Anyone using TWO Avermedia M150 in the same system simultaneously?

[bob_y2k2]

I was wondering if anyone is using two of the Avermedia M150 cards successfully in the same system simultaneously, and if you've experienced any problems. Thanks.

[tsw]

I've been running two M150 cards for about 6 months on XP with a AN7 motherboard. No problems.

Good luck,
tsw

[PGPfan]

TSW,

Could you provide more details on how yours are setup? (driver version, ACPI or not, etc.)

I've also been trying this, to no luck.

Many thanks for any info.

-PGPfan

[tsw]

Sure - Like I said, Abit AN7, XP SP2 with all patches (was SP1 when I started), Sage v2.0 (original release).

For the cards themselves I ran the first 6 months with ftp://ftp.shspvr.com/download/media_....3.31_whql.zip
I just upgraded a couple weeks ago to ftp://ftp.shspvr.com/download/media_....5.9_whql..zip.
Had a little trouble getting it up and running again. I ended up deleting the cards from Sage and removing them from device manager, reinstalled the drivers then set them back in Sage again. Prior to cleaning things out, Sage saw them but the video was garbled.

I do have ACPI turned on, however I'm running the generic ACPI driver, not the windows version (or is it the other way around? it's the one that only gives you 12 IRQ's instead of 15 or 24). Goto computer management\device manager\computer\acpi, right click and select properties, click update driver, choose display list of drivers, and choose ???(I can't remember exactly what the name is, I'll have to check when I get home). I don't remember where I read that recommendation, but I think I have the printed post at home, I'll see if I can find it and point you to it. I also send you a list of my current IRQ assignments from msinfo32.exe.

I will say that when I was first setting them up I had some issues that took a while to resolve. If I remember right, I had a lot of crashing going on, the cards didn't work etc. I was building the entire system new and overclocking though and was unsure what was causing the issue. So I started over, got the system stable (memtest, Prime95), then added one card at a time. Moved the first card around to different slots till it worked (if I remember right it would not work in slot1 no matter what I did), then added the second card and did the same.

Can you get a single card up and running? If it's only when you install the second card that you're having problems then it's probably an IRQ issue. Changing to the generic ACPI driver may help or you may have to turn it off altogether.

tsw

[PGPfan]

Thanks tsw,

I've gotten the single card working just fine, but it becomes a crash fest when I try with both of them. When I did my XP original install, I told setup to just use an ordinary PC instead of ACPI, hoping that this would help. It hasn't, so I may start over from scratch AGAIN and allow ACPI at that point.

Any reason in particular that you upgraded drivers? Did it improve anything?

I'm always kind of leary of messing with these card much as they seem to always be so darn sensitive to driver changes.

-PGPfan

[tsw]

I'm assuming you've tested both cards working as singles (just want to make sure you don't have a funky card). The other question would be have you tried different slots - if card A works in Slot 1 have you tried it in slot 2, 3, 4, & 5 by itself? Might help you eliminate a problmatic slot, I'm grasping here.

BTW - I have both tuners on the same source (antenna input, tuning digital cable).

Here's the link to the post from avsforum that made me switch my ACPI - it gets rid of the virtual IRQ's
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...50#post3508250

My current driver ACPI driver version from device manager:
Microsoft
7/1/2001
5.1.2600.0

Here's my IRQ assigments from msinfo32:
IRQ 0 System timer OK
IRQ 1 Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard OK
IRQ 3 NVIDIA(R) nForce(TM) MCP Audio Processing Unit (Dolby(R) Digital) OK
IRQ 4 Communications Port (COM1) OK
IRQ 5 Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller OK
IRQ 5 AVerMedia AVerTV MPEG Video Capture OK
IRQ 5 AVerMedia AVerTV AvStream Audio Capture OK
IRQ 5 AVerMedia AVerTV MPEG Encoder OK
IRQ 7 NVIDIA nForce PCI System Management OK
IRQ 7 NVIDIA(R) nForce(TM) Audio Codec Interface OK
IRQ 8 System CMOS/real time clock OK
IRQ 9 Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System OK
IRQ 10 Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller OK
IRQ 10 NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 OK
IRQ 11 NVIDIA nForce MCP Networking Controller OK
IRQ 11 OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller OK
IRQ 12 Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller OK
IRQ 12 AVerMedia AVerTV MPEG Video Capture OK
IRQ 12 AVerMedia AVerTV AvStream Audio Capture OK
IRQ 12 AVerMedia AVerTV MPEG Encoder OK
IRQ 13 Numeric data processor OK
IRQ 14 Primary IDE Channel OK
IRQ 15 Secondary IDE Channel OK

Yeah, I kinda took a flying leap on upgrading the card driver, but I had read here that the tuning was improved (I ghosted prior to the update, trueimage actually, so I wasn't too worried). In my case I would say the tuning's better, but I think the color may be a little worse. Haven't really had time to mess with it enough to know for sure.

Let me know if there's any other info I can give you.

Good Luck!
tsw