IRQ Sharing & XFI Crackl

Hello
Well I've been trying a few things today. I have my XFI sharing an IRQ with my 2nd 7800 GTX card. I tried to get the IRQ to reset by pulling and clearing out drivers etc in hopes of getting new IRQs for them... No luck. The one thing I did find was when the other card wasn't in I had no problems. So then I reinstalled everything, and I found quake 4 was running great then I realized I didn't have the second card running in SLI. So once I enabled SLI and tried playing the slowdowns and crackling noice returned. From what I hear it seems the only way to fix IRQ sharing in this way is to reinstall windows to change one freaking setting (Great plan MS). Now before I do this long process of reinstalling and then having to reinstall all my software I'd like to know has anyone done this where they can manually configure their IRQs and had it work that had a simular problem? Again I only have problems when running my second card via SLI. While I wait on a response I'm going to check some older Nvidia drivers and see if an old set with SLI capability don't impact performance or create audio anomalies.
System:
XP Home SP2 & XP Pro 64
AMD 4400+ X2 64 Bit
A8N32-SLI Deluxe
Corsair 2x Gig 3500 Memory
2x Asus 7800 GTX SLI
Creative XFI Fatalty
2x 74Gig Raptors RAID 0
x 250 Gig SATAII HD
x 320 Gig Back up dri've
Thermaltake Aquarius III & Big Water Liquid Cooling on 2x GPU and x CPU Waterblocks
Yes and my recently built Xtreme Gaming Rig crackles in 7. glory through my Gigaworks 750 speakers.

I'm not saying, NForce4 is a bad chipset, stability is great, the chipset is much more mature than its predecessors, NForce2/3. But I believe that it has something to do with the PCI Bus, because it works with one card, but in SLI mode it starts crackling, which leads me to the assumption, that all the badly handled traffic is causing the problems here. I even made another test, putting in a ADSL card in another PCI Slot, and downloaded something while playing Far Cry, this ended in even more crackling and distorted sound. Problems are smaller, when CMSS3d and the crystalizer is switched off. Definately it has nothing to do with interrupts, because my X-FI is sitting on PCI(7) alone.
But I might be wrong and it can be hopefully solved with a new creative driver, how knows, but honestly, I'm afraid, that there will be no solution.

Similar Messages

XFX 780i + X-fi Titanium Fatal1ty + 8800GT SLI + IRQ Sharing

<XFX 780i + X-fi Titanium Fatalty + 8800GT SLI + IRQ Sharing I have this setup and no matter what I do, both graphic cards and the x-fi all report as being on IRQ6.
I suspect this is causing my games to crash, most run fine for 5-0 minutes then begin to have stuttering problems, then they finally freeze up, ctrl+alt+delete seems to unfreeze them for a few seconds, just long enough to exit the game. I'm pretty sure It's not a heat problem, everything is maintained and well ventilated and not overclocked. And?I can't move the X-fi into a different slot, the 8800GTs are dual slot cards in the first and third pciex6 slots, which cover up the x slot,?and the x-fi is in the middle pciex6 slot. I didn't have this problem with the onboard audio before I got my X-fi, and it was on a different IRQ.
Anyone have any idea what I can do to change the IRQs? I really think the shared IRQs are the source of the problem, other than that it sounds great, no crackling or popping, and all the features work, and yes im using the Xfi support pack and all the newest drivers for my setup.
It has happened on UT3, RA3, and Stalker, they run absolutely fine on max settings, then start messing up. But there are no graphical artifacts or sound pops, they just freeze.
If there's anyone else with this problem or could help me out, I'm really running out of ideas here.
Windows 7 Ultimate x64 build 7232
Q6600 Quad Core
XFX 780i Motherboard (W7 Nforce v5.35)
MSI NX8800GT x2 (SLI) (W7 ForceWare v86.8)
X-Fi Titanium Fatalty (XFI SP v2.0)
OCZ Reaper HPC 4GB(2x2GB) DDR2 066 RAM
Antec 900
Rosewill 750w PSU
Message Edited by djc566 on 06-26-2009 02:7 AM

