Toshiba A45 Series manual 209, Plug and Play, Resolving conflicts

If Something Goes Wrong	209
Resolving a hardware conflict

Plug and Play

With Plug and Play and the Windows® XP 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 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. Simply connect the device and turn on your computer. The operating system automatically sets up your system to accommodate the new device.

If you connect 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. To see what resources the operating system has assigned to the device, see “Checking device properties” on page 210.

Resolving conflicts

There are things you can do to resolve hardware conflicts:

❖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 210.

❖Reconfigure the device so that its requirements do not conflict. Refer to the device’s documentation for instructions about changing settings on the device.