PCLTA-20 PCI Interface User’s Guide
2-9
Access the hardware conflict troubleshooter through the procedure outlined below:
1. Open the Windows 95/98/Me on-line help by clicking the Windows Start button
and selecting Help.
2. In the Help Topics window, choose the Contents tab, or from another Help
window, choose the Contents button.
3. Double-click the Troubleshooting topic, and then select the If You Have A
Hardware Conflict help topic.
Extensive trouble-shooting documentation can be found in the Microsoft Windows
95/98/Me Resource Kit Help File. This help file is part of the Windows 95/98/Me
Resource Kit, which is available from Microsoft.
If a DOS real-mode driver is in use for a specific device that is installed in the PC,
Windows 95/98/Me may not know about that device’s resource requirements. Unlike
Windows driver conflicts, this problem is difficult to diagnose.
There are rare I/O conflict situations of which the Device Manager may be unaware.
Such a conflict may occur when an I/O resource is not properly specified for a device,
and a new driver overlays onto the true I/O space of that device. In the event of such a
conflict, it may become necessary to manually reserve I/O or IRQ resources using the
Device Manager. This process is described in the Windows 95/98/Me on-line Help.
Once these resources have been reserved, the Device Manager will recognize and
attempt to resolve any resource conflicts between the DOS driver and any Windows
drivers. If a conflict still occurs, it will be visible, and may be resolved as described in
Solving IRQ and I/O Conflicts under Windows 95/98/Me
earlier in this chapter.
If a device resource requirement is hardwired into the PC (i.e., configured by a jumper
or not modifiable from the system
BIOS
) then there is little that the Windows 95/98/Me
operating system can do to free the resources.
Common Resource Problems under Windows 95/98/Me
The following situations produce an additional drain on system resources that may be
hard to manage. Conflicts arising from these situations can generally be resolved by
selectively disabling devices to free up the required resources.
• COM ports that may not have a connector, but are consuming resources and
cannot be disabled through the
BIOS
• Unused IDE controllers that can not be disabled through the
BIOS
• Unused/nonexistent PS/2 mouse ports
• Sound cards that support both 8-bit and 16-bit compatibility modes, consuming
two IRQs