phantom IRQs?

[rdunlap@atlanta.nsc.com (Randy Dunlap)]

Hi,

I've been wrestling with a couple of problems lately and I would
appreciate any help, thoughts, or ideas that anyone may have on it.
Hopefully someone out there has had some experience with some of
these NT messages or problems and can tell me what they mean and
what I need to do about them.

I don't know if this is a problem with the system board, NT 3.51,
BIOS, Ethernet adapter(s), or something else.


I'm testing a new Ethernet adapter and NDIS 3 driver under
NT 3.51 (checked build #1057; no service pack updates; BTW, are
there service pack updates for the checked builds of NT?).

As soon as the driver is loaded (automatically or manually),
NT begins displaying (on the WinDbg station):

    *** ISR at fe5a7bc0 - 5500 interrupts per .5 second

Address fe5a7bc0 is "_NdisIsr@8".

When my driver's ISR is called from _NdisIsr@8, it checks the
Ethernet adapter for interrupts but does not find any.

I removed the Ethernet adapter that I am working with and replaced
it with a 3Com Fast EtherLink PCI 10/100 (3C595-TX Rev. A).
When the 3c59x driver is loaded, the same NT message (*** ISR)
is displayed.

I also tried to use an Intel EtherExpress PRO/100 PCI Rev. A
adapter to see if it had the same problem.  NT displayed (on
the WinDbg station):

    IoTranslateResourceList: Interrupt vector could not be translated
    IoReportResourceUsage: Bad resource list being translated

I am testing this on a dual CPU Pentium 133 MHz Polywell PC
which has a TYAN system board (model S1562D).
The BIOS is an AMI BIOS; it displays "TYN TOMCAT V2.10 5/29/96"
and "51-0100-000000-00111111-071595-430HX-H".

Someone in Microsoft developer support said it sounded like an
interrupt conflict problem.

The BIOS has 6 IRQs available to it for PCI interrupt routing.
WinMSD (Windows NT Diagnostics) does not report any conflicts.


Next problem:
While the NDIS 3 Ethernet driver is running, NT occasionally
displays (again on the WinDbg station):

    *** DPC routine 8012c9de > 1 sec (3853f interrupts, 9b isr time)

Is this simply saying that my DPC (a.k.a. DPR) is executing for
too long before exiting (i.e., it's hogging the CPU)?


Simple question:
Can anyone tell me where to find the layout of the BIOS extended
data area?


Thanks and regards,
Randy
06 Nov. 1006
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