Yeah, I have this same problem also... I have 2 9800GX2 quad sli and when it's enabled i get crackling popping and then sometimes the sound cuts out!! Only with quad sli enabled..... I also have the 790i ultra and 4gb of ddr3@700mhz..... I believe that this is related to the graphics cards and the sound card sharing IRQ 6 which also happens to me. It gives all cards on the pci-express lanes the same IRQ 6!!! The reason it doesn't happen with onboard sound is because it gives the onboard irq 22. If someone could find a way within the bios to be able to change this or if this can be changed in a future driver update it would be great!! In the 790i bios it assigns the graphics cards and soun IRQ while onboard is IRQ 0! You can't assign an irq in the bios either! Only options are PCI or reserved!!!

Sound problem irq sharing ?

I have an k7n2g with a geforce 2pro
and i experiencing sound probleme in some games
i tested all divrer and i keep have the same probleme.
It is not the game because i tested with an SBlive and it works fine!
appraraly it seems to be be an irq sharing problem but i cant change irq config so what can i do

Note that I have the k7n420 nforce board...
I had the issues so I reinstalled windows XP without APIC and without ACPI. So now I have no power saving options (like standby features or auto shutdown) but I do have working sound.
I used to have a sblive x-gamer, but I would rather not talk about the crackling that came along with it. So I made the onboard audio work and it makes me happy...
I guess it all depends, sometimes sblives work for some people and then sometimes onboard works.

IRQ sharing question

Hello again,
I was just wondering if someone could confirm for me that the IRQ sharing below is normal for an nForce board. I was just on the Nvidia site and it says that the graphics card should have its own IRQ, but mine clearly doesn't. I'm running XP Pro.
IRQ 11 Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller
IRQ 11 Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller
IRQ 11 Nvidia nForce MCP Audio Processing Unit
IRQ 11 Nvidia nForce Audio Codec Interface
IRQ 11 Nvidia GeForce3
Thanks for any advice.

Munger,
That is normal if you have ACPI disabled. If you were to have it enabled, it would spread all the devices over the higher IRQs.
Check out Assigning devices to IRQs
Take Care,
Richard

IRQ Sharing - gfx/sound

Hi, Here is my previous thread https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=80048.0
From a brief look round t'internet etc (I'm very quickly getting lost though) I gather IRQ sharing is an OK and a more and more common thing. I'm concerned that my graphics card (Leadtek GeForce 6600 GT TDH in the x16, PCI-E1 slot) is sharing an IRQ with the soundcard (Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS Plat Pro). They are both on IRQ 18.
As I say I gather this is ok in certain circumstances but it is the only reason I can see for crashes I have seen in my recently built system. These crashes are enough to need a full re-install or at least a lot of tinkering with the recovery console.
In the meantime I have disabled the COM and Parallel port assignments in BIOS in the hope to free up another couple of IRQs so one or the other is automatically assigned its own. Are there any other changes I can make in BIOS. Its an MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum board. I have tried the soundcard in slots PCI2 and PCI3 (PCI1 seems a bit close to the graphics card for comfort!)
I have installed the latest drivers (71.89 for the graphics and the latest web update for creative stuff, dated 12 May). I'm almost convinced its either the IRQ or drivers causing the problem as I have run games with no sound perfectly (ie with the soundcard in the motherboard but with no drivers installed).
Any ideas?!
Thanks,

