HN440 USER’S GUIDE
2 4 I n s t a l l a t i o n
Troubleshooting resource conflicts
If the card you have just installed uses scarce system
resources such as interrupts (IRQs), Direct Memory Access
channels (DMAs), or input/output (I/O) ports, or has its own
on-board memory that must be “mapped” into the computer’s
unused Upper Memory Block (UMB) address space, there is a
possibility that it may come into conflict with other expansion
cards or devices on the motherboard that want to use the same
resources.
Conflict is more probable if the card is a so-called “legacy”
device; that is, one that does not support “Plug and Play”.
Plug and Play
Plug and Play (PnP) allows the intelligent, automatic
assignment of system resources to minimise the possibility of
conflict. This assignment may be done by the BIOS alone or
in co-operation with a PnP-aware operating system such as
Windows 95/98.
BIOS Setup includes an option called
Plug and Play O/S
which should be set to
Yes
or
No
according to whether or not
you have a PnP-aware operating system. If in doubt, select
No
.
See the BIOS Setup chapter for details.
Legacy cards
Most modern cards support Plug and Play. For those that do
not, you may have to run the BIOS Setup utility and reserve
or exclude the system resources used by the card (known as
“fixed” or “forced” resources). Once this has been done, PnP-
compliant devices won’t attempt to use the same settings.
In extreme cases you may have to change the resources used
by the card, either by physically moving a jumper on the card
or by running a configuration utility provided with the card,
or both. Refer to the documentation or packaging that came
with the card for further information. An alternative strategy
would involve using the BIOS Setup utility to disable unused
motherboard devices, and thereby free system resources for
use by the card.