From owner-freebsd-questions Wed Jul 31 14:16:53 1996 Return-Path: owner-questions Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id OAA29700 for questions-outgoing; Wed, 31 Jul 1996 14:16:53 -0700 (PDT) Received: from mailhost.PII.COM (pii.com [192.77.209.1]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id OAA29684 for ; Wed, 31 Jul 1996 14:16:47 -0700 (PDT) Received: from PII.COM by PII.COM (4.1/SMI-4.4) id AA11967; Wed, 31 Jul 96 14:31:45 PDT Received: by smtp with Microsoft Mail id <31FFCCD2@smtp>; Wed, 31 Jul 96 14:14:58 PDT From: Robert Clark To: "'freebsd-questions'" Subject: RE: irq 12 Date: Wed, 31 Jul 96 11:56:00 PDT Message-Id: <31FFCCD2@smtp> Encoding: 31 TEXT X-Mailer: Microsoft Mail V3.0 Sender: owner-questions@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk >The NIC is, as some would expect, an NE2000 clone (at irq 12, iobase 300). >Trying to use irq 2 or 5 (although -c/visual reports no conflict) >generally results in ed0:timeout messages during boot, a sure sign of >trouble. >We've seen oddball behavior on WinNT 3.51 workstations using bus mouse >input (presumably irq 12) as well: after a period of no mouse use, the >mouse freezes up. We no longer use anything but serial mice in that >environment. You mention bus mouse, is that a micrsoft bus mouse, or a ps/2 bus mouse? Microslauth bus mice can be at IRQ 2,3,4 or 5. Three and four can conflict with serial ports, and five can conflict with the second parallel port. I've also had problems, with on-board ps/2 mouse ports. The bios only enables them if it sees a mouse at power on. I think these ports sometimes phantom on if triggered by noise. (I have no real proof of this.) >Finally, the question: despite its availability, is irq 12 considered one >of the black sheep of the PC hardware family, and to be avoided for >things like NIC settings? Any horror stories to be shared? You can't solve today's problems with tomorrows technology. [RC]