The thread prior to this started here https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=80048.0
(redundant for those that have already read the beginning post in this thread and are just coming back to follow up)
Any other PCI cards involved here? Chances are the Comm slot is the best place for it.
Post your IRQ's after the swap from System Information
Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools>System Information. Click on the "+" of the Hardware resources to expand the tree view. Click on IRQ's. Select Edit from the toolbar, then Select All, then select Edit again then select Copy. Paste in your next post.
Your's won't look like mine, but I will post mine as an example. You will likely have some sharing because of the physical limitations of the design, but you should at least try to get the best scenario you can. That means, doing exactly what you are doing
Here
IRQ 0   System timer   OK
IRQ 1   Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard   OK
IRQ 4   Communications Port (COM1)   OK
IRQ 5   WinFast TV2000 XP WDM Audio Capture   OK
IRQ 6   Standard floppy disk controller   OK
IRQ 8   System CMOS/real time clock   OK
IRQ 9   Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System   OK
IRQ 11   NVIDIA nForce PCI System Management   OK
IRQ 12   PS/2 Compatible Mouse   OK
IRQ 13   Numeric data processor   OK
IRQ 14   Primary IDE Channel   OK
IRQ 15   Secondary IDE Channel   OK
IRQ 16   RADEON X800 XT Platinum Edition   OK
IRQ 17   WinFast TV2000 XP WDM Video Capture   OK
IRQ 18   Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS (WDM)   OK
IRQ 19   OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller   OK
IRQ 20   Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller   OK
IRQ 21   NVIDIA Network Bus Enumerator   OK
IRQ 22   Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller   OK
IRQ 23   Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller   OK

IRQ sharing on X-Fi causes BS

Hi all
After almost a year with my X-Fi Fatalty, I've just started having problems. My AsRock AS939NF4G-SATA2 died recently, and I have replaced it with an ASUS A8N-VM CSM.
They are almost identical (Asus has GeForce 650 chipset instead of 600), microATX, one PCI-Express x6, one PCI-Express x and two PCI slots.
After installing Windows I started having those infamous crack/pop issues, but I solved them lowering PCI latency to 32.
But my system is not stable. I can let the computer turned on for days downloading stuff or using Prime95, but when I play a game, in about half an hour or less I get a BSOD and a restart, I don't have time to read it, but it says something about ha20x2k.sys, so I assume it's because of the X-Fi.
I have seen the X-Fi is sharing IRQ 8 with my video card (GeForce 6800GS). I have moved the X-Fi to the other PCI slot, windows detects it again but it gives the same IRQ, still shared with VGA.
I don't know if those BSOD are related to IRQ sharing or not, but on my old AsRock board the X-Fi was not sharing any IRQ. I've tried everything related to PCI latency, AMD hypertransport speed, slots, reinstalled Windows several times, but nothing hel
ps.
My BIOS is 00, the latest non-beta (I may try 002 beta available on Asus website).
Any ideas?

No, it only happens with games, I cant listen to MP3 for hours. I have the 2.09.000 installed, I may try to install the old betas, but I didn't have any problem with my AsRock board.
Unfortunately, I can see the BSOD only a second, the computers reboot instantly. I've checked the file created at Windows\Minidump folder, but can't find plain text with more data.
Now I've just upgraded to 002 beta BIOS and both the X-Fi and GeForce 6800 have moved to IRQ 9 from 8. I've played UT2004 with X-Fi patch for half an hour, now I didn't have the bsod, but a general protection fault from ut2004.exe. I've played again and after 5 minutes I got another error from isactwin.dll, I think this dll is installed by the UT X-Fi patch.
I will try Prey now

IRQ Sharing problem on the MSI K8NGM-V

Hi,
to make a long story short, the nvidia video driver refuses to work at all if I don't reserve IRQ 10
but it doesn't stop there , I get lots of trouble with both networking and usb , as long as only one of them is working at once it's fine
but if I start moving the mouse around and there is even light network activity both the networking and the usb will stop working
this is all under linux so maybe the msi-modified windows have been hacked into having a workaround until a new bios is produced
if you want the whole story in all the gory details I have put all my findings and lots of information on this thread on nvnews (biggest nvidia linux forum around)
thread on nvnews (biggest nvidia linux forum around)
I tried reserving IRQ 5 in the hopes that network and usb would end up on different irq's but that made things even worse
if the windows drivers have a workaround, it probably induce a performance penalty
also I heard msi is distributing an experimental bios that may fix some of these issues (since there are no bios available for the MSI K8NGM-V)
I understand this is board is very new so I guess this is the early-adopter syndrome if you know anything about this I'd love to hear it , there is very little talk about this motherboard in this forum for some reason :\ I guess people on this board aren't fans of budget boards ?

