JohnTreubig
asked on
TI PCI-1225 Card Bus Controller does allocate IRQs for PC Cards under Windows XP
I have an ActionTec PC-750 PC Card adapter (TI PCI-1225 controller) that is installed under Windows XP. It will not allocate an ISA IRQ to PC Cards that are inserted. (I have plenty of free ISA IRQS available). Instead, it allocates the same PCI IRQ allocated to the card bus controller, and thus gives me Code 12 error for every type of card I install. The XP management windows will not permit me to move the IRQ. An example is the Card Bus Controller has IRQ 19, and when a FLASH Card is inserted, XP tries to allocate 19 to it and fails.
I have contacted Microsoft and here's all the fixes we've tried:
1)I've upgraded my BIOS to no avail. (Gigabyte GA7N400L1 BIOS Rev F12)
2)I've moved the PC-750 to all available slots in my machine with the same result.
3)I've rebuilt Windows XP from scratch and the same result occurs.
The problem is something to do with Windows XP, as I have Windows 2000 installed on a seperate drive on the same system and the PC-750 works fine. I've contacted the folks at Actiontec and they give me the line that it should work as is. So this leaves me with little confidence they have a clue or if they do, they're not saying.
Other than this problem XP works fine.
Thanks,
John
Sr. Test Engineer
VT Miltope Corporation
I have contacted Microsoft and here's all the fixes we've tried:
1)I've upgraded my BIOS to no avail. (Gigabyte GA7N400L1 BIOS Rev F12)
2)I've moved the PC-750 to all available slots in my machine with the same result.
3)I've rebuilt Windows XP from scratch and the same result occurs.
The problem is something to do with Windows XP, as I have Windows 2000 installed on a seperate drive on the same system and the PC-750 works fine. I've contacted the folks at Actiontec and they give me the line that it should work as is. So this leaves me with little confidence they have a clue or if they do, they're not saying.
Other than this problem XP works fine.
Thanks,
John
Sr. Test Engineer
VT Miltope Corporation
Did you try installing this on another machine, on the chance that there's a hardware problem with this machine? Sharing IRQ's is supposed to be normal with WinXP.
ASKER
This is one of Microsoft's suggestions. Unfortuantely, I'm limited in numbers of machines. The other problem is that most of the machines are Gigabyte. I will give this a try on a different motherboard.
JohnTreubig,
I see that this is your first question. The normal procedure is to accept a comment only AFTER a solution has been tried out, unless it is not possible to do so. This will leave the question available for others to participate in, because once it's closed, no one will be interested in it. You can post a note in Community Support with a link to this question to reopen it until the actual solution is found.
I see that this is your first question. The normal procedure is to accept a comment only AFTER a solution has been tried out, unless it is not possible to do so. This will leave the question available for others to participate in, because once it's closed, no one will be interested in it. You can post a note in Community Support with a link to this question to reopen it until the actual solution is found.
One genier to another:
This is not an uncommon problem with XP, though complicated not insurmountable. Depending on your level of expertise with Windows...
When XP is installed system HAL type (hardware abstraction layer) is chosen by XP depending upon the BIOS XP sees and examines. Normally, XP will choose Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC as the system HAL type. Sharing IRQs is normal for this HAL type as it is designed to prevent conflict of resources and automatically assign them. Unfortunately, this HAL type does not allow manual configuration of resources and will usually reconfigure them if the HAL sees them as incorrect. In order to configure I/O boards, etc., that would normally conflict with the HAL's auto config we use a different HAL type. BUT and that is a big BUT...many things must be noted...
1. and foremost, do not attempt to change the system HAL type without a reinstall of the OS. The system will crash and be rendered unbootable.
2. the system BIOS must be compliant with the system HAL type.
Examine your system HAL type in Device Manager. The good new is that the 7N400L1 has a BIOS that is compliant with running the ACPI Uniprocessor HAL PC, which is what you want if you expect to assign IRQs manually...
Please state what HAL you are using.
T
This is not an uncommon problem with XP, though complicated not insurmountable. Depending on your level of expertise with Windows...
When XP is installed system HAL type (hardware abstraction layer) is chosen by XP depending upon the BIOS XP sees and examines. Normally, XP will choose Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC as the system HAL type. Sharing IRQs is normal for this HAL type as it is designed to prevent conflict of resources and automatically assign them. Unfortunately, this HAL type does not allow manual configuration of resources and will usually reconfigure them if the HAL sees them as incorrect. In order to configure I/O boards, etc., that would normally conflict with the HAL's auto config we use a different HAL type. BUT and that is a big BUT...many things must be noted...
1. and foremost, do not attempt to change the system HAL type without a reinstall of the OS. The system will crash and be rendered unbootable.
2. the system BIOS must be compliant with the system HAL type.
Examine your system HAL type in Device Manager. The good new is that the 7N400L1 has a BIOS that is compliant with running the ACPI Uniprocessor HAL PC, which is what you want if you expect to assign IRQs manually...
Please state what HAL you are using.
T
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
If it's a separate driver, try to force the Windows 2000 driver to install under XP.