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Date:	Sat, 11 May 2002 23:20:48 PST7
From:	"Benedict G. Archer" <bgarcher@gte.net >
Reply-To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
Subject:	SCOUG-Help: IRQ Wars (2) -- Modem

Content Type: text/plain

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"J. R. Fox" wrote:
>
> Ben wrote:
>
> > I should have mentioned that I had tried com.sys that comes with eCS,
> > com.sys for OS2 that came with the modem, and Sioecs drivers--all with
> > similar results. With more empirical fiddling, I somehow caused the
> > modem to want IRQ11 instead of IRQ10. The modem works (on com3), sort
> > of, that is, it will dial, connect and transmit data, but on attempting
> > to hang up, the system locks up requiring a power off or hard reset.
>
> Can't make a good comment here, as I've never much liked internal modems,
> and don't use them. With an external modem, I think it just comes down to
> the IRQ that your COM port is using anyway, and becomes a non-issue. I've
> seen various flakey things going on with modem cards, and on other OSes
> too.
>
> > IRQ11 is also used by both SCSI adaptors in the system. Could that be
> > the reason for the lock up. When the modem was using IRQ10, which is
> > also used by the NIC, using the modem would disable the NIC. What else
> > can I try.
>
> I haven't yet resumed full & normal computer operations since the rebuild,
> so this observation may not hold up, but, so far, having both SCSI adaptors
> showing up on the same IRQ does not _seem_ to have yielded any catastrophic
> consequences. (He said, looking nervously over his shoulder.)
>
> >From what little I think I know, the options for controlling IRQs come down
> to: 1) forced setting in BIOS, 2) alternate card slot, 3) *both* 1 & 2 together,
> and possibly (?) some switch on a device driver line, if that is ever applicable
> for a given device.
>
> Jordan
>
The first thing I need to say is thanks to Harry, Steven and Jordan for
all the suggestions. I haven't solved the problem yet, but here's an
update.

The system is a Tyan Thunder dual Athlon, all SCSI, no ISA slots. The
MB has two onboad NICs (I'm only using one which on boot up shows that
it's currently using IRQ10, but doesn't show up in the Hardware manager
nor in a rmview listing). The MB also has two onboard adaptec AIC160
SCSI adaptors which do show up on both hardware manager and rmview using
IRQs 11 and 15. I'm only using one of these (for an IBM 36GB HD), I
think the one on IRQ11. A soundblaster live card is also using IRQ15.
I also have a plugin Adaptec 7870 SCSI adaptor for two CDROMS and a tape
drive, and it's using IRQ11. All of this works until I use the modem,
an actiontec card which, according to the DOS utility that came with it,
wants to use IRQ11 and IO 1800. I was trying to set the modem to use
com4 (Actiontec's suggestion), but it currently is using com3 (I don't
know how or why it settled on com3). Harry's tip to rem out things in
the snoop list fixed the problem of not being able to boot with hardware
detection on--I think the offending entry was the one for the IBM506
driver which I'm not using and isn't in config.sys. I had moved the
modem from slot 3 to slot 5 with no effect on IRQ it wants and no
benefit. I've also installed the purchased version of Ray Gwinn's
driver following Steven's suggestion, but with no immediate benefit,
although I'm still looking into options with it. The BIOS has an entry
for each PCI slot with the available options: ROM scan (enable/disable),
Bus Master (enable/disable) and Latency Timer (default and 5 hex values
0020 to 00C0). All slots are set to enable, enable and default.
Disabling Bus Master for the slot with the modem had no effect. I
haven't found anything in the BIOS about pnp OSs.

My plan, now that I can boot with hardware detection on, is to remove
the modem card and reboot with hardware detection on, then replace the
card in slot 4 (to this point never used) and reboot first with
hardware detection off. If that doesn't work, reboot with hardware
detection on. My next step will be to study the SIO2k options to see
what might be there. However, so far I haven't found how to add an
explicit configuration to the SIO2k driver line in config.sys--everthing
I've tried returns an error with the driver not loading. The syntax is
different than for com.sys, but I don't even know which of the three
SIO2k driver lines to put it on.

Steven, As soon as I get this fixed and set up RSJ I'll start the octave
porting project.

Ben A

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