Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
To find out exactly what your devices are using, I recommend consulting the document-
ation for the device or looking up the device in the Windows Device Manager. Note that
the documentation for some devices might list only the starting address instead of the full
range of I/O port addresses used.
Virtually all devices on the system buses use I/O port addresses. Most of these are fairly
standardized, meaning conflicts or problems won't often occur with these settings. In the
next section, you learn more about working with I/O addresses.
Resolving Resource Conflicts
The resources in a system are limited. Unfortunately, the demands on those resources
seem to be unlimited. Depending upon your system's design and the adapter cards you
might add, you may find that the potential for resource conflicts increases. This is espe-
cially true on systems that have a mixture of ISA and PCI slots or systems that use legacy
ports (serial, parallel, keyboard, and mouse).
How do you know whether you have a resource conflict? Typically, one of the devices
in your system stops working. Resource conflicts can exhibit themselves in other ways,
though. Any of the following events could be diagnosed as a resource conflict:
