IRQ conflicts for firewire in laptop

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sync

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I contacted M-Audio about problems I've been having with my FW410 on my laptop. They had me send them a list of the IRQs being used on my system. The guy pointed out that there are several devices sharing the same IRQ as the firewire port and suggested that I disable the devices that I'm not using.

Here's the list:
IRQ 16 Mobile Intel(R) 915GM/GMS,910GML Express Chipset Family OK
IRQ 16 Microsoft UAA Bus Driver for High Definition Audio OK
IRQ 16 Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM PCI Express Root Port - 2660 OK
IRQ 16 Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM USB Universal Host Controller - 2658 OK
IRQ 16 Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 265C OK
IRQ 16 OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller OK

They all look important to me except perhaps for the UAA Bus Driver. I didn't know that IRQ conflicts were still an issue these days.
 
Yes, IRQ 16 is being used by too many devices.
Are you running XP or Win2000? is your PC set in ACPI mode? I am not sure if XP defaults to ACPI mode. I use Win2000 and have it configured for ACPI after I had similar problems.
 
Are you using an E-Machines laptop by any chance? I have a FW410 that I was using with an E-machines laptop and had serious problems...audio fallouts, distortion, metallic sounding crap, I tried absolutely everything I could to get stuff off of that IRQ (its actually a virtual IRQ I believe) and it never improved. The problem for me only stopped after I bought a new laptop.

Are you running XP home or XP pro? You cannot change IRQ's in home.

Have you checked to see if your graphic's chipset is known for causing audio trouble?

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sixways said:
Are you using an E-Machines laptop by any chance? I have a FW410 that I was using with an E-machines laptop and had serious problems...audio fallouts, distortion, metallic sounding crap, I tried absolutely everything I could to get stuff off of that IRQ (its actually a virtual IRQ I believe) and it never improved. The problem for me only stopped after I bought a new laptop.

Are you running XP home or XP pro? You cannot change IRQ's in home.

Have you checked to see if your graphic's chipset is known for causing audio trouble?

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I have a Dell. What did you end up getting that worked?

The graphics chipset is 'Intel Mobile 915GM/GMS, 910GML Express Chipset Family'. It is listed twice under Display Adapters, which seems strange.

I tried a search to see if the chipset causes audio problems. I didn't find anything but that could be because I didn't structure the search right.
 
I wound up getting an HP dv5000z.

I know you're frustrated, I fought it for 6 months before I gave up and bought the HP.

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sixways said:
I wound up getting an HP dv5000z.

I know you're frustrated, I fought it for 6 months before I gave up and bought the HP.

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My concern is that buying a new laptop might not solve the problem.
 
I had the same concern which is why I went with HP. If you go through their site and build it, you have 30 days to check it out at home. If for any reason you don't like it or it doesn't work out, you get a full refund less shipping.

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I assume that having the firewire port share an IRQ is not a problem for most firewire devices. Can someone explain why it is a problem for an audio interface?
 
If an interrupt occurs while you're recording a stream of audio, this may cause a small amount of audio data to never make it to the audio buffers, and consequently to the hard disk. When you play the file back, you hear this gap as a glitch
 
Mine shares one even now with the HP. Sharing is not necessarily the problem. Its the "conflict" that is the problem...my bet is this, if you check your IRQ settings, they will say "no conflicts". The IRQ conflict thing is M-Audio's way of saying, "dude, we don't know why ours doesn't work with yours". I'm telling you this as someone who's been there. Its a frustration you're not going to stop until you either a) buy a new interface or b) buy a new laptop.

I chose the laptop option.

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sixways said:
Mine shares one even now with the HP. Sharing is not necessarily the problem. Its the "conflict" that is the problem...my bet is this, if you check your IRQ settings, they will say "no conflicts". The IRQ conflict thing is M-Audio's way of saying, "dude, we don't know why ours doesn't work with yours". I'm telling you this as someone who's been there. Its a frustration you're not going to stop until you either a) buy a new interface or b) buy a new laptop.

I chose the laptop option.

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You're right, it doesn't say there are conflicts. So why do you say the conflict is the problem?

I find it is easier to solve a problem when you first understand what the problem is. Buying a new interface is easier than buying a new laptop, but I currently have no way of knowing if that will solve the problem.

I've never had a PC problem I couldn't solve before, but I'm starting to wonder if I should get a Mac for recording. But Ireally don't want to buy and learn new software.
 
Bulls Hit said:
If an interrupt occurs while you're recording a stream of audio, this may cause a small amount of audio data to never make it to the audio buffers, and consequently to the hard disk. When you play the file back, you hear this gap as a glitch
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My problem is more serious than a temporary audio glitch. The interface will work for a few minutes and then it stops working.
 
I have had a HP nx6110 laptop. I would not fool around with your apci. I made the mistake of doing so and had to do a system repair.

I have no experience with a dell but. I would imagine the same or worse would happen.

The thinkpad i believe is the most rock pc laptop made. I do plc programming, using a slew of laptop communications from serial / usb / pcmk and so on. The thinkpad has been the only pc that I have had not one issue with hardware communication.
 
sync said:
You're right, it doesn't say there are conflicts. So why do you say the conflict is the problem?
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Click to expand...

What I mean is if there is a conflict showing then there is a problem. If there is not a conflict showing...there is not a problem with an IRQ conflict, that's the generic M-Audio "we don't know".

Do you have any friends that you could try either your FW410 on their laptop or another device to try on yours?

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