xpsp2 BSOD "DRIVER_IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL"

[morganlefay]

After dealing with sound card issues on one site that uses them to test audio equipment...I have found that sound cards use upto 3 IRQs and alot of memory resources...

Saying that...your issue was probably solved by moving the soung card...but then again maybe not.

From my humble experience...sound cards should be placed in the middle of the PCI s slots...and nothing should be directly beside it as it will use the resources from these adjoining slots...now this was a few years ago...but I still follow the same rule when having to add sound cards..as some of the machines require an analog (which is usually on board now) and a digital card to run the required testing on that site.

I havent had experience with XP on these machines...this was all NT\2000

Good to hear it is all fixed

MLF

[The Duck]

Sound card using 3 IRQ's??? Wow, a video card doesn't even use that much... Are you sure? 3 irq's?? seeing as how there are only... 15-16... I forget the exact amount, you usually don't even have to think about IRQ's as a PC tech...

[morganlefay]

No ..not with the new OSes and hardware....cause they allow you to share IRQs...and then there is that IRQ that bridges to a higher #??..used to be 9.

I have had soundcard vendors tell me to do this to trouble shoot soundcards as they are notorious for using other slots resources...again this was not with XP.

Works for me

MLF

As for video cards...AFAIK they are mostly AGP now and and have thier own resource area...depending on the board of course on how it uses the resources

[hari.uday]

I also recently buiyed a new ESS 1983 PCI Sound Card, only to end up with the same Blue Screen. Reme,ber what microsoft promised when Windows XP was launched? That we will nevwer see that idiot blue screenm again. that's mainly because windows xp controls the drivers and hardware directly, bypassing the device driver's help. Win 9x doesn't do this.
Solution: NO SOLUTION CURSE CURSE MICROSOFT.

[The Duck]

Hah, I didn't realize microsoft promised that... Now microsoft knows not to promise anything anymore!

As for video cards...AFAIK they are mostly AGP now and and have thier own resource area...depending on the board of course on how it uses the resources

I thought AGP still gets an IRQ, or maybe that's just PCI video cards...?

[ZT3000]

morganlefay,

...and then there is that IRQ that bridges to a higher #??..used to be 9.

Might you be speaking of: IRQ 9 steering into IRQ 2.

In regards to IRQ Sharing, otherwise called IRQ Steering,

IRQ Steering prior to XP
PCI bus IRQ steering started with Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2 (OSR2). It was also supported in Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, and Windows Millennium Edition (Me). By using PCI bus IRQ steering, Windows can dynamically assign or "steer" PCI bus IRQs to PCI devices.
If PCI bus IRQ steering is disabled in Windows the BIOS assigns IRQs to PCI devices, but if PCI bus IRQ steering is enabled, Windows assigns IRQs to PCI devices. When IRQ steering is enabled the BIOS still assigns IRQs to PCI devices and, even though Windows can change these settings, it generally does not.

IRQ Steering with XP
Windows XP cannot rebalance resources in the same way that Microsoft Windows 98 does. After PCI resources are set, they generally cannot be changed. If you change to an incorrect IRQ setting or I/O range for the bus that a device is on, Windows XP cannot compensate by rebalancing the resource that was assigned to that bus.

Windows XP does not have this ability because of the more complex hardware schemas that Windows XP is designed to support. Windows 98 does not have to support IOAPICs, multiple root PCI buses, multiple-processor systems, and other highly complex hardware schemas.

When you are dealing with these types of hardware, rebalancing becomes risky and therefore is not implemented in Windows XP except for very specific scenarios. However, PCI devices must be able to share IRQs. Generally, the ability to share IRQs does not prevent any hardware from working. I believe the Plug and Pray operating system settings in the computer BIOS do not generally affect how Windows XP handles the hardware. However, Microsoft recommends that you set the Plug and Pray operating system setting to No or Disabled in the computer BIOS.

Duck: I thought AGP still gets an IRQ, or maybe that's just PCI video cards...?

AGP does get an IRQ, which one depends on your motherboard/video card combination, eg. IRQ 10, IRQ 16. Although, AGP has it's own non-competing data bus.
Sometimes if I turn off "Allow IRQ for VGA" in BIOS, then the BIOS doesn't assign an IRQ, but don't remember if Windows does either, although it should.

[The Duck]

AGP has it's own non-competing data bus.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but that would be the north bridge, correct? Ram uses that as well right?

[ZT3000]

Northbridge was right, except starting with the 8xx series chipsets like the i815 and i815E in the year 2000.

Intel new design is the Intel Hub Architecture (IHA). Like the old system, IHA has two parts, but they are called the Graphics and AGP Memory Controller Hub (GMCH) and the I/O Controller Hub (ICH) instead of Northbridge/Southbridge.

Anyways, AGP had/has a dedicated point-to-point channel to main memory so that the graphics controller can directly access and fill it with 3D textures.

[cross]

Ok, old thread, but some of you may still have this BSOD problem with SP2 and NOT SP1.
I thought it was an IRQ problem, and I may have had one at one point, but the BSOD did not stop there.

The solution:
I finally figured out that one of the many advanced ram options in my BIOS was conflicting with sp2. I do not know if it was a phisical ram problem that sp1 ignored somehow, and sp2 is more pickey, or if its just that sp2 is not compatable with these 'advanced ram options'. Either way, I turned them off 1 by 1 untill the BSOD stoped for good. Its been several months now (as you can tell by the thread date) and no problems since.

Who'd of thought it was a problem with the bios...?

Once again, sorry for digging up my old thread, but I have ran into several other people in recent weeks who have had this same problem, and this has fixed it every time. I do not have the name of the exact bios option that I turned off, but if some one can't figure it out by trial and error (theres only like 4 options for ram) I can go look when I get home

[Und3ertak3r]

thanks for that Cross.. it is interesting that one of the issues that are mentioned on the Technet site is Memory problems with this error.. what you have reminded is the issue of BIOS setting in these issues..

There is another thread here on this issue.. and someone did link to the technet page..

Cheers