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78 Ascentia M Series User’s Manual
About Drivers and System
Resources
This section gives you basic information about drivers and
system IRQs.
Drivers
A driver is a program that enables the operating system to work
with a hardware device. Your computer includes drivers for the
audio, video, infrared, touchpad, keyboard, CD-ROM drive,
hard drive, floppy drive, and PC Card controller. When you add
a device to your computer, such as a printer, you install a driver
for that device.
Different drivers are used by different operating systems. If you
need drivers for an operating system other than Windows 95,
check the Drivers directory in your recovery CD-ROM. Drivers
for some other operating systems are included there.
IRQs
Most of the devices in your computer or connected to your
computer need their own IRQ. The IRQ is a hardware line that a
device can use to send signals to the microprocessor. When the
device needs the microprocessor’s service, the device sends an
interrupt request signal to the microprocessor.
The number of IRQs available for any computer is limited by
industry standards. Because it ships with numerous features,
the Ascentia M Series computer uses most of the available IRQs.
If you add another device to your computer, you may need to
disable an existing device to free up an IRQ for the new device.
IRQ resources are of particular concern when the computer is
attached to a docking device.
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