tlx 0 Posted January 4, 2002 Today I replaced the native Windows XP drivers of the network card with Intel's latest and had a *huge* speed improvement in screen rendering. Yes no fake it runs a *lot* smoother. I'm using the latest drivers for the Intel PRO/100 S Desktop Adapter (5.41.34.0). Can this be explained somehow? The idea came when i saw that the 100S sharing the same interrupt as the SB PCI-128 whichs drivers I updated before. Driver stability seems to be essential on this one. The XP ACPI system itself seems not to care for slots marked *IRQ not shared* and shares cards on his own. Seems that the native drivers aren't that good after all. Maybe this is usefull to you. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mister Frag 0 Posted January 4, 2002 The Soundblaster drivers are known to have a bad ACPI header, which has been causing performance and stability problems with their cards -- I'm not sure if this is resolved these days. Their faulty coding could very well impact other cards that are sharing an IRQ with the Soundblaster (a common and required capability with ACPI), and it is possible that the new Intel drivers moved it to a different IRQ -- have you checked? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tlx 0 Posted January 4, 2002 Thanks for the info Mister Frag. They still share the same IRQ also used by the SCSI Host Adapter. But this Intel driver really paid out in performance: IRQ 0SystemzeitgeberOK IRQ 1Standardtastatur (101/102 Tasten) oder Microsoft Natural Keyboard (PS/2)OK IRQ 3Kommunikationsanschluss (COM2)OK IRQ 4Kommunikationsanschluss (COM1)OK IRQ 6Standard-DiskettenlaufwerkcontrollerOK IRQ 8System CMOS/EchtzeituhrOK IRQ 9Microsoft ACPI-konformes SystemOK IRQ 9LSI Logic 53C810-GerätOK IRQ 9Intel® PRO/100 S Desktop AdapterOK IRQ 9Creative Sound Blaster PCI128 (WDM)OK IRQ 9Intel® 82801BA/BAM USB universeller Hostcontroller - 2442OK IRQ 9Intel® 82801BA/BAM USB universeller Hostcontroller - 2444OK IRQ 10Intel® 82801BA/BAM SMBus-Controller - 2443OK IRQ 11NVIDIA GeForce2 GTS/GeForce2 ProOK IRQ 13Numerischer CoprozessorOK IRQ 14Primärer IDE-KanalOK IRQ 15Sekundärer IDE-KanalOK Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Birkoff 0 Posted January 4, 2002 You do get the same turbo boost from replacing any native XP driver, did a test with geforce3 drivers for instance, almost double framerate instantly. XP's native drivers is ment to work, not to be fast :-) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tlx 0 Posted January 5, 2002 Was already using Detonators XP when i got this highly improved netcard driver so i can't tell the difference to the native XP video driver. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SilentSnipeR 0 Posted January 6, 2002 where did you get the drivers from? me want Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mister Frag 0 Posted January 6, 2002 The NVIDIA Detonators are here: http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=drivers The Intel drivers are here: http://appsr.intel.com/scripts-df/support_intel.asp I already had the latest official Detonator XP drivers, and when I installed the new Intel drivers, I didn't notice any difference. Of course, your mileage may vary. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tlx 0 Posted January 6, 2002 Thanks for your links. Here's one with the product ID: http://downloadfinder.intel.com/....ctID=61 http://www.soundblaster.com/support/winxp/ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mister Frag 0 Posted January 7, 2002 </span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (tlx @ Jan. 06 2002,18:41)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Thanks for your links. Here's one with the product ID: http://downloadfinder.intel.com/....ctID=61 http://www.soundblaster.com/support/winxp/<span id='postcolor'> I wasn't sure if SilentSnipeR had the same card and/or revision of the board, which is why I didn't want to direct him to a specific download. By the way, did you have a problem with Windows Update and the installation of a new Intel driver that it offered? Every time I ran Windows Update, it said that there was a new driver available, but the installation always failed (both under Windows 2000 and Windows XP). I downloaded the new drivers from Intel's site (and they were actually more recent than the ones offered by Windows Update), and Windows Update finally stopped offering new drivers. Basically, I'm happy now. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tlx 0 Posted January 7, 2002 Actually windows update never offered me new Intel drivers. It only offered me Detonators 21.83 first time. Maybe this is also related to the OS language where mine is german. I also installed the ATA-100 Busmaster from IAA 1.1.2 now to further improve stability on guess over the native ones Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tlx 0 Posted January 9, 2002 This is an excerpt from: General Description of IRQ Sharing in Windows (Q252420) "The Plug and Play operating system settings in the computer's BIOS should not affect how Windows handles the hardware in general. However, Microsoft recommends that you set this setting to "No" or "Disabled" in the computer's BIOS. For information about viewing or modifying your computer's BIOS settings, consult your computer's documentation or manufacturer." After i disabled "Plug & Play O/S" in the BIOS my sound card got it's own IRQ (5) assigned. Lookin forward to fewer crashes Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mister Frag 0 Posted January 9, 2002 That's not an option for me -- I'm using Windows XP with the ACPI Multiprocessor HAL on a dual-CPU system. ACPI needs to manage the resources including the IRQs, but so far it has done a great job -- I've been using NT 4.0, Windows 2000, and Windows XP over the years, and I've never had a resource conflict. Also, anyone who wants to make such a fundamental change to their system should be aware that they will probably have to completely reinstall the OS if they change the PnP setting or change HALs. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tlx 0 Posted January 10, 2002 Frag, ACPI is still taking care of the interrupts on my system. But it did not mess with the soundcard's IRQ automatically assigned by the BIOS: IRQ 0 Systemzeitgeber OK IRQ 1 Standardtastatur (101/102 Tasten) oder Microsoft Natural Keyboard (PS/2) OK IRQ 3 Kommunikationsanschluss (COM2) OK IRQ 4 Kommunikationsanschluss (COM1) OK IRQ 5 Creative Sound Blaster PCI128 (WDM) OK IRQ 6 Standard-Diskettenlaufwerkcontroller OK IRQ 8 System CMOS/Echtzeituhr OK IRQ 9 Microsoft ACPI-konformes System OK IRQ 9 LSI Logic 53C810-Gerät OK IRQ 9 Intel® PRO/100 S Desktop Adapter OK IRQ 9 Intel® 82801BA/BAM USB universeller Hostcontroller - 2442 OK IRQ 9 Intel® 82801BA/BAM USB universeller Hostcontroller - 2444 OK IRQ 10 Intel® 82801BA/BAM SMBus-Controller - 2443 OK IRQ 11 NVIDIA GeForce2 GTS/GeForce2 Pro OK IRQ 13 Numerischer Coprozessor OK IRQ 14 Primärer IDE-Kanal OK IRQ 15 Sekundärer IDE-Kanal OK So for me this is an improvement Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
