Windows, together with its Plug and Play technology, has grown far better at detecting and preventing hardware conflicts over the past few years. Still, system conflicts do arise, especially when you’re using ISA cards and other legacy hardware. More often than not, configuration and installation problems are due to incorrect settings on an ISA network, I/O, sound, modem, and SCSI cards. The result is cards that conflict with one another for the same IRQ (interrupt request line), base I/O port address, DMA, or base memory address. Usually, these settings are made by changing jumpers or DIP switches on the board.
Note
Some legacy cards can be configured via software settings rather than DIP switches and jumpers. For example, 3Com’s popular 3C509B Ethernet adapter card uses its own utility program to set the IRQ and port address. You might have to run such a configuration program (typically using a DOS command prompt) to set up the card before it will run correctly under Windows XP.
Some ISA cards can also be switched into a true Plug-and-Play mode by flipping a switch or moving a jumper block on the actual card or running a software configuration program.