Quote
if the windows drivers have a workaround
Windows XP and other Windows that use the same kernal have no problems with IRQ sharing, this is because Windows XP kernal uses Virtual IRQ Routing, in short this means that Windows manages all the IRQ's and does this 99.9% of the time without a problem.

K8N Neo2-- IRQ Sharing of Network and Video Card

With the Giga onboard network card enabled it is using the same IRQ as my MSI 6800GT video card (16). i know that IRQ sharing is "okay" but i also know that the two devices will still have to "take turns" then. i'd rather not have this. i disabled my comm ports, sata1/2 ports, paralell ports, and 1394 ports. many irq's are available. for the time being i disabled the giga card and i'm using the nvidia card instead as that seems to use its own irq (23). i could only find one other thread about this and the solution was to use the nvidia card. i'd rather use the giga card unless someone knows that the nvidia is better.

No cards installed except for the video card. I am using onboard sound and network.
IRQ 0   System timer   OK
IRQ 1   Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard   OK
IRQ 6   Standard floppy disk controller   OK
IRQ 8   System CMOS/real time clock   OK
IRQ 9   Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System   OK
IRQ 10   NVIDIA nForce PCI System Management   OK
IRQ 13   Numeric data processor   OK
IRQ 14   Primary IDE Channel   OK
IRQ 15   Secondary IDE Channel   OK
IRQ 16   NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT by www.TweaksRUs.com   OK
IRQ 21   Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller   OK
IRQ 21   Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller   OK
IRQ 22   Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller   OK
IRQ 22   Realtek AC'97 Audio   OK
IRQ 23   Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller   OK
IRQ 23   NVIDIA Network Bus Enumerator   OK
This is with the Giga card disabled. When it is enabled it uses IRQ 16 (even with the nvidia disabled). 11, 12, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 are free.

How to interpret IRQ sharing chart?

I mean, at my KT266PRO2 manual, although I want to know how it should be interpreted in general, not specifically for my board.
The chart has for example 7 rows and 4 columns, the rows are the PCI and AGP slots, now my problem is with the columns, they have letters from say A to G, first column should be easy to interpret but what are the following columns intended to represent?
Thanks Gustavo.-

ex with my kt3 ultra 2.
if i have the promise ata controleur, it takes one IRQ and can't be changed.
letter D (ie irq D)
the video ags take another IRQ (the first available) called A.
pci slot 1 takes irq A (share with video then)
pci slot 2 takes irq B (shared with pci5)
pci slot 3 takes irq C (not shared)
pci slot 4 takes irt D (shared with promise ATA)
pci slot 5 takes irq B (shared with pci 2).
the promise ata set its irq before all ather and is in the first column.
If you don't have a promise ATA, read column 2, The AGP card takes its irq first and now pci 4 doesn't share its IRQ.
pci 2 and 5 are physicaly assign to the same IRQ in all case...
the letter is for an IRQ, depending on device desactivated on the mobo (ps2 mouse for exemple).
USB, onboard sound card, onborad ethernet contrôleur use irqs too and are not listed here.

XFi crackling sound solve

Hi Guys,
I had the same crackling sounds with my card. I bought the Cinema edition and there comes a xtreme music with this package. When i installed the drivers, my system was dam slow. the sound was crap and i could forget to play a game. Then i switched to win XP 64 and downloaded the driver for this system, gess what? The crackling stopt, games run fast and the sound is just beautiful. So switched back to win XP 32 bit. with a my new clean system i downloaded the update. and then i installed ONLY the update and my xfi runs as good under win xp (32) as it has under 64 bit. Then you can install the additional software that comes with your cd. All is running fine. But NEVER install the driver that comes with the cd. I installed the old driver and my system again (after the update). My system was slow and i had the crap sound again.
The only thing you lose is the IR Remote Control, somehow that thing doesn't work. Because of that i installed the old driver again (as i mentioned above), the remote works then, but well you know slow system and crackling sound.
So if anybody knows what the file is, i must install for the remote to work, plz tell me.
PS: when this solution was already posted in the 04+ page thread regarding this issue, i apologise. But could anyone tell me a solution with the remote issue anyway

