SETUP H/W .3

Cards Expansion

3. HARDWARE SETUP

To simplify this process, this motherboard complies with the Plug and Play (PNP) specification, which was developed to allow automatic system configuration whenever 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 do 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 assigns 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.

3.7.3 Assigning DMA Channels for ISA Cards

Some ISA cards, both legacy and PnP, may also need to use a DMA (Direct Memory Access) channel. DMA assignments for this motherboard are handled the same way as the IRQ assignment process described earlier. To select a DMA channel, see PCI/ PNP ISA DMA Resource Exclusion in 4.4.3 PCI Configuration. NOTE: The onboard audio by default uses DMA1.

IMPORTANT: To avoid conflicts, reserve the necessary IRQs and DMAs for legacy ISA cards (see PCI/PNP ISA IRQ Resource Exclusion and PCI/PNP DMA IRQ Resource Exclusion in 4.4.3 PCI Configuration). Choose Yes in IRQ xx Used By ISA and DMA x Used By ISA for those IRQs and DMAs you want to reserve).

3.7.4 ISA Cards and Hardware Monitor

The integrated hardware monitor uses the address 290H-297H, so legacy ISA cards must not use this address or else conflicts will occur.

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ASUS ME-99B User’s Manual