PC Hardware in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

Reserving resources with Windows 9X

If the system BIOS is up to date and all expansion cards are Plug and Play-compliant, Windows 98 and Plug and Play normally configure the system properly without further ado. However, if the system has an older BIOS and/or you need to install one or more cards that are not Plug and Play-compliant, conflicts may occur because the BIOS and Windows cannot determine which resources those older cards need. For such situations, Windows allows you to specify manually which resources these older cards require, removing them from the pool of resources that Windows manages automatically.

To reserve resources, first examine the documentation and settings for the card to determine which resources (IRQ, DMA, I/O ports, and memory ranges) it requires. Display the Device Manager and click the Reserve Resources tab to display the dialog shown in Figure 1-11. This dialog lists any resource reservations already in effect, and allows you to modify existing reservations and add new reservations. Mark one of the four option buttons to select the type of resource for which you want to add a reservation or view existing reservations.

Figure 1-11. The Reserve Resources dialog, which allows you to remove resources from the pool available to Windows and assign those resources manually to legacy devices

To add a resource reservation, click Add to display the Edit Resource ...