Toshiba 3490CT - Portege - PIII 700 MHz, User Manual

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If Something Goes Wrong
Resolving a hardware conflict
Direct Memory Access
Similarly, the data required by the device is stored in a specific
place or address in memory called the Direct Memory Access
(DMA). The DMA provides a dedicated channel for adapter cards
to bypass the microprocessor and access memory directly. If two
or more devices use the same DMA, the data required by one
device overwrites the data required by the other, causing a
hardware conflict.
Plug and Play
With Plug and Play and Windows 98 Second Edition, avoiding
hardware conflicts is easy. Plug and Play is a computer standard
that helps the system BIOS (basic input/output system) and the
operating system to automatically assign system resources to Plug
and Play-compliant devices. In theory, if every device connected
to the computer is Plug and Play-compliant, no two devices will
compete for the same system resources. Plug in the device and
turn on your computer. Windows 98 Second Edition automatically
sets up your system to accommodate the new device.
If you install an older (legacy) device that Windows 98 Second
Edition cannot recognize, the operating system may have
difficulty assigning resources to it. As a result, a hardware conflict
can occur. To see what resources Windows 98 Second Edition has
assigned to the device, see
“Checking device properties” on
page 207 .
Resolving conflicts
There are three things you can do to resolve hardware conflicts.
❖
Disable the device.
For an older device, remove it from the computer. For a Plug
and Play device, see
“Fixing a problem with Device
Manager” on page 206 .