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ASUS P3W User’s Manual 33
3. HARDWARE SETUP
IMPORTANT: If using PCI cards on shared slots, make sure that the drivers
support “Share IRQ” or that the cards do not need IRQ assignments. Conflicts
will arise between the two PCI groups that will make the system unstable or
cards inoperable.
Both ISA and PCI expansion cards may require IRQs. System IRQs are available to
cards installed in the ISA expansion bus first, then any remaining IRQs are available
to PCI cards. Currently, there are two types of ISA cards.
The original ISA expansion card design, now referred to as “Legacy” ISA cards,
requires that you configure the card’s jumpers manually and then install it in any
available slot on the ISA bus. To see a map of your used and free IRQs in Windows
98, the Control Panel icon in My Computer, contains a System icon, which gives
you a Device Manager tab. Double-clicking on a specific hardware device gives
you the Resources tab which shows the Interrupt number and address. Double-click
Computer to see all the interrupts and addresses for your system. Make sure that no
two devices use the same IRQ or your computer will experience problems when
those two devices are in use at the same time.
To simplify this process, this motherboard complies with the Plug and Play (PnP)
specification which was developed to allow automatic system configuration when-
ever a PnP-compliant card is added to the system. For PnP cards, IRQs are assigned
automatically from those available.
If the system has both Legacy and PnP ISA cards installed, IRQs are assigned to
PNP cards from those not used by Legacy cards. The PCI and PNP configuration of
the BIOS setup utility can be used to indicate which IRQs are being used by Legacy
cards. For older Legacy cards that does not work with the BIOS, you can contact
your vendor for an ISA Configuration Utility.
An IRQ number is automatically assigned to PCI expansion cards after those used
by Legacy and PnP ISA cards. In the PCI bus design, the BIOS automatically as-
signs an IRQ to a PCI slot that has a card in it that requires an IRQ. To install a PCI
card, you need to set something called the INT (interrupt) assignment. Since all the
PCI slots on this motherboard use an INTA #, be sure that the jumpers on your PCI
cards are set to INT A.
Interrupt Request Table
INT-A INT-B INT-C INT-D
PCI slot 1 shared -- -- --
PCI slot 2 -- shared -- --
PCI slot 3 -- -- shared --
PCI slot 4 -- -- -- shared
PCI slot 5 shared -- -- --
PCI slot 6 -- -- shared --
Onboard VGA shared ---- -- --
Onboard audio/AMR/SMBus -- shared -- --
USB -- -- -- shared
Expansion Cards
3. H/W SETUP