This is a follow on from message http://forums.windrivers.com/showthread.php?t=57641.
I am trying to install my new sound card (Hercules Muse 5.1 DVD) in an old PC (AMD K6-2-500, 384 MB) with XP. My first problem was that my NIC kept dropping out, with a “Network cable unplugged” error message. Everything I've read says to be sure that the sound card has it's own IRQ. No IRQ sharing allowed. Try as I can, moving cards round in slots, and playing with the BIOS, XP always has a load of stuff on the same IRQ as the “Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System”. NIC, audio, video and USB are all on this same IRQ, now IRQ 11. XP ignores the BIOS settings. It was IRQ3, then at one stage in the card juggling they all moved to IRQ11, even though I had released other IRQs by turning off a serial port and the printer port. Unused IRQs at the moment are 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, but nothing I can do gets the system to take these up. For some reason, my NIC is now stable, but the sound quality is still awful (noisy, distorted).
Is the fact that all these devices are sharing the same IRQ as “Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System” still classed as "IRQ sharing", or is this a special case ?
It seems as though I must “reinstall” XP in “Non-ACPI” mode. Do I have any other options ?
Thanks.