What good are PCI slots that share IRQ's with....

[Guest]

Hi

Just reading all the posts about A7V and "don't use PCI slot 1 cause it shares with..."

I thought IRQ conflicts were something to be avoided. Why would the manufacturer design it this way?

Are some of the slots rendered useless?

What could you plug into a slot that shared it's IRQ and not have a problem?

Trying to figure out where to put the NIC.

Gumby7

 

[ledzepp98]

i think it's mainly a geforce thing (or maybe even a tnt thing also). the video card doesn't like to share the irq and the first pci slot shares with the agp slot. it does seem stupid but i think it's only a problem with agp cards that need their own irq

 

[Bubba]

But also the SB Live sound cards and some NIC cards don't like to share either. The answer is yes, depending on what hardware you have, some of your PCI slots may be useless.

 

[Guest]

Take a look at the KT7 FAQ at: <A HREF="http://go.to/kt7faq" target="_new">http://go.to/kt7faq</A>. Click on the <b>Instability</b> link on the left and then scroll to the article called <b>How do I avoid IRQ Conflicts?</b>.

Obviously much of this is KT7-specific, but there's a good, brief discussion on the PCI standard and IRQ sharing.

Mike

 

[Kodiak]

I wouldn't say that IRQ conflicts are limited to any particular piece of hardware. Most of my add-on devices needed IRQ tweaking before they would work properly.
So, having PCI slots share IRQ is evil -- but considering the limited # of available IRQs in the first place, probably a necessary & unavoidable evil