I keep getting the message "Interrupt controller detected a lost hardware interrupt" at the server console.
Articles and Tips: qna
01 Feb 1996
Q.
Dear Ab-end: I'm running NetWare 3.12 on four servers with 500 users. I keep getting the message "Interrupt controller detected a lost hardware interrupt" at the server console. What does it mean and what do I do about it?
--Tired of Being Interrupted
A.
Dear Tired: You see this message whenever a board or its driver requests a service from the operating system through an interrupt and the interrupt is dropped before the operating system responds to the request. For example, if the disk controller drops a read request before the CPU can respond, you may see a message like the one you described.
Such warnings can mean that the server is experiencing communication problems between the hardware (such as a controller) or its driver. You can try to narrow down which driver/hardware is causing the problem by unloading all drivers and then loading them one at a time until you find out which one is at fault.
At this point, try a newer driver or a different copy of the same driver and see if the problem goes away. If it doesn't, you may need to replace the hardware component. If you don't see the alert too often, you can simply ignore the alert by using the following SET parameter:
SET Display Lost Interrupt Alerts = OFF
This SET parameter defaults to ON.
* Originally published in Novell AppNotes
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