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Strange occurance in device manager!!

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6 replies

by maggot

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Just recently I was checking out the device manager and I noticed a conflict noted between
onboard SIS legacy emulator and COM1/serial port.
I resolved the conflict using hardware wizard
disabling Com1 which is not in use anyway.
The only hardware change has been my ethernet
card has been put to use, added DSL. This card
has always been present, just not being used.
Out of curiotity I re-enabled COM 1 and received no conflicts?? I have made no BIOS changes!!
Device manager shows SISfast ethernet using
IRQ 5 but POST screen shows it using IRQ 3??
Is there a explanation for this, or it just one
of those "WINDOWS THINGS"?
Is this a sign of something going sour??
System works just fine at the moment. One other
thing I noticed is that since addition of DSL
service, system boots to desktop in about 1/4 of
the time it usually took. "Curious"!!

6 replies

by cg it

yeah it's the Gremlins! They always cause those really strange occurances ....anyway, the BIOS may have assigned IRQ 3 but if you've enabled PnP aware O/S in the BIOS, then the BIOS allows IRQ assignments by the O/S [doesn't tell Windows it can't change em], hense the difference you see between the BIOS and Windows.

by cg it

as they say, if its running great and you don't have any problems trying to fix something that really isn't a problem may create one.

by cg it

IRQ's are really a priority list for interrupting the processor in what it's doing at the moment. Those devices with a high # are given a low priority [1 being the highest priority and 15 being the lowest priority] Devices CAN share interrupt requests which is why you'll see interrupt request 13 or 15 having a couple of devices assigned that interrupt. It's not a problem [like it was in the old days where devices couldn't share an interrupt assignment]. The BIOS may assign a high priority interrupt request to a device but Windows may want to change that [provided it doesn't receive a message from the BIOS to not change the assignments].

by maggot

Thanks for your comments and insights.
I received another conflict with sound, and gave
IRQ for COM 1 back to OS,I also dissabled the modem since it's not in use. At time of boot-up
the modem was back on line??
I don't think I have a virus orworm as the machine scans clean, all definations are current, and I use a firewall.
I'm gong to leave things alone and see what happens, hopefully it's just "Gremlins". If you
have any futher info. or insights please reply.
Will leave this openfor a while and see what
feed back I can get.
Thanks!!

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