laptop Device IRQ prob?

First post to this new board. I used to read here 4 years ago. Malleous Male stills raging? anyway..

sys:
====
8100 Dell laptop
P3-1 ghz 15" Uxga
512mb pc133 (cas 2 lat. i think)
ati-64mb
60gb IGM travelstar 5400rpm drive.
Ess maestro 3i sound (***only 2 channel sound)
8x DVD/CDRW drive (fixed)
two bays with li-ion batteries (5hrs approx)
Advanced port replicator.(has 3c905c comp nic in it)
mini 56k/10/100 card (currently disabled in bios.)
Win XP pro

Now to a question.

*** Why are there 8 (eight) devices using IRQ 9 ! ****

Everything does load and sit quietly in device manager. But 3 of the 8 are used for online gaming. Those three are my network card (APR nic), My sound, and Video. followed by 1394 port, Acpi, PCMCia gear(1-controller and 2 slots), and the USB host controller.

I have messed with all of it. Trying to change IRQ assignments. but its greyed out in 'properties'.

So does that mean I need a new driver that releases control? Is there a reg hack to activate some of this crap? Dell have been no help...can't understand the question let alone formulate an answer for me.

Lastly, I will say that System is good. all except the audio. it is mediocre and sad to be included in a 5400.00CAD product. You cannot get true 5.1 surround,EAX/A3d sound. Not even 4 channel stereo. The ESS chip cant do it. All you get is a headphone jack 2ch.

The work around is a 1300.00CAD new PCMCIA card for 1300.00CAD Digigram Pocket440 which does allow full AC-3 and has 4channels out.
Extigy is the Creative SB solution. a 250.00CAD external Amplifier which acts as a receiver/soundcard. But I dont think its very portable..lol USB i think.

The factory install of the disk was sketchy. I have a 60gb IBM 5400rpm model. So it is the fastest around I think. But they stuck it on the same IDE controller as the fixed optical drive. ibm+dvd on ide 1 (irq 14) nothing on IDE 2. So I disabled it since I want video to have its own irq.
But it aint going away. I flatened the install and redid it on a smaller partition...no change.

Is there virtual irq's or laptop special pci buses or something that I would never see in a desktop?

Am i correct there would some contention in a game with sound and video and nic on the same irq 9 ?
even if they get automatically handed off..that takes up some overhead doesn't it? That say, the IDE 2 or floppy controller doesnt have to deal with, having their own irq's

I do get some slight blips in games and wonder about all the IRQ's.

Any help/response is truely appreciated. I know I'm ignorant of something here.

Bill

Built my own systems for 14 yrs-even overclock when performance gain seemed worth it. Not with a laptop though. hehe. first dell and first laptop purchase...whew