Help IRQ Conflicts / BIOS setup

[joshua1108]

Hi,

Already had some responses but not what I need. Please note before your reply to this post that I cannot change or Move these 2 devices. I have 3 Meg Internet connection and its not Ping related or do I need to tweak internet setting

Recently reformatted my PC (Windows XP Home Edition) coz I installed a new graphics card and wanted everything to go smoothly, so no problems there. However, I noticed an IRQ channel conflict and that now My AC97 Audio controller and my Realtel RTL 8139 network card are conflicting and are both assigned to the same IRQ channel. My PC still has several slots free and all the reserved assignments etc. are correct. However, although MS states that XP automatically assigns the correct/best IRQ assignments and conflicts do not necessarily cause problems, I think this is an issue and is causing me problems. I have noticed that now when I play online I experience lag problems I never had before and think this is linked to the fact that both controllers are using the same IRQ and there is a possible resource issue. My BIOS is Phoenix V 6.0 which does not have hardly any management options at all and is not does not appear to be flexible enough to change any settings. I have tried to get information of the web on how to correct this problem through the BIOS setup etc. with out any success and I have also tried to get a BIOS update with little success. I cannot move them to different PCI slots to cure the problem so I am kinda stuck - HELP!!!

I don't want to have to reinstall XP in order to try and cure this problem as its not a guaranteed cure and may not reassign the IRQs to different slots.

Any suggestions would be welcomed bearing in mind the limitations of my present BIOS setup manager etc.

Thanks,
Josh

[metallicat666]

are you sure that the lag isnt caused by you trying to access a different server which takes longer to ping.

[joshua1108]

Sorry I maybe should have mentioned Ping isn't a factor - I can be in a server with a ping of 40 but I still experience lag. You get a feel for these things and I guess I feel its related to sound coz when theres a lot of sound activity I get this problem but I didnt experience it before when the IRQ conflict wasn't there. I dont really want to go down the Internet connection road or ping issues or optimizing/tweaking my connection. I have 3meg broadband and therefore not interested in this route.

[metallicat666]

is the sound or network onboard.
if one of them isnt try putting it into a different slot to see if the IRQ changes. or you could try disabling the sound before you play and see if you still get lag.

[joshua1108]

As I mentioned thats why I have the issue in the 1st place because I cant manipulate the location for the network card and sound.

[metallicat666]

sorry i hadnt seen that.
have you tried disabling the sound or borrowing a soundcard from somebody to see if the lag persists

[joshua1108]

I was considering going down that road and maybe buying a new card as the AC97 is somewhat outdated. But I guess like most people "Its Bugging me" and I want to get my hands dirty and fix it before throwing money at it and buying a new sound card to try and resolve the problem. And also what if I install a new card and I get an IRQ conflict again!!

Thx for your help thou.

[gtitoe]

Have you tried disabling your sound and playing? Do you still get lag? It seems unlikely to me that this is your problem?

But you could try uninstalling your Video Card and reinstalling it, as this wil force Windows to re-assign channels again.