Can't install PCI cards in slot

[d28]

Sometime ago I made an attempt to install a wireless PCI card in one of
two open PCI slots on motherboard. I had installation and software
problems wiht this card so I took it back. I purchased a different
wireless PCI card and tried to install it in the same slot. This time
my machine couldn't find the new card and the boot/shutdown times were
very long. So I moved the card to the other open slot and everything
is fine. But what could be the problem with the first PCI slot? Is
there some way I could diagnose this problem better?

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, d28.

What is the make and model of your motherboard? Do you have a manual for
it? Is the manual any good? (Many of them are too skimpy to help much.)
Have you looked for the mobo maker's website?

PCI slots typically share IRQs. This can create conflicts that can be
resolved only by shifting cards to different slots until you find a
combination that works. :>( My current mobo manual includes a chart that
shows, for example, that Slots 1 and 5 share an IRQ with USB, and every one
of the 6 PCI slots shares an IRQ with at least one other slot or device.

This was a problem for me when I had an earlier mobo and Win2K. I fought
conflicts, especially between my modem and sound card for a year before a
new mobo BIOS helped me resolve it. It was not the fault of either card.
But newer mobos have ACPI and WinXP knows how to work with that to let
devices gracefully share IRQs and I've had no such conflicts in years.

RC

 

[Yves Leclerc]

YES! There is even on PCI slot that shares IRQs with the AGP slot. It just
could be that the PCI slot was not getting to correct info becuase the IRQ
was "always" busy.