IRQ - Dell Inspiron help

  • Thread starter Thread starter Roaf
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Roaf

Dumbass
Hopefully this is the correct forum for this...

I have a Dell Inspiron 8600 and am running Cubase SL with an M-Audio FireWire 410. Long story short: M-Audio and a couple of people I talked to said I need to rearrange my IRQ settings b/c my FireWire and Graphics card share the same IRQ. I heard that I may not be able to change these due to Dell not allowing it on the Inspiron models. Has anyone heard of this? Dell.com has been no help so far.
 
Is the firewire on a card, or is it on the motherboard?
If it's a FW card, the nsimply move it's slot.

If it's not, then you might be able to through windows.
Control Panel>System>Device manager> FW card/adaptor (or graphics card) > Resources

You may or may not be able to change the IRQ on either. Hopefully you can.

If you can't, then you're kinda screwed- I don't even think you can change IRQ in bios anymore if it's blanked in windows...
 
if you're running XP you have to move the cards around
 
Inspiron is a laptop, right?

AFAIK (and I am not an expert here), you need to install Windows with ACPI disabled in order to be able to reassign IRQ's.

Here's something I pulled off the web on how to do it. To disable ACPI you need to select Standard PC from the menu described.

The Role of the F5 Key and Shutdown Problems

When XP is first installed it tries to determine what type of BIOS is available on the computer. Newer systems have what is known as Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) capability. Unfortunately, XP doesn't always recognize a computer BIOS is ACPI capable and doesn't install the support for ACPI. Even more unfortunate is the fact that if ACPI support isn't determined at the initial install it's virtually impossible to correct this at a later time short of reinstalling XP over the top of the previous XP installation. To do so requires changing the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL). The chances of successfully changing a HAL after XP has been installed is pretty close to zilch.

Once you drop the CD in the tray and fire up the computer to install XP, the first thing you'll see at the bottom of the screen is the option to press F6 if you need to install a SCSI or RAID controller. Don't press F6. Press F5 instead. This will take you to a separate menu of Hardware Abstraction Layer's where you can choose an appropriate HAL that supports ACPI. The choices will be:

ACPI Multiprocessor PC

ACPI Uniprocessor PC

Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC

Compaq SystemPro Multiprocessor or 100% Compatible PC

MPS Uniprocessor PC

MPS Multiprocessor PC

Standard PC

Standard PC with C-Step i486

Other

In the majority of installations the 'Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC' HAL is the one you will want to use. A few cautions are also in order:

Obtain and install the latest BIOS for your motherboard before you begin the XP installation.

Equally as important as using the proper HAL on ACPI capable systems, is NOT using it on systems that are not ACPI compatible. The install may complete but the system will almost surely fail to start when it reboots.

There are situations where it is definitely not desirable to use an ACPI HAL even if it is supported by the BIOS. This predominately applies to servers, but to ensure that an ACPI HAL will not be used or automatically detected and used, press F7 instead of F5 as discussed previously.

Considering the number of problems that users have with systems not shutting down completely I wonder why this feature is not prominently mentioned and documented. It could save many headaches, but now you know. A good piece of knowledge to have tucked away for your next XP install.

As a final note, to determine if your computer was detected as being ACPI enabled:

Right click My Computer then click Properties > Hardware > Device Manager.
Expand the entry called Computer.

If the entry is 'Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC' you're all set. If it says 'Standard PC' the computer BIOS was not detected as being ACPI capable.
Click to expand...
 
IMO, you are shooting yourself in the foot.

WinXP shares interrupts right out of the box. Millions of users are doing this successfully. You have a mainstream product and mainstream operating system. If you think you have to hack the OS for your situation, you are looking down the wrong trail.

Check each one of your hardware components on the Windows Hardware Compatibility List (HCL). If your fireware card ain't there, it could be a problem. Most likely you have rotten or downlevel Firewire drivers. If your card is a no-name, even more likely. Look into an Adaptec card.

If you don't have any obvious incompatibilities, next make sure you have the LATEST drivers for Fireware and the M-Audio card. You might have a problem with Service Pack 2... the Aardvark Q10 drivers often choke on SP2. My Q10 fail 100% with SP2.

Last, do a fresh install of WinXP by formatting the disk and wiping it clean. Install all the Windows updates. If your install does not have SP2 embedded, try your M-Audio card and see if it works. Install SP2. If it breaks, you know SP2 doesn't like something in your driver setup. I run my Q10 system at SP1 because it chokes on SP2.

Get ahold of GHOST and learn to use it. Take a GHOST image of your system as you build it, and before adding something major. This gives you a fast method to go back a step, should the system turn to crap.
 
My friend has the same computer and has the same problem with a 1820M PCI shares with the Graphics card, my suggestion is to get a better mother board with NVidia Nforce chipset and New windows xp, screw DELL because their mother boards are made at dell and are not very customizeable I called the EMU tech support and he told me to change the IRQ in the Bios to run ACPI so you'll get more IRQ's but you can't do that with a DELL motherboard.
 
Guys his insprion is a LAPTOP. Im considering getting the same laptop becuase its cheap. But after readin this I dont know if I want to..

Josh
 
Well...I use a Dell Inspiron 8600 in conjunction with a Firepod that's connected to a Firewire PCMCIA Card that has an NEC chipset, and have had zero problems. I think the problem is in the M-Audio 410. I've heard nothing but horror stories about this card and how the drivers are just terribly unstable (search around the net and you will confirm this).
 
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