Dave said:
This article may help.
HOW TO: Specify a Specific or Third-Party HAL During Windows Setup
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=216251
THX matey - already checked on my cd's and found that and a few others.
What I forgot to check was bug forum.
Theres an undocumented bug in APCI which I have fallen astray of.
BUG
Even though APCI has a list of cards which conform to PCI standard but
not to APCI it ignores them if the Motherboard BIOS is dated 1/1/1999 or
Later , which is before a lot of these cards were produced.
There is no fix for me unfortunately as I cant flash my BIOS back before
that time as the Motherboard hadn't been produced. The MB manufactureres
are trying to do a workaround as they know of this bug - so I may be ok
if they can produce a fake BIOS which predates 1/1/1999 so that I can do
full re-install then I can flash it back afterwards.
For people with an older BIOS or one that is flashable the following
article explains how to get round this bug.
suspect cards/ misused
elsa gladiac (geoforce 3)
adaptech 2940 series
Symtoms
random hangs
random video errorsrandom system slowdown
random network faults or lag
Article Follows
Microsoft and several of the system manufacturers devised a protocol
named ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface). To obtain a
Made for Windows 2000 logo, a manufacturer must meet the ACPI standard
and allow Windows 2000 to manage this device.
There are many PCI cards do not meet this standard, common cards that
are commonly useful, like the 3COM905b networking card, or the Adaptec
2940 series of SCSI card. These hardware devices do not understand ACPI,
they were designed long before that standard was implemented. A
potential problem found later might be created at the point of
installation. The installation process does not enumerate the devices in
your PC. The installation process looks at the BIOS and looks for ACPI
flags, then it checks against a list of known bad ACPI BIOS
implementations, then finally checks against the BIOS date. If your BIOS
is dated 1/1/1999 or newer, then the ACPI HAL is installed by default,
regardless of whether your devices actually understand what ACPI is.
The type of problem created here is one of communication. The card
manufacturers designed their device communications based on the PCI
standard and would communicate through the system BIOS to exchange
messages and data. In Windows NT 4.0 these messages were intercepted,
but the OS was true to the BIOS manner of communicating and used the
interrupts assigned by the BIOS. Windows 2000 adds a layer of complexity
by not just intercepting messages, but translating these messages and
rerouting them. A request for sound gets routed to IRQ 9, then a table
lookup occurs and the the request is routed to IRQ 12. This is an
implementation of a virtual address table, in this case a virtual device
table. Very slick stuff, but there can be delays.
The implementation of ACPI allows W2k to work very well on laptops, and
is intended to remove all issues of device contention or IRQ conflict.
It is a step beyond Plug and Play. It works very well in systems
designed for ACPI, or with devices designed for ACPI. However, if you
have older devices the delays created by the virtual device lookups may
cause mysterious, annoying problems. You may find device timeout
messages in the event log, your machine may seem to remove itself from
the network or domain, or your sound may be choppy, broken, or silent.
If you have system problems that you cannot resolve, or if you are
attempting to change a device IRQ and cannot, consider removing the ACPI
HAL and installing the Standard PC HAL. This method is not supported or
offered by Microsoft, it is a solution I created and implemented through
trial and error (testing).
The only way to change your IRQ is to remove ACPI. The only way to
remove ACPI, is too remove the ACPI HAL and that requires a repair
install and then some configuration.
First, have your Windows 2000 CD and all the information about your
peripheral card that you can gather. The more info you get, the less
experimenting you will have to do to configure IRQs.
Here is the process:
1. Insert your Windows 2000 CD into your CD drive and reboot.
2. Make certain that your BIOS is set to boot to the CD. (Read the
manual for this info)
3. When Windows 2000 first turns the screen blue and writes in the
status area, "Press F6 if you have....". Press F5 now! **Yeah thats odd,
but thats the way it is.**
4. you will be presented a screen that contains a list of PC
configurations - choose Standard PC.
5. Continue through the installation, doing a repair install. DO NOT
ABORT THIS INSTALLATION! your system will not boot if you don't.
6. Reinstall your service pack level.
7. Right click on my computer and select Properties, choose Hardware,
then choose the Device Manager. Click the plus sign next to Computer and
right click on Standard PC - click Properties.
8. Click on IRQ Steering. You will see three boxes checked. FROM THE
BOTTOM UP, uncheck these boxes.
9. You will be prompted to reboot. Do so...
Now the hard or easy part, I can't say.
PCI devices today are loaded with IRQ presets. Manufacturers have agreed
to use certain IRQs for their devices. For instance sound card
traditionally used IRQ 5. Unfortunately, Sound Blaster decided to break
this habit, my current SB Live uses IRQ 12.
If your problem remains, it may now be the possibility of real IRQ
conflicts - depending on your devices.
The most extreme manner of sorting out IRQ issues is this:
Remove all peripheral cards except for the video card, and your hard
disk controller if that is on a PCI card. Boot Windows 2000, open Device
Manager and set this card to use the desired IRQ. Shut down and readd
your cards one by one, rebooting between each and setting the IRQ for
each - or just accept where Windows 2000 slots them.
