Troubleshooting Hardware Problems by changing IRQ's

        IRQ(Interrupt Request) is a channel that carries the Interrupt Requests from a particular device to the CPU. Each Hardware Device must have a different IRQ number than others. The no. of IRQ numbers your computer needs to be allocated is the no. of peripheral devices installed on your computer.

            There may arise a hardware conflict if two devices have the same IRQ number, and we are trying to access both the devices at a time. This may probably cause your system to crash, and this is the number 1 cause of Pc crash.When this type of Hardware Conflict occurs, where any two devices shares the same IRQ we have to analyse and troubleshoot this problem.

              To check the IRQ numbers:

1)     Go to start>run and type the command:

 devmgmt.msc

or

mmc devmgmt.msc

            The device manager window will appear.

2)     Go to the view menu on the menubar, here by default “device by type” option is selected.

 3)     Select the “ resource by type” option, now double click on IRQ:

      You will see the list of hardware devices configured on your

computer along with the IRQ numbers associated with them, it will look like this:

  Solution if each hardware device doesn’t have its own IRQ     channel are stated below:

 Ø Disable or uninstall device drivers in Device Manager.

 ØPlace the expansion card in a different slot.

Ø Disable devices manually in the BIOS program.

Disabling or uninstalling device drivers in Device Manager:

1)Go to start>run and type the command:

 devmgmt.msc

or

mmc devmgmt.msc

            The device manager window will appear.

2) Here the devices configured on your system are shown as below. Upon clicking a particular device you will see the list of Drivers installed for that device.

       

      3) If there is a yellow coloured ‘!’ prior to the Driver Name, that means that device is not installed properly.

   

4)     Uninstall the affected driver and reinstall it. Check for any other device not in use and uninstall its driver.

 Placing the expansion card in a different  slot:

            Installing the card into another PCI slot is the shortest method to change the IRQ number,if it is an audio card,modem,etc. Usually PCI Slots 2 and 3 have a reserved IRQ assignment that can't be changed manually.

   Steps:

1)Shutdown your computer.

2)Unplug the power cable from the mains.

3)Unbolt the CPU cabinet and locate the motherboard.

4)On the motherboard, remove the card mounted on it, that is supposed to be replaced.

 

5)Start your computer.

6)Shutdown the Computer.

7)Unplug the power cable from the mains.

8)Place the card in the PCI Slot other than the slot in which it was placed previously, and press gently.

9)Reassemble the ,strong>CPU

cabinet and start the computer again.

 Disabling Devices manually in the BIOS Program:

1)Restart your computer, during the boot process you can enter the BIOS.

2)Different Computers have a different versions of BIOS so they all have dissimilarities.To access the BOIS in some computers F10 or F12 keys,Enter key or Delete keys needs to be pressed.

3)Go to the BIOS setup utility, the BIOS screen looks like this:

4)Navigate to the I/O Port access in the Security tab to disable devices.Here will be a list of cards installed, you may disable few of them if you are sure that they are no longer needed.You may also Disable PnP Devices if u don't use them.By disabling such devices you can help the system to free certain IRQ numbers and can be assigned to other devices.

Note:Don't disable any device unless you are 100% sure that they will not affect the system.

5)Press F10 to save and exit.It will ask whether to save the system configurations before exiting.Select yes.

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