Here's a bit of info that crackle-sufferers might find useful. There's a bit of a story behind it, but stay with me, I think it will be worth your while.
I just tried installing an X-Fi Platinum, and had to give up. The card was simply not detected. No matter what, system would not detect, drivers would not install. I tried everything. After too many hours of effort and a long call to tech support, I gave up and tried to revert to my previous Audigy 2 card.
Guess what? MASSIVE crackling!
I freaked. This system had been working perfectly for months. I tried all the solutions that have been posted... moving the card, pulling all other cards, etc. Finally, I scrubbed the system... ran the driver remover, deleted every line in the registry with "X-Fi," "Audigy" or "Creative" in it, deleted the Creative folder in Program Files, etc., etc. Of course, then the Audigy card wouldn't recognize! Much more swearing, fritzing... but bottom line, it finally installed.
Guess what? NO MORE CRACKLE!
I knew the X-Fi software had not uninstalled fully, which was my first clue. Now, back on pure Audigy drivers (the latest version), all is well. What does that say to you? To me, it puts the blame for the crackling squarely on the X-Fi drivers. Oh, sure, there are probably other contributing factors (since not every system exhibits the problem), but if having even a remnant of those cursed X-Fi drivers installed is enough to produce hideous crackling on a previously faultless Audigy 2, what other conclusion can you draw?
The logic seems ironclad to me. The good news: Creative COULD fix the problem, if it's just in the drivers. That stuff about the cards not recognizing... now THAT'S just evil. This is 2006 (isn't it's). That kind of annoyance went out with Win95.
-fungo-

Problem with irq sharing

I am having lockup problems due to my sound in some games. My NIC 4401 & AC97 sound are sharing IRQ 18 and seems to be the problem. How can I change it. It won't let me doit via control panel or in the BIOS?? Thanks!

Hi Alleydog,
Is your NIC a PCI card or on board NIC? If it is a PCI card, then try moving it around the PCI slots to get another IRQ. It is always time consuming to solve IRQs conflicts but juz have to bear with it.
All the Best... :D!!!

Irq sharing

do someone has my same problem ? My 845max2 shares the Irq 10 between the VGA (MSI 440 mx) and the Cmedia on-board sound chip. This slows down the system, during games like Unreal 2003...
I tried to reserve Irq 10, and the ESCD moves the VGA and the Cmedia together on another Irq (5, or 7...)
Only disabling the USB controller (that takes 4 Irq!!!) the system provides 1 Irq to each sub-system (graphic-board and soundchip), and I can experience much more 3D-game performance !!!
How can I assign (force) the Irqs ?? There are a lot of them free !!
thanks to all,
Marco

Yes, I know ! when I tell about Irq I always refer to the ESCD Irq table, that shows the real IRQ assignment (you can see it in the BIOS POST, just before the boot-strap...).
The virtual Irq you are talking about is only used by Win XP and 2k, not by Win ME (that causes my problems...)
About the sound-chip: the same games don't crash under XP (may be the different driver, or the different Irq management..?), and I'm talking about several games, not a couple..
However, you may be right... perhaps I'm just bored of this mainboard, I spent too much time to tune it (read= to make it running !!) ... with my old PIII 733 I was sure everytime loading new games, never incompatibility, never problems... ;(
till next,
bye
Marco

XFi Crackle, Pop, Distort

When i first got my new comp i installed the drivers that came with the soundcard. I had NO problems with crackle/pops for 3 months. Then i tried to use a mic one day and my card wouldn't pickup the mic what so ever. So i updated my drivers to the newest beta drivers. My mic worked, so i was happy for a few days. Then i noticed the crackle during anything with music. Games, or even just winamp by itself.
Uninstalling the beta drivers, and installing windows default drivers gives same deal, mic works, but with crackle trying to play music. Then i installed the?"[url="http://support.creative.com/Downloads/welcome.aspx#">Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi series Driver 2.5.0006[/url]" dated march 4/08, and back to square one. NO crackle but the mic is gone again.
Also games such as WoW or CoD4 showed zero distortion with music on. But Devil May Cry 4 did have distortion.
I also found that WITH the crackle if i software down the volume, and hardware up the volume the crackle almost completely goes away, except for the odd distortion coming from my sub still.
Edit:? My bad, i had orginal said i had an Nforce 4 mobo, but its actually a P35.
Specs:
Intel Q6600,?4 Gig, PK5-E, ATI 3850, X-Fi Xtreme Gamer, Vista 64
Message Edited by openair on 07--2008 :20 AM
Message Edited by openair on 07--2008 0:5 PM

