PCI Cards Interfere with each other.

[roycrom]

Hi,

My System:
Asus VIA K8V-X Socket 754
Athlon64 3200+ (Newcastle I think clocked at 2200)
2x512 Corsair Value RAM
Aeolus NVidia 6800GT
1x80 ATA
1x160 SATA

I have a Soundblaster PCI Card and I recently purchased a DVB card and I am having trouble running them both at the same time. If I have one plugged in the other won't work, and vice versa, I have tried god knows how many combinations of slots. Amazingly, I sometimes have trouble started the DVB card if I have my USB printer plugged in. It recognises the card, but device manager says that it had problems starting it. I have read somewhere that this could be down to pci address space on this motherboard but I don't really know much about this sort of hardware problem, why would they supply 5 PCI slots if they interfere with each other?

Thanks for any insights.

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Somethings come from nothing, nothing seems to come from somethings - SFA - Guerilla

roycrom

 

[G0AOZ]

Have you completely disabled the on-board sound system? Does the DVB card still play up with the USB printer if the Soundblaster card is completely removed?

I think you can have PCI IRQs either manually or auto assigned in the BIOS. How are yours set?

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[edemiere]

Check your motherboard manual, some PCI slots WILL share IRQ's and you want to make sure that those slots don't share IRQ's with each other OR share an IRQ with your AGP slot (or onboard video if applicable).

99% of the time these IRQ shares can cause the issues.

Check it out and good luck!

 

[roycrom]

I did disable on board sound in BIOS when I had my Soundblaster plugged in. I have it set to on in the BIOS now as my soundblaster is unplugged and yes my DVB card plays up when when I attach my USB printer when the Soundblaster is unplugged.

I haven't manually set the PCI IRQs so I imagine that they are set to auto - I will have to confirm this when I get back to my system but I haven't messed around with those settings so I am pretty sure they are auto. I am guessing that will be the default setting.

Thanks for your quick reply GOAOZ.

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Somethings come from nothing, nothing seems to come from somethings - SFA - Guerilla

roycrom

 

[roycrom]

OK, well first I will flash my BIOS to latest version and put latest mobo drivers on. I'll get my manual out and check the PCI IRQs for any sharing. Thanks for the advice guys, I'm going be doing this tonight so I will let you know how I get on.

One thing though, what are IRQs and why would they be shared? Does that mean that some of the PCI slots would be redundant?

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Somethings come from nothing, nothing seems to come from somethings - SFA - Guerilla

roycrom

 

[Frank4d]

Look in Device Manager > Computer. If you see "ACPI Multiprocessor" or "Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC" then Windows is handling IRQs. I have never seen IRQ conflicts on a system with ACPI enabled so I would suspect another problem.

If your computer type is "Standard PC" then ACPI is not enabled and you may have an IRQ conflict. In Device Manager, click the "View" tab and "Resources by type", then "IRQs". You may also have an IO address or PCI memory conflict so look at those too.

You may want to check the support websites for both cards.