Q: Well, after problems with IRQ sharing for zillionith time, Im wondering if I should finally give in to move to XP. The reason I do not have to XP that I mainly play games, do video capture, and surf the internet on my computer, and until recently there were no suitable drivers available for most hardware and performance issues with certain graphics cards. Well it seems that the performance problems are ironed out now, and there are drivers for most hardware out there, and I know that XP will be the memory handle IRQs and DMA better, so I should make the leap ?
Im very technical and understand the systems back and forth so Im not afraid of a technical fight. But if a driver does not work properly, there is nothing I can do to correct this, I am relying on third parties. Thats my biggest fear. That and the computer is removed from the performance for the transition to XP. Anyway, if your only experience with XP that would reliever beforehand, let me know here.
Here is the hardware I would use .
Setup 1 (one wife and one for me – Heavy gaming, video capture, etc)
Asus A7V266-E 1900 +
AMD
Gainward GeForce3 Ti200 Golden Sample
WD 12000JB 977 503 512 megs DDR
Adaptec 2940UW
Plextor CD and CDR / W
Pinnacle Deluxe Studio AV / DV
Linksys 10/100 LAN Card
Setup 2 (Daughters – mostly browsing)
Asus CUV4X
PIII 800E
Creative Blaster GeForce2 GTS
IBM 75GXP 45 gig 977,503,256 PC133
Creative CD
Linksys 10/100 LAN card, a SMC router
I Baracade / print server, but would not matter.
I play Everquest, Quake, Nascar 2002, NHL 2002, NFL 2002, NBA 2002, several other games, but you get the idea.
Ron
Re:<< So anyway, I'm reading anandtech about IRQ's, and I see that WinXP assigns virtual IRQ's, which are usually assigned through (I believe) IRQ 9. And that was almost enough for me to forgive the WinXP-Big Brother thing. A few extra things pushed it over the edge. >>
Yes that's the main reason I want to switch! I'm tired of IRQs taking up 40% of my down-time/support. And now with onboard motherboard I/O devices that I want to use where they are tied to the PCI slots, it's even worse! There are two PCI slots that I can NOT use whatsoever for cards that can't share. I have have 3 cards that can't share! Enough is enough, it's time for XP.
Ron
Re:This is one of the main reasons that I switched to WinXP in the first place…..
I was tired of not being able to utilize PCI 1 because it shared an IRQ with the AGP slot, and the motherboard manual advised against placing a card there ( what's the point in placing it there, then?). Tired of going through diagnostics with Verizon and having them ask what IRQ is my NIC card on? does it share an IRQ? well, it shouldn't, they said.
So anyway, I'm reading anandtech about IRQ's, and I see that WinXP assigns virtual IRQ's, which are usually assigned through (I believe) IRQ 9. And that was almost enough for me to forgive the WinXP-Big Brother thing. A few extra things pushed it over the edge.
As much as people are talking about drivers should clear up IRQ problems, if enough manufacturers cite IRQ sharing as a problem, then it's worth taking heed to. That's one of the reasons why I switched. I utilize all but ONE of my PCI slots, and I'm very happy!
Re:i think you will loose 2/3 fps when gaming in xp. if it matters to you at all.
Re:you could always set it up to duel boot . then you could try all your stuff .
good luck
Re:Cool, thanks for the thoughts. About the IRQ conflicts, I was told that Win XP dealt with the sharing of IRQs much better than Win9X. The cards are new, but I have the evil SCSI/LAN/audio-vid combo and reguardless of OS, there are IRQ issues. For instance, the SCSI card NEEDS to be the first card on the buss (although I've seen it work as the last card) and the AGP video card should have it's own IRQ, period. Anyhow, supposedly XP handles the sharing that goes on much better and doesn't go all blue screen.
But I'm convinced. I spent a lot of time on the net looking for peoples thoughts, and including all the responses here there is a big thumbs up to moving to XP. I'll do a fresh install, but I'm just going to use Partition Magic to handle the change to NTFS. Also, is there any need for me to create a small DOS partition like people did with NT "back in the day"?
Thanks guys,
Ron
Re:XP will in most cases preform better. As for the IRQ conflicts most likely there is a problem with drivers or there are two devices in your system that do not like eachother which updated drivers normally fixes. Do not do an "upgrade" to 98. Format your hard drive and install XP cleanly. If all you have is one partition then when you set up XP give yourself at least two it will make life much easier. One small 2-4 gig for XP and the rest for whatever.
PS: Use the NTFS file system in XP, its what XP was designed and optimized for.
Re:Well after having problems with IRQ sharing for the zillionith time, I'm finally wondering if I should give in move to XP
XP won't help if you're really having IRQ sharing problems, more than likely the device or driver is broken because every PCI device should have no problems sharing IRQs.
I personally can't think of a single program or game that would make me sit through the agony of using any form of Win9X.
Re:Yeah…………………..What he said.
Seriously, I prefer XP for games too.
Re:For the most part, my PC is for gaming. (except for the occasional browse to ATOT i/expressions/rolleye.gif )
Anyway, I updated to XP and have been singing with joy and glee ever since.
Two computers, one son and his buds. (this room is more of an arcade than anything else)
In the 98SE days, my Saturday afternoon naps were limited to an hour and a half or so
because I would need to recover a chash. (HL mods ate my 98 alive)
When I first upgraded (yes, not even a clean install) I tried each app. and about 1/2 of them
were fine out of the box. Of those remaining, almost all just needed to be removed and re-installed.
Finally, a little TLC was required to get the very last of my hardware running like I wanted it.
In the end….. I did not have to give up ANY hardware or software as a result of the upgrade.
And, best of all………… I get up when I want to (ie: the system simply does NOT hang up……. ever!)
It took a little getting used to finding menus and the like. And I spent some time turning off things like messenger and
the auto updates/error reporting.
Now that the culture shock is behind me………… I'd give up the comp. before I'd go back to 98SE.
GO FER IT!
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