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If Something Goes Wrong
Resolving a hardware conflict
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Plug and Play
With Plug and Play and the operating system, avoiding
hardware conflicts is easy. Plug and Play is a computer
standard that helps the system BIOS (basic input/output
system) and the operating system to automatically assign
system resources to Plug and Play-compliant devices. In
theory, if every device connected to the computer is Plug and
Play-compliant, no two devices will compete for the same
system resources. Plug in the device and turn on your
computer. The operating system is automatically set up to
accommodate the new device.
If you install an older (legacy) device that the operating
system cannot recognize, the operating system may have
difficulty assigning resources to it. As a result, a hardware
conflict can occur.
Resolving conflicts
There are several things you can do to resolve hardware
conflicts:
❖ Get the most recent drivers from the manufacturer.
❖ Disable the device.
For an older device, remove it from the computer.
❖ Disable another system component and use its resources
for the new device. See “Fixing a problem with Device
Manager” on page 166.
❖ Reconfigure the device so that its requirements do not
conflict. Refer to the device’s documentation for
instructions about changing settings on the device.