Greetings, all! I've got a rather annoying problem that I've been struggling with for a few days now with little to no success. Here's what I think are the key parts of my setup:

Windows 95 OSR 2.0
Duron 1.1 Ghz processor
ABIT KT7 motherboard (with VIA VT8363 northbridge, no onboard sound)
Soundblaster PCI128 soundcard

The problem seemed to start when I installed the processor a few weeks ago (having upgraded from a Duron 600), but I'm have to say I'm not 100% sure. In any case, the new processor seemed to make the situation worse. I started getting very occasionally the following blue screen of quasi-death message:

"The SBPCI interrupt has been routed incorrectly by the system. Audio PCI inactive. Use automatic settings in the Device Manager"

I think I got it like a couple of times, but if I booted into safe mode and then restarted, it was fine. However, a couple of days ago, I got the message again and that workaround stopped working. I now always get it when I start Windows. I looked around on the net and discovered that this was an IRQ routing problem, so I downloaded the latest VIA 4-in-1 service pack from my motherboard's website. Didn't help. The readme didn't mention anything about fixing any IRQ routing problems, so I found on another motherboard manufacturer's website a specific VIA IRQ router (VIA PCI IRQ Routing Miniport Driver, version 1.3A). Didn't help either.

I tried a clean sweep reinstall of the soundcard drivers following the instructions from the Creative website, but Windows wouldn't re-auto-detect the sound card, nor did it find it with the add new hardware wizard. Oddly enough, when I put the CD with my soundcard drivers in the drive, it wouldn't autorun. Nor would the installation program run if I started it manually from Start->Run. When I tried reinstalling the drivers "manually" from Add New Hardware, they wouldn't seem to install properly. The device manager would only show the "Soundblaster PCI legacy device" as being installed and that had an exclamation point. Error code 2.

Anyway, what I did yesterday was just go back and remove all the soundcard drivers and figured I'd decide what to do later. Lo and behold, when I start up this morning, Windows autodetects the soundcard, and installs the drivers off the CD no problem. Works fine until I restart, when I get the blue screen error message again. Checking the device manager, the only driver listed is the Creative Soundblaster Audio PCI128, but it's got an exclamation point (error code 10). In safe mode, I can see all three drivers listed: the soundblaster, the legacy device and the joystick.

From the IRQ point of view, there doesn't seem to be a conflict as such. The soundcard is on 10, and my video card is on 11. (Those are the only cards I have installed.) However, I notice in device manager that both IRQs have *two* "IRQ Holder for PCI steering" things listed, in addition to the soundcard/videocard listing. Is that weird?

I've been checking around and tried a couple of things that people have suggested. Turning off IRQ steering didn't help, although I just realized that I haven't tried checking the "Get IRQ table from PCI Bios 2.1 call" box. I also haven't tried specifically a BIOS update, just 'cause I'm a little nervous about screwing that up unless it's a last resort. Is that likely to help? Also, I've read that physically changing the location of the card can help. I've got it in PCI slot number 5 at the moment. It's not right next to the AGP card (which can cause problems I understand).

Anyway, any thoughts muchly appreciated!

Geoff

I think you will find the problem has to do with the Sound blaster card and or control program
When you install the PciSB it installs a control program for PCI IRQ control and settings

Use the uninstall to remove ALL the SB files.
Including the line in the autoexec.bat file

Also in the SB device listing in device manager check the Box for irq sharing

You should Not need to do anything to your mother board or bios to get it working
Other than possibly moving the card to another slot.
How ever check the documentation for your mother board and see what the default irq is for the slot you are using.
If it is a shared slot then move the card to another IF the second shared is in use also.
Remember to reset the Bios after moving the card To allow changes

Thanks for the suggestion! I gave it a try and it did at least re-auto-detect the soundcard when I restarted. So it is up and running for the moment. Just to clarify, on the Soundblaster listing in the Device Manager, all I could find was under Properties->Settings->Configuration there was something called "Allow LPT Interrupt Sharing", which is checked. Or do you mean the "Use IRQ routing" box on the PCI Bus listing in Device Manager.

In any case, just in case things flare back up again (since I was initially only having an intermittent problem), is it possible that moving the card would really help? According to my motherboard manual, PCI slot 5 is shared with the HPT370 IDE controller (for future ATA), but this is supposedly only on the RAID version of the KT7, which I don't have.

Anyway, thanks again!

Geoff