Can't assign dedicated IRQ to sound card - to much on same IRQ

Greetings!

I'm not sure if this is MOBO related and/or Win 7 Pro.

In short terms, Win 7 Pro have assigned VGA and my sound card to same 16 IRQ number. Plus a several different PCI and USB controllers has been assigned to same IRQ.

That architecture is causing much clicks and pops in Cubase 5/6. I had same problem before in old DAW:s. But then, assigned sound card to different, dedicated IRQ - solves the problem on the spot. Well that was in old good days with Win 98, 2000, XP :)

For the moment, I was able to disable some USB controllers away from shared shared IRQ with noticeable better results in audio performance, but unfortunately the side effect was blue screen every time I turned off or restarted PC. Maybe I haven't done it proper way?

Now I think that I have following options and I need help to realize some of them:

1. Assign dedicated IRQ number to PCI-slot sound card;

2. Make as much as possible space on that IRQ so that PCI-slot sound card can work frealy;

3. Reinstall Win 7 with sound card present in PCI-slot and hopping that Win 7 will give it another IRQ?

3. Assign a dedicated IRQ to VGA card;

4. Re-alocate PCI-slot sound card into PCIEX1_1 slot with this adapter: PCI Express to PCI Adapter (Will Win 7 assign different IRQ then??)

5. Replace my current GA-X58A-UD5 MOBO with some from GA-P55 line as they have 3 x PCI slots.

During Win boot this shows in "PCI device listing"
USB 1.1 Host Cntrlr 10
USB 1.1 Host Cntrlr 4
USB 1.1 Host Cntrlr 3
USB 2.0 Host Cntrlr 3
Multimedia Device 5
USB 1.1 Host Cntrlr 7
USB 1.1 Host Cntrlr 11
USB 1.1 Host Cntrlr 3
USB 1.1 Host Cntrlr 7
IDE Cntrlr 14
SMSBus Cntrlr 3
Native IDE Cntrlr 11
Native IDE Cntrlr 10
USB 3.0 Host Cntrlr 10
Display Cntrlr 10
Native IDE Cntrlr 12
Native IDE Cntrlr 11
Multimedia Device 10
ACPI Controller 9

In Win 7, this can be viewed:



I will really appreciate if someone could give me some help so that I can get rid of this nightmare.

Best regards!

The sound is normally on a shared IRQ, assigned by the OS. If you uninstall the sound in the Device Manager then restart the PC when Windows starts it will detect and reinstall the sound and many times put it on a different shared IRQ. Audio is considered a "low priority" device and the reason it's normally on a shared IRQ. My sound card, a PCI HT Omega Striker 7.1 is on IRQ 17 with several other devices.

I have a recording studio setup with Sonar X1 but I don't use my internal sound card for recording or playback in Sonar. I use a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 which is firewire connected.

fireberd,
Thanks for answering. I have tried that many times and now again but it didn't help. Maybe I need to replace motherboard OR - switch back to Win XP.

I remember that it was a breeze to change IRQ in Win XP due to its build.

I don't know what to try anymore, but regardless how I switch slots with PCIe based VGA - it give the msae IRQ to it...

Don't know what to try any more.

Cheers.

I switched MOBO to another in Gigabyte EX58 series and was able to set sound card to its own IRQ

Thanks for your support!