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Is my power supply the problem?

Monday, 30 June, 2008

I bought my computer brand new and I changed the graphic card and installed an nVidia 9600 Geforce. The requirements are minimum 400 watts.

I checked the power supply of the computer and it produces 400 watts.

Is this why i got the ACPI IRQ Holder problem?

Paulo Chavez, , Bolivia


I assume that the "400 watt" requirement is just a guide for the whole system and isn't what the graphics card requires. 400 watts is a huge amount of power and would be mostly converted to heat in the card, if that's what it consumes.

My "guess" is that the error message has nothing to do with the power supply but simply refers to the fact that you've changed the hardware. (The graphics card.)

If the system is working (apart from the error), can you live with it?

Paul Zucker


Reader solutions



JasonPosted: 15/07/2008

re: Is my power supply the problem?
Re-flash the bios if possible.
JCPosted: 04/07/2008

re: Is my power supply the problem?
Paulo, by any chance, was you using the 'on-board graphics' ....before you changed to the nVidia 9600?
And, did not "Disable" the 'on-board', when you made that change?
Some Motherboards do not cope..with both 'Graphics set-ups' working.
Double-check your BIOS, reset it to whatever yours is (for the 'add-in' Graphics),...."Save and Exit".
To get such an error, is also suggestive that you may to have re-install the Motherboard's drivers....for the ACPI IRQ problem.(Those 'motherboard drivers' are not fully installed, courtesy of you using the 'on-board Graphics' before this change-over.)
And, make certain that the 9600 card is properly seated, in it's slot, while you're at it, as this can also caused the problem you have?
Is the slot(I am guessing that it is a AGP one, and has been used till now) clean.....clear of dust?
Check that out, too.
5-10 minutes of a common-sense approach...is far better than 5-10 seconds of 'lack of attention to detail'.

Frank WoerlePosted: 03/07/2008

re: Is my power supply the problem?
My guess is the same as yours Paul, and i wonder what error number it comes up with eg (22) or something like that.
On older machines i remember having too specifically to assign IRQ`S for specific device`s and the IRQ`S were listed 0 through to 13, and on these older MOBO`S we assigned the graphics cards between IRQ10 through to IRQ12 because they were genrally unused.
I also suspect the reason this is cropping up is due to the GRAPHICS CARD using the same resources as some other device in his computer, and i hazard a guess its something like a SOUNDCARD/PRINTER/NETWORK CARD or MODEM.
Basically when a computer part wants to get the CPU`S attention, it uses an interrupt, or IRQ. If two devices are assigned the same interrupt,the CPU doesn`t know what device actually needs its attention, so either of two things can happen:
(1)The CPU ignores any message it
gets,and in the case of two
PCI device`s which share the
same interrupt,the CPU will
schedule them for processing
one behind the other.
(2)The CPU processes one device`s
message as though it came from
the other devices.
I would suggest to Paulo to go to the DEVICE MANAGER, double click his DISPLAY ADAPTOR and check his RESOURCES TAB and try to find what it is conflicting with, which genrally shows up as a particular memory range.A lot of times you can get away with this sharing arrangment but if not:
(1)Remove the device it is
conflicting with and replace
in another PCI slot and reboot
to see if it clears the
conflict as it will re assign
the IRQ. Sometimes even
replacing it in the same slot
will assign a different area
of the memory address range.
(2)Try and manually reconfiq the
IRQ and/or memory address range
which is not that simple because
most of the interrupt`s are
already taken by the PC`s other
bits and pieces, which means you
will have to find an unused IRQ.
You need to know what you are doing otherwise you will wind up with more conflicts.
By the way, the 400watt PSU is a bit under powered for the nVidia 9600 and whatever else your system has in it, so i myself definatly would look for something above 550+ watts and dual 12Vlt rails to ease the stress and heat factor as the 400 watt one would be maxed out to breaking point, but i believe it is not causing your mentioned problem. If anything your computer would shut down due to PSU thermal overload because it cant produce the load requirements.
(Sorry for the long winded affair Paul).
Frank N Stien.


(Thanks Frank. -PZ)

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