Follow up: If I stop all read/writes to the raid5 array then I do not get the pop/cracle issue. However this is not practical for me, any ideas?

The solution to Xfi Crackling Scratchy Poppy sounds

possibly the sound cracklings poppy scratchy sounds are because of the DSPs overheating... could someone possibly epoxy a heatsink onto the card then tell us if the problems disappear?

What's a non-keyed IDE cable? I was planning on using a rounded/shielded IDE cable from the card to the I/O box but the cable layout didn't match the pins on the creative hardware.
http://forums.creative.com/creativel...ssage.id=33244
Edit: I googled non-keyed IDE Cables and unless I'm mistaking (which might be the case), non-keyed means that the connector doesn't have the "bump" on it and all pins are available. Got to find one.
Message Edited by johnston2 on 0-8-2005 0:48 PM
Message Edited by johnston2 on 0-8-2005 :34 PM

Sharing of IRQ - how can i avoid it?

Hi! I'm now in a process of finding solution against my frequent motherboard power-off. My board is K9N platinum and it's not in a list of affected boards (users who in are know what i'm talking about). But i still have number of unexpected power-offs. So i used Lavalys Everest for finding any IRQ sharing and guess what i found.
Resource   Share   Device Description
IRQ 09   Shared   NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller #2
Resource   Share   Device Description
IRQ 09   Shared   Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System
Resource   Share   Device Description
IRQ 20   Shared   Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller
Resource   Share   Device Description
IRQ 20   Shared   NVIDIA nForce 590/570/550 Serial ATA Controller
Resource   Share   Device Description
IRQ 21   Shared   NVIDIA Network Bus Enumerator
Resource   Share   Device Description
IRQ 21   Shared   NVIDIA nForce 590/570/550 Serial ATA Controller
Well. SO - isn't it a source of all my problems? So whats wrong here? How can i fix it or it's notmal? My random power-offs happen during network browsing, huge file downloads from network. May be i should change some option in my BIOS? The system was installed from scratch, it's clear, fresh, etc. Someone suggest me to make a fresh installation of my system, but i'm not shure it'll help me.

Maybe I should clarify , physical was in quotes and 15 because we count in hex (IRQ's starts with 0)
The programmable interupt controller and behaviour is not that complicated really.
A PCI bus 2.x has INT A - D (4. interupt lines) connected/wired (not 16 ) to the IOAPIC controller .
Different slots may use the same line (A-D) to forwared their interupt signal to the ioapic controller , thats
where "shared" comes in.
The interupt # is sendt from a device to the controller on that line A-D wired lines , which one depends on the bios/mobo
,and in the controller it's mapped to a register in the interupt controller and get a logical id and vector .
The IOAPIC has a table of 24 64-bit registers.
IRQ highest to lowest priority normally goes 0-1-2-8-9-10-11-12-13-14-15-3-4-5-6-7.
Theesae are programmed/assigned into upto 224 vectors (0x20..0xFF) which the cpu handles , one can assign the vectors to the IRQ's in that order
and the lowes vector used gets the highest priority .
What wee see in later motherboards with IOAPIC anables is that the motherboard lets IRQ assignment program IRQ 16-23 also
in the 24 registers and assigned to a vector id.
So we end up with the following that can be utilized:
IOAPIC Int Register
Register Vector
0 xx
1 xx
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
The IOAPIC controller again have support to route vectors to seperate cpu's not like PIC as bas mentiones.

IRQ Sharing & XFI Crackl

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