Disabling parallel port on Asus P2B-F to free up IRQ \ VOGONS

Disabling parallel port on Asus P2B-F to free up IRQ

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First post, by mrzmaster

Posted on 2022-07-08, 15:56

mrzmaster Offline

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Hello,

I'm currently trying to manage resources for both Orpheus and AWE64 Gold sound cards in my Asus P2B-F based machine.

The Orpheus currently resides at: A220 I5 D1 H3 P330 - which is just fine.

The AWE64 Gold currently resides at: A240 I10 D0 H5 P300 E640

I would like to move the AWE64 Gold to I7, however, it looks like my LPT1 (parallel port) is using IRQ 7. I am not using LPT1 and don't plan to, so I was trying to disable it in the P2B-F BIOS, but it doesn't look like there's an option to disable it entirely and only disable EPP.

In Windows 98 device manager, I can adjust the IRQ for the "Creative AWE64 Gold 16-bit Audio (SB16 Compatible)" device to IRQ 7, but it gives me a warning that the resource is already being used by LPT1 and I'm hesitant to apply the change and reboot as I don't know how 98 will react.

Is there a better way for me to make this adjustment? Thanks!

Reply 1 of 7, by Gmlb256

Posted on 2022-07-08, 16:07

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Hello.

According to the ASUS P2B-F manual, the option that can disable LPT1 is called "Onboard Parallel Port", found on "Chipset Features Setup". Should be set to "Disabled" for freeing IRQ 7.

It is strange if that option doesn't exist on the motherboard BIOS of yours.

Reply 2 of 7, by mrzmaster

Posted on 2022-07-08, 16:17

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That option is there and is already set to disabled, but right below it is the "Parallel Port Mode" option that can only be set to "Normal" (currently set), "EPP", "ECP" or "ECP+EPP".

With "Onboard Parallel Port" set to "Disabled" and "Parallel Port Mode" set to "Normal", IRQ 7 is still taken up by LPT1.

Reply 3 of 7, by Gmlb256

Posted on 2022-07-08, 16:25

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Ok. On Windows you can disable or remove the LPT1 port in Device Manager, allowing IRQ 7 to be used for the AWE64 Gold.

You shouldn't worry about this in MS-DOS mode.

Reply 4 of 7, by majestyk

Posted on 2022-07-08, 16:34

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Enabling "Reset Configuration Data" in BIOS helps sometimes to get rid of stale BIOS data that could falsly be used by the OS.

Reply 5 of 7, by Gmlb256

Posted on 2022-07-08, 16:40

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majestyk wrote on 2022-07-08, 16:34:

Enabling "Reset Configuration Data" in BIOS helps sometimes to get rid of stale BIOS data that could falsly be used by the OS.

Unfortunately, the setting doesn't appear on that ASUS motherboard. 🙁

Reply 6 of 7, by mrzmaster

Posted on 2022-07-08, 17:20

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Gmlb256 wrote on 2022-07-08, 16:25:

Ok. On Windows you can disable or remove the LPT1 port in Device Manager, allowing IRQ 7 to be used for the AWE64 Gold.

You shouldn't worry about this in MS-DOS mode.

This did the trick. If I re-enable LPT1, is Windows smart enough to assign it another free IRQ, or will it try to take over IRQ 7 again?

Reply 7 of 7, by Gmlb256

Posted on 2022-07-08, 17:22

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mrzmaster wrote on 2022-07-08, 17:20:

If I re-enable LPT1, is Windows smart enough to assign it another free IRQ, or will it try to take over IRQ 7 again?

It will take over IRQ 7 again if it was disabled because the onboard parallel port isn't PnP.

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