Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
• A device transfers data inaccurately.
• Your system frequently locks up.
• Your sound card doesn't sound quite right.
• Your mouse doesn't work.
• Garbage appears on your video screen for no apparent reason.
• Your printer prints gibberish.
• You can't format a floppy disk.
• The PC starts in Safe mode (Windows 9x/Me) or can start only in Last Known Good
Configuration (Windows 2000 and newer).
Windows also shows conflicts by highlighting a device in yellow or red in the Device
Managerrepresentation.ByusingtheWindowsDeviceManager,youcanusuallyspotthe
conflicts quickly.
In the following sections, you learn some of the steps you can take to head off resource
conflicts or track them down when they occur.
Tip
The serial, PS/2 mouse, and parallel ports still found in some systems are legacy (ISA)
devices that cannot share IRQs. If you no longer use these ports, you can use these devices'
IRQs for other devices if you do the following:
• Disable the unused port in the system BIOS.
•ConfigurethesystemBIOStousetheIRQformerlyusedbythedevice(s)forPnPconfiguration.
(This might be automatic in some systems.)
Another way you can help is to install cards in a particular sequence, and not all at once.
Modifying the installation sequence often helps because many cards can use only one or
two out of a predefined selection of IRQs that is specific to each brand or model of card.
When the cards are installed in a controlled sequence, the PnP software can more easily
work around IRQ conflicts caused by the default configurations of different cards.
On initial startup, I recommend a minimum configuration with only the graphics card,
memory, and storage drives. This allows for the least possibility of system conflicts in
the initial configuration. If your motherboard came with drivers specific to the chipset or
other built-in features of the board, now is the time to load or install them. Complete the
configuration of all built-in devices before installing other cards or external devices.
After the basic system has been configured (and after you have successfully loaded your
OS and any updates or patches), you can begin adding one device at a time in a specific
