Windows 98 IRQ Errors

[Nitin]

Hi !
I'm using Windows 98 as one of my O.S. On booting I get an
error " Your Display Adapter conflicts with another Device on
your computer.To correct this problem, click OK to view the
properties for this device ". The error shown is "Cannot find any
free input/output range ( I/O ) resources to use (Code 12).
To use this Device you must disable any other device that is
using the resources".But in Device Manager it does not show any
conflicts. Sometimes the System restarts after partially loading the O.S.
How Do I solve this Problem .
Please Help.
Nitin.

[Alfons]

Originally Posted by Nitin

Hi !
I'm using Windows 98 as one of my O.S. On booting I get an
error " Your Display Adapter conflicts with another Device on
your computer.To correct this problem, click OK to view the
properties for this device ". The error shown is "Cannot find any
free input/output range ( I/O ) resources to use (Code 12).
To use this Device you must disable any other device that is
using the resources".But in Device Manager it does not show any
conflicts. Sometimes the System restarts after partially loading the O.S.
How Do I solve this Problem .
Please Help.
Nitin.

To determine what options you have, you'll need to provide details on your computer, including the make and model of the components.

[Landon]

Hi,

Sometimes they won't show up in Device Manager because the conflict won't allow the cards to initialize and therefore will not show up in Windows as an installed device. While you are in Device Mangler (Manager) go up and click on the word "Computer" it will take you to the IRQ listings.

Look for your video card and note its' IRQ, look for another device that is sharing the same IRQ, the easist thing to do is move the conflicting device to another slot on the motherboard.

If two devices do show up as conflicting in Device Mangler sometimes you can manually change the IRQ if it's an ISA card, rarely on PCI cards.
Sometimes you can trick cards into using free IRQs that they normally would not use by turning off or disabling other devices that you do not use, or installing other devices first that you know will grab specific IRQs and then the one conflicting device will be forced to take what is left over, sometimes this is called "Plug and Pray".

This can be done by going into the BIOS during bootup, make your way to the section that contains the COM and Printer ports, if you are not using them turn off both COM ports and the Printer port, you just freed up three IRQs (3, 4, and 7). Next go to the section that contains the USB information (it's usually in the CHIPSET section), the USB setting is usually diplayed as ENABLE/DISABLE, if you are not using any USB devices switch this to DISABLE, you just freed up an IRQ (9, 10 , or 11).

If you are still using an older 9 pin serial mouse (has a big bulky 9 pin connector instead of a tiny round connector) you can also turn off the PS2 port, it varies where this is found in the BIOS but it is usually turned off with an ENABLE/DISABLE setting, this will free up IRQ 12, this is usefull if both of your COM port jacks are in use but you still need to install an internal modem, the system is already expecting a serial device on IRQ12 so it works ok with a modem.

If you have an IRQ conflict that just will not go away no matter what you do and turning off devices is not an option go into the BIOS and look for "PnP OS" or "Plug and Play OS" and switch it to its' alternate setting (YES/NO), sometimes Windows will then resolve things on it's own.

Here is a typical IRQ listing:

0: Reserved by system.
1: Reserved by system.
2: Reserved by system.
3: COM Port.
4: COM Port.
5: Assignable.
6: Reserved by system.
7: Assignable.
8: Reserved by system.
9: Assignable.
10: Assignable.
11: Assignable.
12: Reserved by system and/or assignable.
13: Reserved by system.
14: Reserved by system.
15: Reserved by system.

Here is a typical IRQ listing in use:

0: Reserved by system.
1: Reserved by system.
2: Reserved by system.
3: Serial mouse, internal/external modem, Hot-Sync connection to PDA/Palm Pilot, or maintinence connection to external device (UPS or DSL/cable modem).
4: Serial mouse, internal/external modem, Hot-Sync connection to PDA/Palm Pilot, or maintinence connection to external device (UPS or DSL/cable modem).
5: Network Interface Card or Sound card.
6: Reserved by system.
7: Printer or 2nd Network Interface Card.
8: Reserved by system.
9: Winmodem or SCSI controller.
10: Video or Sound card.
11: USB controller.
12: PS2 mouse or WINmodem.
13: Co-Processor (math processor).
14: 1st IDE hard drive controller.
15: 2nd IDE hard drive controller.

5, 9, 10, and 11 are usually where things get assigned and where "Plug and Pray" comes into effect.

I had a very odd problem trying to play Tomb Raider III on an old Pentium II system, the game played fine until the fighting got really heavy and there was a lot of sound going on, the game just came to an absolute crawl and I would have to sit and wait for the game to catch up with itself, turns out that the video and sound card were both on the same IRQ, once they were seperated the game played fine.

Good luck!