Interesting tech POST about ACPI and why Win2K shares all devices on one IRQ

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Sun Dec 01, 2002 10:10 pm

Now we know why....

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?cid=3116583&sid=29023

TruckStuff · Post by **TruckStuff** » Mon Dec 02, 2002 11:31 am

Interesting read... Good post.

Executioner · Post by **Executioner** » Mon Dec 02, 2002 3:32 pm

That was a good read, but some of the nuts and bolts they talked about I had no idea what was meant. Anyway, on my spare Win2k system (SMP support) with dual PIII-550MHz cpu's, I always wondered why I had IRQ's greater than 20. Now I know.

How common is the IRQ stacking with Win2k or XP?

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Mon Dec 02, 2002 3:47 pm

This explains a lot in my case. I love Win2K but I am having 2 problems that can't be resolved on my AMD XP 2000+ system. I know it's an IRQ issue but there's no apparent fix.

I get an occasional IRQ related BSOD when enabling or disabling the 2nd display using Ultramon2. It's rare (maybe 1 out of 100 times). I also get a very consistent IRQ BSOD if I allow Gamespy to update all servers and I have it setup to ping more than 2 servers at a time. It's ping flooding and it's normally a sign of an IRQ channel problem but I've moved the card and even replaced it with another card to no avail.

I could probably eliminate both problems by disabling ACPI but I haven't bothered since they haven't been a major problem yet.

I have ACPI disabled on my old P3-1000 system for the same reason but in that case it was because the SBLive had IRQ channel sharing problems (common issue with SBLive).

I may just bite the bullet and upgrade to XP though. Now that I know how to completely disable all the crap in XP I don't like and make it look and feel just like 2K. I've been using XP a lot on my LAN party system and now on my new lappy and I can live with it.

Ack. Probably just disable ACPI for now and stick with 2K. I really don't want to screw with an OS install right now.

Well, as I've said in the past, MS will eventually force us to migrate to XP. Little thing like this is an example. They could easily fix this in 2K by using the code from XP, but MS will never do that - they want us all to upgrade to XP.

Executioner · Post by **Executioner** » Mon Dec 02, 2002 8:28 pm

I've heard you mention about sreamlining XP by removing all the bloat. How and what do you do exactly?

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Mon Dec 02, 2002 10:40 pm

Not so much bloat removal as making it look and feel exactly like Win2K. I don't like the XP GUI - it slows me down and uses too much screen real estate. Also XP has many annoying "Newbie Features" - case in point is File Searching.

I use file search a LOT and XP's file search is annoying as hell if you're used to the one in 98 or 2K. The funny thing is that 2K's file search (as well as just about every other 2K feature) is still in there and can be enabled if you like.

Here's a list of what I do to turn XP into 2K (and I do this a lot for clients who are power uses and like me don't like the XP desktop). I got most of these from TweakXP.com BTW:

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EDIT
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I put this in another post here: http://www.pcabusers.net/forums/showthr ... post146453

shaggy · Post by **shaggy** » Tue Dec 03, 2002 3:34 am

The unfortunate truth is that you guys on this list mostly build your own machines, rather than buying them from reputable manufacturers, which means that you guys own the machines with broken BIOSes and VIA chipsets. So even with WindowsXP, you'll see the same old stacking behavior.

Read this as "I am a programmer. I wrote some of the most troublesome code in history. Its not my fault, its Via's. If everyone bought Dells they wouldnt have any problems."

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Tue Dec 03, 2002 8:55 am

Hehe... and people don't believe me when I tell them that AMD is at a disadvantage because Windows OSes are TAILORED to Intel CPUs and chipsets

Nothing changes - MS and Intel are still in bed together.