[CeluGeek]

I'm usually the guy people call for tech support. I know my way around most of Windows and Linux so I rarely need tech support myself. But here's a biggie problem I haven't been able to solve.

I have a 3+ years old PC (Dell Dimension 9100 if you must know). Given the hardware specs were quite top notch when I bought the PC, it is still a very usable system today. (3 GHz Pentium 4 HyperThreading, 2GB of RAM, 128MB Radeon X600 PCI-Express video, SB Audigy 2, 500GB SATA drive, DVD burner etc.) The PC is currently setup as a quad-boot system with Windows XP Pro, Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows 7 Beta and Mandriva Linux 2009.

Almost a year ago I replaced the ATI video card with a 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 7200GS. I know, not the biggest upgrade but I'm not a gamer and the only reason I replaced the card is because NVIDIA cards tend to work better on Linux than ATI cards.

Here's the problem. Ever since I replaced the video card, Windows Vista seems to have some sort of IRQ conflict between the video card and the sound card - they are both on IRQ 16. The biggest symptom is a lot of static if playing audio while running video-intensive tasks... like when watching movies or TV programs. Also, every now and then Vista crashes right on boot with an alleged hardware malfunction. I have never, ever had these problems with Windows XP or any Linux distro. Unfortunately, Windows 7 seems so much like a "Windows Vista Second Edition" that it has the same problems as Vista.

Is there any way I can fix this audio-video conflict? Reformatting and reinstalling Vista from scratch did not help and the same goes for Windows 7, which wasn't even installed to begin when I replaced the video card. I've tried the latest Vista drivers from both NVIDIA and Creative and still no luck.

Device Manager doesn't seem to allow access to modifying IRQ settings. Is there any program out there that will allow this?

[Blkbear]

Check the sound cards jumpers, and see if it allows you to change the IRQ it uses.

I had to do this with Sound Blaster (Creative) cards in the past when there was an IRQ conflict with another card plugged into the motherboard.

If this is an onboard sound card, check the computer's BIOS for IRQ settings for the sound card.

[squish101]

If I am not wrong you can change the irq and reassign to something else via device manager.

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[pkcable]

If I am not wrong you can change the irq and reassign to something else via device manager.

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Maybe, but it could also need a jumper change as BB suggests. I really can't offer much more help, sounds like the OP (CG) is a bit more knowledgable then me.

[CeluGeek]

If I am not wrong you can change the irq and reassign to something else via device manager.

Like I said in the original post, Device Manager does not allow you to change these settings. As you can see, "Use Automatic Setting" is checked and cannot be unchecked, and the Change Setting button is also grayed out.

Device Manager is a useless piece of junk. "There are no conflicts" when I see that sound, video and TV tuner cards are all on IRQ16 and the soundcard is making noises when video-intensive tasks are running? "This device is working properly" Yeah, right!

[ember75]

I am not an expert by any means but having helped run a qa for several gaming companies I have seen that there are problems with vista and creative 2 products. The issue it seems is vista but every solution I have seen has been put out via creatives help dept. I would start with creative and double check for driver updates and look into a driver cleaner. Have seen some nast issues jumping from ati to nvidia.

Good luck.

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[squish101]

How many pci slots do u have? Any free slots? Relocating the cards on free slots sometimes might help.

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[CeluGeek]

Thanks for the suggestions. I ended up putting the ATI card back and all three Windows installations are working fine without the static noise. I switched the Linux partition to Ubuntu 9.04 and it recognized the ATI card out of the box - even for 3D desktop so I'm happy again.

[squish101]

Thanks for the suggestions. I ended up putting the ATI card back and all three Windows installations are working fine without the static noise. I switched the Linux partition to Ubuntu 9.04 and it recognized the ATI card out of the box - even for 3D desktop so I'm happy again.

Well done. I might just wanna check out jaunty jackalope myself

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