Need help please-easy question Win98 1

[MrBoJangles]

I should know this, but its been a year since I have done anything in WIN98.
I just resinstalled Win98 from win2k ( why you may ask its a long story- hardware reasons ).

anyhoot here goes.
I am trying to set or change the IRQ for my MX 300 sound card. It keeps wanting to take IRQ 10,I have tried 3 diff slots and it keeps putting it at IRQ 10, which is already being used by the VIA tech 3038 pci to USB host controller.
when I go to the properties of the multifuntion parent for the sound card, and take the check out of automatic settings, and than go to change settings ( to change the IRQ) it tell me it cannot be changed.
I have irq 3,4,7 and 9 free.


I have gone into the BIOS and set plug and play O/S to no, and have tried with yes, with the same end result.

What do I need to do please.
This is making my system lock up in games, I know its the sndcrd as when I remove it all problems go away.

Abit VA6-- with latest bios
via appolo 133 chipset
Win98 se clean install
only thing in PCI slots are
nic, and sound

 

[CyberVenom]

You might try setting IRQ 10 to ISA in the BIOS (basically removes it from the auto-allocation pool). This will sometimes shuffle around the IRQs, although I have never successfully resolved a problem this way - it was always some other issue. Most modern BIOSes support IRQ sharing, so perhaps it is a defective card, mobo, or bios.

 

[MrBoJangles]

But what will this do to the USB host controller
as it is using IRQ 10
I know there is a way to change the IRQ that it is using I just cant remember what it is that im not doing,
The option is there, I know its something I have to do first
dang namit this is driving me nuts

 

[CyberVenom]

I have come across some hardware that Windows98 cannot adjust IRQs for... Just like in your case. The initial step I think your are referring to is to enable the PnP OS option in the BIOS like you said you already tried.
Letting the IRQ for your USB controller change should not hurt anything. There is nothing really special about IRQ 10, and Windows will auto-detect the new IRQ it will move to.

 

[MrBoJangles]

Aight I did that
removed my sndcrd, changed the irq to legacy
and it moved it to IRQ 5
I then reinstalled the sndcrd and it put it on 5 also, again sharing the IRQ with the usb controller.
I then uninstalled the sndcrd, thus only haveing the usb on 5.
rebotted went back into bios and changed IRQ 10 back to PnP
hoping windows would keep the usb at IRQ 5 and leave IRQ 10 free, but noooooo It moved the USB back to IRQ 10 thus leaving me back at step 1.
URRRR this is pissing me off.

Please more instite and help
Dont give up on my now

 

[CyberVenom]

You could try disabling the USB controller in the BIOS and see if that conflict is the cause of the problem. It the games start woing with the sound card, then it was the conflict, otherwise it is something else.

 

[dakota81]

I had a similar problem happen to me with an Abiit mb also, mine was the KT7E with the KT133A chipset. I had a printer port card in the isa slot and for a while the system ran fine - but one day the bios decided to give the agp slot the same irq that I had set up the printer port for, thus causing problems. So I switched the printer port card to use another i/o port & irq, and haven't seen any problems since. Of course now I've switched it out with a pci card and updated the bios.

So I don't quite know what you'll get out of my post, but just letting you know I too have had a similar problem with an Abit.

 

[CyberVenom]

I used the Abit K7E to replace a motherboard that had other problems, and it ran great. If you are going to use an ISA card in a new Abit board, you have to set up the BIOS to recognize an IRQ as belonging to the ISA device and not try to assign anything to it on its own. That should have helped your ISA problem, and that is the suggestion I presented earlier, unfortunately there isn't any way to jumper a PCI card to a manual IRQ, so any IRQ it gets comes from the BIOS first, and sometimes is reassigned by the OS.
Another tip:
If your printer port card is there simply to suport a new printer/scanner needing bi-directional communication (HP), and not because you actually need 2 LPT ports, the Abit K7E has built-in support in its on-board port - you just need to enable it in the BIOS. (Set "Integrated Peripherals" -> "Parallel Port" to EPP + ECP and "protocol version" to 1.9 instead of "SPP" and "1.7&quot

 

[enduser2k]

MrBoJangles,
Did you try installing the via 4in1 patch for windows 98?
win 98 has irq routing issues that via fixed with the 4 in 1 drivers (one was the irq miniport routing issue that caused irq addresses to be misassigned).
I still use win 98 on my via chipset systems so I know this all too well.

 

[CyberVenom]

Yeah, come to think of it, that usually helps with VIA chipsets - I didn't even consider that might be the problem. Thanks, enduser2k.