to).

Usual symptoms are lockups (often with a repeating sound) and random reboots - especially when playing music or games.

You can confirm this easily enough by pulling the card and seeing if the problem persists. If it doesn't then move the SB Live to another free slot and try it.

You definately don't want the SB Live to share an IRQ if at all possible.

If you have onboard sound, you may want to consider using it.

Yes it's possible for NICs to have problems with this too but there's not much you can do since it's sharing with the onboard USB. You can test to see if it's the NIC by disabling it in BIOS. If that cures it then you may want to consider installing a PCI NIC.

That's all well and good, but you didn't answer my question.

Is it possible to manually assign resources in WinXP without disabling ACPI?

Or here's another question. Do other sound cards have the problems that the SB Live does? If I were to replace the Live with a new sound card, would I have to deal with the same problems? What would be a decent sound card to replace it with?

You can't re-assign most IRQs, but even if you could it makes no difference. Slots sharing IRQ channels MUST share IRQs. It's not the shared IRQ that's the problem, it's the shared CHANNEL. Only way to change channels (unless you have one of those rare mobos that allow you to do it from BIOS) is to move the card.

OK then how about my second question?

Or here's another question. Do other sound cards have the problems that the SB Live does? If I were to replace the Live with a new sound card, would I have to deal with the same problems? What would be a decent sound card to replace it with?

Any card could have an issue with PCI channel sharing, but no most other sound cards don't have this problem. The SBLive has always been particularly fussy about this and (sadly) Creative has never addressed the problem. They've completely ignored it actually. I've never seen any mention of it on their site.

When I bought my new mobo it had built-in C-Media sound on-board and I was ELATED to get rid of my SBLive.