Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of Kinmaul
Kinmaul

asked on

IRQ conflict involving sound card. Software issue or bad hardware?

I recently built a new computer and am having problems that I have narrowed down to "something" involving my Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS.  When my sound card is installed and enabled I get random BSOD and have to reboot.  If I uninstall my sound card (or even just disable it in Device Manager) then I haven't noticed a problem.  The BSOD would give me these kinds of errors:

DRIVER_IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

***STOP: 0x000000D1 (0xF7020DD2, 0x00000005, 0x00000008, 0xF7020DD2)

However it would list any specific driver that caused the crash.  I only have two PCI components, my sound card and my wireless network adapter, so I went into Device Manager and looked at my IRQ settings.  I noticed immediately that IRQ 16 was being used by my video card, my sound card, and my scsi driver.  I assumed this was not good so I went ahead and moved my cards to different PCI slots.  Now I still get the random BSOD, but the stop message is now IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR EQUAL (no DRIVER in front, not sure if this is important or not) and it also lists different drivers (seems random) like psched.sys, ctaud2k.sys, and hap16v2k.sys.  I searched the web and found that all of these drivers are related to my sound card.

I have Windows XP with sp2 and all the updates, and I double checked to make sure that all my drivers and my motherboard bios are all up to date.  I also put my sound card in a friends computer and it ran stable for over an hour, so I don't think my sound card is physically defective.  So right now I am at a wall because I don't know if this is just some stupid Windows IRQ issue or possibly my motherboard (or something) is physically defective.  Any help in figuring out what the actual problem is and a solution would be greatly appreciated.

Edit:

Almost forgot my system specs (doh)

AMD 64 3400+
Epox 8KDA+ motherboard
1024 mb of ram (I have tested the ram with 3 different mem testing software, no errors)
SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS Platnium
ATI 9800 XT 256mb
D-Link DWL-G520 (rev.B) Wireless network card.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of KaliKoder
KaliKoder
Flag of Canada image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Avatar of Asta Cu
I also have XP SP2 and the Creative Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS; downloaded some updates.  Looking and will return with links.
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Creative download site... I have the Audigy Platinum, yours may be different.... select from here and download the fixes.
http://us.creative.com/support/downloads/welcome.asp
Stop 0x000000D1 or DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
The Stop 0xD1 message indicates that the system attempted to access pageable memory using a kernel process IRQL that was too high. Drivers that have used improper addresses typically cause this error.

Troubleshooting Startup
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/Default.asp?url=/resources/documentation/Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prmc_str_yfol.asp
Avatar of Kinmaul
Kinmaul

ASKER

First off let me just say 'wow' too all the quick responses.  I am suprised (and thankful) that people got back to my problem so quickly.  Well ironicly enough I went back to newegg.com (where I intially got my mobo) and was thinking about getting another one to swap out and test.  Well while looking at the reviews for my board I came across this little bit of information:

"I pretty much agree with the other reviews, so I will not repeat them. I am adding my review as an aid to those that end up with the blue screen of death and random reboots. The BSOD usually says IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL, STOP: 0x0000000A (with 4 other addresses). The issue is that the BIOS runs a very low CPU voltage--1.34 volts on my computer--instead of the 1.55V it should. To fix this issue you must download the current BIOS (9/15/2004 or newer) and run it from a floppy boot disk using the command: awdflash [filename].bin /py /wb /cc /cd /cp. After the flash unplug the power supply and move the cmos jumper to 2-3 and leave it for about 30 min to be safe. On reboot go into the bios and load fail safe defaults, and then load optomized defaults, and then set the BIOS as needed. Running the BIOS upgrade from the windows Magic Bios utility will not fix this. Since a bios upgrade is not unusual and the board works so well after the upgrade, I am still giving the board 4 stars. I would give it 5 stars if I would have found the answer on the EPOX websight."

I had already flashed the 9/15/2004 bios so I figured this didn't apply, but not wanting to dismiss anything I went ahead and looked at my cpu voltage in bios.  It was at 1.37......  I went ahead and re-flashed my bios and now my cpu voltage is right around 1.55 (give or take a few 0.01 volts).  I have no idea why my first flashing did not fix this problem, but it didn't.  I re-installed my sound card and am going to test games and stuff out.

If this fixes the problem....well then I am an idiot and sorry for wasting all of your time.  I will update this thread tomorrow after making sure I am still not having any problems.

Thanks again for all the quick responses.
You are most welcome :-) regardless if your problem is solved or not with the Bios fix, I must say that answering your questions never wastes our time, never the least, it adds to our experience, and we learn something new everytime :)

Good Luck!
 
All good, BIOS was pointed out and you are moving in the right direction.  Without knowing the specifics of your Motherbaord and BIOS version a tough call to anticipate voltage settings, lol.  Would still check the Creative Labs updates, fixed a few problems with sound quality and interfaces I had with the Audigy card.  Good luck.
Avatar of Kinmaul

ASKER

Well everything was running fine for awhile and then I started having problems with the BSOD again.  I checked bios and sure enough my cpu voltage was back down to 1.36.  As a temporary solution I upped my core voltage in bios to 1.65 and now I am getting around 1.53 to the cpu (it stopped crashing immediately after this change).  I am just going to RMA the motherboard back and get another brand altogether since I have only had it 2 or 3 weeks.  I am going to split the points here since you both told me to check out BIOS and that is where the problem was found.

Thanks again for the tips and for the quick responses.  This site is definately amazing! =)
Thank you, Kinmaul; I sure agree about this site.  I've been helped so often and I find it TOP NOTCH!

Good move on the RMA of the MB; voltage problems, surges and so on (overheating - inadequate fans, etc) can kill your expensive hardware, not to mention all the other downsides.  I've been very pleased with my ASUS MBs through the years.  Anyway, let us know how things go.

Best wishes,
Asta