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Date:	Sat, 11 May 2002 10:20:35 PST7
From:	"J. R. Fox" <jr_fox@pacbell.net >
Reply-To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
Subject:	SCOUG-Help: Re: IRQ Wars

Content Type: text/plain

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Ben Archer wrote:

> An actiontec PCI modem and onboard 3com NIC insisted on using the same
> IRQ. That was OK until I found that using the modem caused the LAN
> connection to be lost . . . error on trying to initialize

> the modem. Spent a lot of time trying different BIOS setups too, but
> nothing I've tried there has any effect. Where should I look? Is the
> problem in InCharge, in com configuration or somewhere else? It's an
> all SCSI system so there are spare IRQs.

Ben,

I just recently had several major components in my system (incl. main
board & CPU) upgraded. This process is not entirely finished, and I've
been running into resource conflicts as well. The conflicts have mostly
been in OS/2: Win2K doesn't seem to care, and (if one believes it) shows
a whole lotta stuff riding on IRQ-9. Maybe it has some kind of advanced
IRQ sharing, &/or hides the dirty details.

I don't really know what I'm doing or talking about here (hey, what a switch !),
so I'd certainly like to hear from some hardware gurus who may know all
the tricks re forcing the IRQ assignments that one wants. Some of this can
be accomplished in the BIOS, if your BIOS will allow it. (But it sounds
like you already tried that . . . . ) In other cases, you may have to play musical
card slots. I'm speaking empirically. My D-Link NIC was totally AWOL in
PCI slot #6, for both OS/2 and for W2K. The latter gave errors like "No
Connection is available," &/or "Network Connection Status: Unplugged."
The OS/2 error was that a key driver would not load, during which it said
something like "Fatal: Faulty or Unsupported Media." (Huh ??)

It would have been a lot easier to change the IRQ for this slot in the BIOS,
as I had successfully done for the card in the ISA slot, but unfortunately
the BIOS setting for this governed *two* slots, the other of which I did not
want to mess with. So I pulled the NIC and stuck it in PCI slot #2, which
can be controlled separately, if that becomes necessary. After doing this,
I could again reach the 'Net through my DSL, in both Warp 4 and W2K.
However, the IRQ assignments for OS/2 are still not what I _want_ them to
be, which would be pretty much the way they were on the previous main
board.

Both of my SCSI cards are showing up on the same IRQ, and I have the
uneasy feeling that this can't be a good thing. Does it have any bad implications --
say, for tape backup operations, or for copying a CD, when both controllers
will be working at the same time ?

I think Steven once told me that the NIC may not show up in H/W Mgr.,
and it doesn't. (But does it still claim an IRQ, without divulging it ?)

The really curious thing is that the new sound card (Aopen AW320 -- and
more on that in another post) does not show up _either_, and I'm sure it must
be grabbing some IRQ. Maybe the OS/2 H/W Mgr. is just not very good ?
The sound card is basically working, though much better in W2K than in
OS/2.

Jordan

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