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card to IRQ 9. An interrupt conflict now exists between the SCSI card and the
older MIDI card.
PCI Cards and Interrupt Conflicts
Some plug & play PCI cards can also cause interrupt conflicts when they try to
share an IRQ with another PCI card. Many PCI cards can share an IRQ with no
problems at all, but some just don’t like to share. For example, you may have a
network card installed, and Windows has it configured to use IRQ 10. Since that is
the only card assigned to IRQ 10, Windows assumes that it is OK to let it share
with the next PCI card that comes along. Consequently, it may assign your Echo
card to share IRQ 10. This network card happens to be unfriendly and doesn’t like
to share, so the next time you try to use it or your Echo card, neither device will
function properly.
Resolving Interrupt Conflicts
Although there is no way to automatically detect legacy interrupts, Windows
98/Me and some BIOS’s allow you to reserve specific interrupts for legacy use.
Once an interrupt is reserved it will not be assigned by Plug-and-Play to another
card. Or, if you have a PCI card that doesn’t like to share you may be able to
reassign it to a different IRQ.
The first thing to do if you think you have an interrupt conflict is to determine
which interrupt and which card is causing the problem. To do this, right-click on
the
My Computer
icon on your desktop and select
Properties
, or go to
Start
–
Settings
–
Control Panel
and double-click the
System
icon. In the window that
appears, select the
Device Manager
tab. Now, highlight
Computer
, and click the
Properties
button. A new window will appear that lists all of the interrupts (IRQs)
that Windows 98/Me recognizes are in use and the cards or resources to which they
are assigned. Write down the interrupts that are listed and the devices that are
assigned to them. Pay particular notice to the interrupt that your Echo card is
assigned to.
Once you know which interrupt your Echo card is trying to use, you need to locate
which card is potentially causing the conflict. To do this you may need to dig out
the manuals for whatever ISA cards are installed and examine the jumper settings
to determine which interrupts, if any, are used. Hopefully, at this point you will