BleepingComputer.com: Bios, Irq, Pci Slot Errors

These three errors were in my event viewer today. I don't mind contacting my system vendor (Dell) for tech assistance, but before I do, I'd sure appreciate some information on what this is all about. If I can possibly fix it without dealing with Dell, I'd be quite happy, of course. Many thanks.

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It doesn't specify what devices they are - so that'd be the first thing to do...identify which one's they are (not easy, I've tried this before and wasn't able to do it). First place to check is the Device Manager - after that it's looking at system specs, system info, and device properties reports to tie a physical device to a PCI slot. But, the slots aren't necessarily the ones that you can see on the motherboard - there's also internal PCI slots that you can't see.

Might also be a BIOS issue since it involves ACPT and all occur at the same time. (just a guess)

Are you having any problems? I've seen similar errors in several system (but not this many) and have found that they don't seem to cause any issues. I believe that the IRQ issues are sorted out later on as the system continues to try and assign IRQ's (check the Information entries after this to see if any report success).

Good luck!

Hi John,

Forgot to mention yesterday that I had already explored the device manager with no luck. But I'll take another look, just to be on the safe side.

Also, I awakened this a.m. with the thought that these might be USB slots, which is where I have been experiencing some problems. If I go into the BIOS, am I likely to find any additional information?

You've given me some good ideas of where to look. Thanks!

Just a footnote: I have had similar errors in event log, I have come to the conclusion that for me it does not seem to make any difference what I do to fix it, even from a format the same event log errors are there. There is no performance issues with my system and I just ignore them now.

Hmmm. Well, my USB slots problems aren't major, but if they're related to these errors, I wouldn't mind trying to fix them. Nonetheless, I appreciate the extra peace of mind your post gives me, Monty. Thanks.

Hi John,

Are you familiar with this free software, System Information for Windows? (KoanYorel had posted it under another topic.) I was wondering if it might be useful for determining what & where those slots are. It's all Greek to me....

Here's a sample of what I found under PCI:
(There are about 30 items in all. I'll post or attach the full list if you want to see the rest, which includes other class types; it took a while to get everything to line up. Saving reports is available only for the paid version. I'll use RTF if I upload the list.)

																							Sub System
Bus/Dev./Func.	Type	Class Type		  Manufacturer		 Device Name			  Device Vendor
00  /  00  /  00	PCI	RAM					Nvidia Corp	C51 Host Bridge			Nvidia Corp
00  /  00  /  01	PCI	RAM					Nvidia Corp	C51 Memory Controller 0	Nvidia Corp
00  /  00  /  02	PCI	RAM					Nvidia Corp	C51 Memory Controller 1	Nvidia Corp
00  /  00  /  03	PCI	RAM					Nvidia Corp	C51 Memory Controller 5	Nvidia Corp
00  /  00  /  04	PCI	RAM					Nvidia Corp	C51 Memory Controller 4	Nvidia Corp
00  /  00  /  05	PCI	RAM					Nvidia Corp	C51 Host Bridge			Nvidia Corp
00  /  00  /  06	PCI	RAM					Nvidia Corp	C51 Memory Controller 3	Nvidia Corp
00  /  00  /  07	PCI	RAM					Nvidia Corp	C51 Memory Controller 2	Nvidia Corp

I can't run it on my system (Vista x64) so I'm just guessing here - but it'll have to identify the slot that the device is in before it'll be of any use. The PCI specification (and I assume the PCIe specification) will enumerate the devices on the system. It looks for onboard devices (called planar in the specification) and those installed in physical slots.

Somehow you have to associate the physical devices with the slot numbers. I dunno how to do that!

OK. Thanks anyway, John. I appreciate your input.

I guess I'll put this investigation on hold unless and until it becomes an obvious problem for me. Oh -- I might ask at the Dell forums first, come to think of it, and will post any results I get from over there.