Im setting up my new system that I put together, and having a problem with the sound card. I have a Abit BE6-2 motherboard and it works fine until I install the highpoint ata/100 drivers for the 2nd IDE controls. This motherboard will support 8 HDD devices. Once I do that the soundcard quits making sound. Ive tried a few different PCI slots which lead to the same problem, after a couple reboots. Can someone explain how I can assign different devices their own IRQ, or is there another way around this problem.
More info on my pc is: 800 P3, 256m ram, voodoo3 3000 agp video card, 50x cdrom, 12x10x32 TDK cdrw, 60gig HD, 20gig HD, 10gig HD, sound blaster live, isa- network card (for cable internet), pci network card (for home LAN).
I dont think I have too many devices to use up all my IRQ's , Please any help would be appreciated....
Thanks,
Lugnuttz

Have you checked under device manager for conflicts with the IRQ's?

Yes I have checked and I did have conflicts, it was saying that there was no available irq's for the soundcard, so I removed it from the device manager, and moved the card to another slot... It worked at first but after another reboot, it stopped and now im getting errors in my scsi controller, (which handles the 2nd set of ide controllers ata/100)it is intergrated in the motherboard. I dont know if it has to do with having 2 network cards, or the scsi , or the soundcard exactly, Just when they are in installed, something goes wrong. I have now read the pci slot 1 shares with the agp port, and pci 2 and 5 share and irq, pci #3 shares with ide controller, and pci# 4 shares irq with usb ports. You can view the specs of my board at the following addy... http://www.abit-usa.com/english/index.htm
then choose product info , then choose motherboards, then choose BE6-II, under Pentium 3 slot based boards.
I dont know if I can change my irq's to fix the problem or not. Also I dont know for sure what Irq's should be assigned to what, or what can share with what without conflicts...
Please help.

Thanks, Lugnuttz

Don't have any brilliant ideas, but go to Device Manager, highlight Computer and click Properties. That will show a list of IRQ's in use, and conflicts. Post that list here and maybe it will help someone figure out what to try next.

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Soon as I come up with all the answers...they change the questions!!

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)

Here are the irq's ... I messed with them and got rid of the conflicts, and got the sound to work, but the system seems unstable, and the voodoo3 card wont work in full screen with Quake 3 or any game for that matter as long as its a openGL driven game. Im posting the list below to see if everything is assigned where it should be, I dont really know what should be assigned to what specific irq. I was told that certain things should be in certain areas, let me know if you see anything out of sorts.
Thanks..
Lugnuttz0 System timer
1 Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural Keyboard
2 Programmable interrupt controller
3 (free)
4 Network Everywhere Fast Ethernet Adapter(NC100 v2)
4 Intel 82371AB/EB PCI to USB Universal Host Controller
4 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
5 Maestro Enumerator
5 Maestro Wave / WaveTable Synthesis Devices
5 Maestro Device Manager
5 3dfx Voodoo3
5 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
5 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
6 Standard Floppy Disk Controller
7 Printer Port (LPT1)
8 System CMOS/real time clock
9 SCI IRQ used by ACPI bus
10 SMC EZ Card ISA 10 Adapter
11 HPT370 UDMA/ATA100 RAID Controller
11 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
12 PS/2 Compatible Mouse Port
13 Numeric data processor
14 Primary IDE controller (dual fifo)
14 Intel 82371AB/EB PCI Bus Master IDE Controller
15 Secondary IDE controller (dual fifo)
15 Intel 82371AB/EB PCI Bus Master IDE Controller

An option to try is tell the BIOS not to assign an IRQ to the VGA. Looks like it conflicting with the video card. Hope this helps.

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Eric's BIOS Post Codes (http://www.webenet.net/~ntuser)

I hope that was a typo and you meant sound card, not video card...looks like video and sound cards have a conflict of sorts, PCI steering might be letting them share the IRQ, but they're not getting along to well...

Looks like IRQ 3 is the only one open, I'm taking a guess here, but maybe you can move the video card to IRQ 3 and see if it helps, or remove it in Safe Mode and let windows reinstall it, maybe it will assign it to the open IRQ.



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Soon as I come up with all the answers...they change the questions!!

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)

Got it working, i swapped the nework card to irq 4 and the put the video card on irq 10 and it works.... i first tried then video card by itself on irq 4 and it didnt work, so then i read by default, a video card should be on irq's 9-11, so i swapped it with the network card and it did it...
thanks for the help
Lugnuttz

Lug....

Good to see some "sim racers" come here too! ....lol....

I have your motherboard...had similar problems with IRQ assignments...with even less "devices" than you have. The BE6 II is "finicky" MB....make sure you have flashed the BIOS to the latest version (I never could get anything working right...long term...until I did this). Don't be lulled to sleep....doubt your system is as stable as you think....looking at our last post below! I could be wrong...but see what happens after several system reboots. My system worked fine for a while (I went through a similar "search, researd and work" that you've indicated)...but then it stopped working. When I flashed the BIOS....everything was fine (after I reassigned the IRQ's manually in the new BIOS). You can assign IRQ's manually in the BIOS...don't let Windows SE do it. This will change on you too often...and now, while all this info is fresh in your mind...you need to "cast in stone" your IRQ assignments. I do know that 3dfx cards don't work well on IRQ's other than 9, 10 or 11....and remember...it is a video card plugged into the AGP port...but it does not use the AGP port (so its essentially a PCI card)...at least that's how it was explained to me.

