Is PCI Slot1 usually disabled or cannot have use of it because of AGP vidcard?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Steve Lee
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Steve Lee

Should Slot 1 not be used at all because it's IRQ is used or over
taken by the AGP card? The reason I'm asking is because I just have
Slot 1 left in my computer and my Firewire (IEEE1394) PCI card is not
recognized at all in my XP. It didn't even attempt to install the
drivers for the card when it rebooted.

I only have four PCI slots to begin with and the rest three are
occupied by an ATA133 controller card, a NIC and a soundcard. So, I
thought I'd slide the Firewire card into the Slot 1, but it's not
being recognized at all. I went into my BIOS and tried to change the
IRQ of Slot 1, but in my Device Manager, I noticed that the AGP
vidcard's always occupying the Slot 1 IRQ, even though I have one IRQ
open.

For eg., when the vidcard's IRQ is 11, then I have 10 open, so I tried
to assign Slot 1 as 10 in my BIOS. But upon rebooting, my XP's Device
Manager says that the vidcard's IRQ 10. So, then I went into the BIOS
again and changed the Slot 1 IRQ as 11, but once rebooted, the Device
Manager tells me that the vidcard's IRQ is now 11.

So, with my current (yes, I know, it's rather old now) system, the
only way I can use the Firewire card would be to take out either the
NIC or the soundcard? I wish to use the Firewire card to capture the
video from my digital video camcorder. Thanks.
 
Steve said:
Should Slot 1 not be used at all because it's IRQ is used or over
taken by the AGP card? The reason I'm asking is because I just have
Slot 1 left in my computer and my Firewire (IEEE1394) PCI card is not
recognized at all in my XP. It didn't even attempt to install the
drivers for the card when it rebooted.
Click to expand...


Is PNP OS enabled in the bios? If so, turn it off (set to no) and see what
happens.
 
Steve Lee said:
Should Slot 1 not be used at all because it's IRQ is used or over
taken by the AGP card? The reason I'm asking is because I just have
Slot 1 left in my computer and my Firewire (IEEE1394) PCI card is not
recognized at all in my XP. It didn't even attempt to install the
drivers for the card when it rebooted.

I only have four PCI slots to begin with and the rest three are
occupied by an ATA133 controller card, a NIC and a soundcard. So, I
thought I'd slide the Firewire card into the Slot 1, but it's not
being recognized at all. I went into my BIOS and tried to change the
IRQ of Slot 1, but in my Device Manager, I noticed that the AGP
vidcard's always occupying the Slot 1 IRQ, even though I have one IRQ
open.

For eg., when the vidcard's IRQ is 11, then I have 10 open, so I tried
to assign Slot 1 as 10 in my BIOS. But upon rebooting, my XP's Device
Manager says that the vidcard's IRQ 10. So, then I went into the BIOS
again and changed the Slot 1 IRQ as 11, but once rebooted, the Device
Manager tells me that the vidcard's IRQ is now 11.

So, with my current (yes, I know, it's rather old now) system, the
only way I can use the Firewire card would be to take out either the
NIC or the soundcard? I wish to use the Firewire card to capture the
video from my digital video camcorder. Thanks.
Click to expand...

It sounds to me that 'slot 1' in BIOS actually refers to the AGP slot. Try
assigning slot 2 to your free IRQ.
 
~misfit~ said:
It sounds to me that 'slot 1' in BIOS actually refers to the AGP
slot. Try assigning slot 2 to your free IRQ.
Click to expand...

I've always been told that you shouldn't use the nearest slot to the AGP -
for reasons I'm not too sure of - maybe Dave might see this and explain...
 
I've always been told that you shouldn't use the nearest slot to the AGP -
for reasons I'm not too sure of - maybe Dave might see this and explain...
Click to expand...

shared IRQ and reduction of airflow to video card

Many cards will work in the first slot though, and other slots can and
often do share IRQs with other motherboard features.
 
Should Slot 1 not be used at all because it's IRQ is used or over
taken by the AGP card? The reason I'm asking is because I just have
Slot 1 left in my computer and my Firewire (IEEE1394) PCI card is not
recognized at all in my XP. It didn't even attempt to install the
drivers for the card when it rebooted.

I only have four PCI slots to begin with and the rest three are
occupied by an ATA133 controller card, a NIC and a soundcard. So, I
thought I'd slide the Firewire card into the Slot 1, but it's not
being recognized at all. I went into my BIOS and tried to change the
IRQ of Slot 1, but in my Device Manager, I noticed that the AGP
vidcard's always occupying the Slot 1 IRQ, even though I have one IRQ
open.

For eg., when the vidcard's IRQ is 11, then I have 10 open, so I tried
to assign Slot 1 as 10 in my BIOS. But upon rebooting, my XP's Device
Manager says that the vidcard's IRQ 10. So, then I went into the BIOS
again and changed the Slot 1 IRQ as 11, but once rebooted, the Device
Manager tells me that the vidcard's IRQ is now 11.

So, with my current (yes, I know, it's rather old now) system, the
only way I can use the Firewire card would be to take out either the
NIC or the soundcard? I wish to use the Firewire card to capture the
video from my digital video camcorder. Thanks.
Click to expand...

There definitely was a time when the AGP slot and the topmost PCI slot
could not be used simultaneously because they were hard-wired to use
the same IRQ. It was best to treat them as exclusively for video
cards, either a single PCI or a single AGP, but never both.

With modern ACPI motherboards and operating systems like Windows XP I
don't think that's an issue anymore. Since you have XP, my guess is
that your motherboard is just too old. I'm assuming of course that
neither your motherboard or your firewire card are damaged. You could
temporarily replace the NIC or the soundcard with the firewire card
just to make sure there's nothing wrong with it, or try moving the NIC
card to the upper PCI slot and see if it works there.

If upgrading your motherboard is out of the question and you don't
move large amounts of files across a LAN, you might consider a USB
network adapter and just leave the NIC out. There might also be
Firewire network adapters available now, but I didn't see any at a
quick glance on Price Watch.

I did notice that SIIG makes a USB 2.0 / Firewire / 100Base-t combo
card, but it isn't cheap.

My Soundblaster Audigy (1) cards have Firewire ports and they were
very reasonably priced.


Good luck.


-Wuahn
 
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