digi sharing Irq with promise controller

[ALAN MCKNIGHT]

hope all is well. first want to thank you guys especially allen for getting me up and running with amd 1800+ asus 266e board. my only concern is that digi is on Irq 5 but it is sharing with the promise controller. i had my computer look at this .moving the card around or trying to change in the bios does not work. can't force to another irq.i can get 24 tracks and 8 aux. im sure i can get more with this set up if these were not sharing. any recommendations? thanks in advance.slots from top to bottom
1 video card
2 digi
3 scsi cdr
4 layla for nuendo sf acid cubase 5/32
5 teretec for giga sampler

0 System timer
1 Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural Keyboard
2 Programmable interrupt controller
3 AdvanSys PCI Ultra Wide SCSI Host Adapter
3 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
4 Communications Port (COM1)
5 AudioSystem EWX 24/96
5 VIA Tech 3038 PCI to USB Universal Host Controller
5 VIA Tech 3038 PCI to USB Universal Host Controller
5 VIA Tech 3038 PCI to USB Universal Host Controller
5 Digidesign Digi 001
5 Win95-98 Promise Ultra100 (tm) IDE Controller (PDC20265)
5 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
6 Standard Floppy Disk Controller
7 Printer Port (LPT1)
8 System CMOS/real time clock
9 SCI IRQ used by ACPI bus
10 Layla by Echo
10 CMI8738/C3DX PCI Audio Device
10 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
11 Motorola SM56 PCI Speakerphone Modem #2
11 RAGE IIC AGP (English)
11 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
12 PS/2 Compatible Mouse Port
13 Numeric data processor
14 Primary IDE controller (dual fifo)
14 VIA Bus Master PCI IDE Controller
15 Secondary IDE controller (dual fifo)
15 VIA Bus Master PCI IDE Controller

I have disabled the usb and do not need the printer. thanks alan

[Mark_Knecht]

Alan,
Da BaSsTaRd made a post that I'm not sure a lot of people paid attention to, but if you wanted to try I'm very sure it would help you.

His alternative was to reformat his audio drive to use a larger sector (or cluster?) size. I think the default is 2K or 4K. He pushed it up to 32K, I beleive, and ended up getting 18% more tracks.

ONLY DO THIS ON THE AUDIO DRIVE, NOT THE SYSTEM DRIVE.

The reason this would help is that it allows larger blocks on disk, fewer read or write requests to get the same data, and just overall more effecient usage of the PCI bus and disk for large files. Since our audio files are large, it makes lots of sense.

He may have some info on this idea on his web site. Check there also.

take care,
Mark

[yavuzj]

format x:/Z:64
was this the command for that?

[Allen Hallada]

Alan,
There is still alot that can be done here with the IRQ settings. IRQ 5 is a log jam right now waiting to happen. You will have to disable USB in Bios. It shouldn't be showing up if you have disabled it this way. Secondly disable onboard sounds in bios. It is still showing up on IRQ 10. Swap Digi and the Echo card around. Repost your settings when that is done.
Allen [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[drunton]

I am having essentially the same problem with the SOYO Dragon+ MOBO.

I can't get any BIOS changes to shift IRQ's around.

My system is very similar, but I have disabled the onboard sound.

Basically
IRQ 5 - Digi 001

IRQ 10 - AGP
10 - Onboard Ethernet
10 - Layla

IRQ 11 - USB 1
- USB 2
- Adaptec 2930 SCSI-2 card
- Promise RAID controller

IRQ 9 - ACPI (power saving system)

That crappy ACPI is sucking a whole interupt by itself. Any ideas on getting something to share with it, or better yet dropping it completely.

For your problem: I agree with the suggestion of shutting off the internal sound card (in BIOS) and then swap Layla/001, but then you have the same problem I have....

Anyone?

[Mark_Knecht]

Hi all,
IRQ sharing is a motherboard design issue. A shared IRQ is just a wire that hooks to certain PCI slots and certain motherboard devices.

If the motherboard design hooks the PCI IRQ line of slots 2 and 3 together in a metal trace on the board itself, then there is nothing you can do to change that.

If two PCI devices are sharing a hardwired IRQ, and you do not want them to, then the only solution is to change which boards are in which slots.

In the case above, if you want a device to share an IRQ with the ACPI device, then you need to determine if a slot shares it's PCI interrupt line with that ACPI device, and then put the card in that slot.

One advantage that those people who purchase their motherboards 'raw' have is we receive a manual that tells us which slots are using which IRQ lines. We then can make decisions easily about where to put certain boards. I use Asus boards because I know their manuals show me this information. I am sure that other motherboard manuals do also, it's just that I've never use them.

One disadvantage about buying prebuilt systems from large manufacturers is that you MAY not receive this information. (As in one user's Dell system recently)

Regards,
Mark

[yavuzj]

Mark look at my post above. A question for you. format x:/Z:64
Is that the command for changing clucter sise to 32kb?

[Mark_Knecht]

Yavuz,
Sorry. I saw your post before (you pushy guy!!) [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] but forgot to get back to you. I apologize.

I only have one book with DOS commands in it, and it does not list the option you suggest.

I found this web page, but it also does not list the option you suggest. (It's a good page though!)
http://dl.jctc.kctcs.net/jgtk/DOS.htm

This web page says you're right!
http://www.computerhope.com/msdos.htm

I would want to be careful none the less!

I believe that Da BaSsTaRd was changing the cluster size using Partition Magic. If I was to try I would do it, it would be with System Commander 2K.

With best regards,
Mark


<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by yavuzj:
Mark look at my post above. A question for you. format x:/Z:64
Is that the command for changing clucter sise to 32kb?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

[QuikDraw]

If you're going to mess with your cluster (or sector) size BE CARFUL!!

There was a guy that posted to the DUC about a year ago that totally hosed his system by defragging using the standard Windows defragger on a drive with non-standard clusters! He had posted what his problem was and I looked it up on the Microsoft Answer Base. MS confirmed that using certain cluster sizes will cause the defragger to malfunction in a way that will cause you to loose data!

If you're going to customize the formatting of your drives, make sure your maintainence tools support the customizations you are using!

Okay, you've been warned. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Mike

[Audiohead]

Yavuz - I tried the format x:/z:64 command the last time I formatted an audio drive, and it seemed to make no difference to performance. I also got no confirmation from DOS that I was doing anything other than a normal format, although that fact that it accepted the /z switch would seem to indicate that it's a valid command...

I can't remember where I read it, but that was indeed supposed to be the command to set the cluster size to 32K. If anyone has any input on this, I'd be keen to get to the bottom of this once and for all...