Also, you said you have an SB Live sound card...but I don't see it listed. If all that "maestro" stuff is it.....strange looking SB Live devices if you ask me? I know you'll get sound stuttering in several "games"....including GPL (and that means now in N4) with the sb live devices on the wrong IRQ's....so a telephone call to a Creative tech support rep will need to be made probably as well.

I know this is a bit too late to tell you......but I think the ABIT BE6 II MB was not a good choice. I made the same mistake...and now regret buying it....and I have a lot less devices to find IRQ's for than you do....and it was a huge hassle for me. I hope I am wrong...but I think your "joy" will be "no joy"....soon. The system won't stay stable for very long. That was my experience anyway.

I haven't offered much in the way of "help"...sorry, but I have at least "shared the experiences" I've had with similar equipment (V5 video, 60 gig HD on UDMA, 384 ram, SB Live -5.1 X-Gamer, Nic card, floppy, internal zip, DVD, etc.)

Regards,

Tom

PS: The BIOS version I'm running for the BE6 II MB is BEH-SH .....the system is stable with this BIOS...it wasn't previously.

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Tom Pabst
www.pabst-racing.com

Tom, your correct in reguards to the system still not stable, Im still having problems with it locking up and giving me the blue screen "OE" messages. I thought it was fixed too, but now the video card wont do the 3dfx openGL games again. And also about the Sound card, it was one I swapped just to see if it acted differently that the soundblaster live would.... It didnt. I cant keep the system up for more than 30 minutes at a time. My motherboard came with the bios that your using right from the factory, and I even tried the upgrade to the latest bios, and still not better. I have reassigned my devices to paticular irqs and everything is pretty much on their own irq, I disabled my com ports com1 and com2, to free up 2 irq's, and put my network card there. Here is the current list of irq's everything is current except the soundblaster sound card, it still shows the maestro card in there (which it was at the time).
(Well ill post it later, im at work and thought i could get the list, I will post it later today when I get home.)
Any more help would be appreciated.
Maybe you could post your irq assignment and I can see how yours looks.
Thanks,
Lugnuttz

Brian...

I have sent this to you in email as well....but wanted to post it here in case others may have some ideas for you. I have listed what PCI slots my devices are in....at the end of IRQ assisgnment list from WIN98 Sys Info.

A couple comments:
1. Looks like our BIOS versions are the same...or yours is one version better...so that can be eliminated.
2. I have found...the SB Live card (like the 3dfx video card) needs to be on an IRQ that it likes....or the system will remain unstable (sound not working correctly...intermitant popping and scratching (especially in GPL and N4)......system not shutting down-hangs or goes to "blue screen", hanging on boot up, on the desktop, in a program, in Scandisk...you name it...it can "hang" there.....lots of "blue screens of death"....etc. Two weeks ago...I bought a new sound card...just to try it out (an SB Live 5.1 X-Gamer)....and I could not get this bugger to install any way I tried. After three hours, I finally gave up and called Creative Tech Support (I hate to have to do this)....and after an hour and a half with their tech....it was installed. He laughed when I first told him the problem....and said, "We know!" He went direclty into an elaborate uninstall procedure (including hand picking items in the registry for deletion)...and then another elaborate installation to get the card on the correct IRQ (see below)...and by the way, this took him three installs to accomplish. Since this has been done....I have a stable system entirely. I get the occassional hangs from video textures not loading on a track startup in GPL (custom tracks with large texture files)...and of course, the usuall Thrustmaster Pro Digital racing wheel....drivers never work right...but I know how to fix them when they start hanging my computer. Other than these two things...the system is now stable. You might want to consider making this call to Creative...first off? Footnote: He told me that even though the install program allows you to "NOT" install the DOS emulation drivers (for SB LIve Value...or any of the cards in the series)...which a lot of people do because they are looking to free up an IRQ...and don't play DOS games anyway....that it should be installed...or the card will never be stable in any IRQ. That was "under his breath"...and he said that it was not an official position of Creative Technologies! You can figure it out. I put the DOS drives right back in.

I have a feeling you are going to need to starting taking some stuff out of your "box"....or get another MB that doesn't have such problems...which might be cheaper than the time and effort (considering what you've gone through so far)....to keep "banging your head against the ABIT BE6 II wall"....you know?

[IRQs]

0 System timer
1 Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural Keyboard
2 Programmable interrupt controller
3 Communications Port (COM2)
4 Communications Port (COM1)
5 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
5 Network Everywhere Fast Ethernet Adapter(NC100)
5 Highpoint Technology Inc. HPT366 Ultra DMA 66 Controller
5 Highpoint Technology Inc. HPT366 Ultra DMA 66 Controller
6 Standard Floppy Disk Controller
7 Printer Port (LPT1)
8 System CMOS/real time clock
9 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
9 SCI IRQ used by ACPI bus
9 3dfx Voodoo Series
10 Creative SB16 Emulation
11 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
11 Creative SB Live! series
11 Intel 82371AB/EB PCI to USB Universal Host Controller
12 (free)
13 Numeric data processor
14 Primary IDE controller (dual fifo)
14 Intel 82371AB/EB PCI Bus Master IDE Controller
15 (free)


Device PCI Slots Map:

AGP Slot: 3dfx V5550 (BIOS aperture set to 64..don't reduce it even though several sites will tell you that it can be reduce since it doesn't use the AGP bus....somehow Windows doesn't seem to like it reduced...thinks somethings wrong or ???? who the heck know?)

PCI Slot 1: Open
PCI Slot 2: Open
PCI Slot 3: Nic card
PCI Slot 4: SB Live 5.1 X-Gamer
PCI Slot 5: Open
ISA Slot 1: Open

No other slots

Good luck!

Regards,


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Tom Pabst
www.pabst-racing.com