plug and play question

[vetplus40]

I installed a U.S. Robotics "v" series modem in my new box.This is one of those modems that uses a dosbox which creates a comm5 port.The intitial installation went fine.I then decided to change the location of the card to a different slot.I had a heck of a time getting it to work.I finally had to go in and delete everything that I could find that was modem related,reload the drivers and do a complete reinstall.Yesterday,I realized that my modem was blocking a connection to a usb connection on my MB,and I needed to relocate to another pci slot.This time the pc recognized the switch,and the reloading of the drivers were not even necessary.I am a bit confused as to what happened.I realize this post is a bit "windy",but if any troubleshooters can enlighten me,it would be greatly appreciated.Thanks.

If ya don't ask..How ya gonna know.

 

[delpart]

Many slots share IRQ's with other motherboard resources. In your motherboard manual there should be a matrix as to what slots use shared resources and which ones don't. Usually IRQ sharing isn't a big thing especially if you are using 2K or XP. The problems occur if the hardware (modem) doesn't like IRQ sharing. If possible, it is always better to use dedicated slots rather than shared ones.

en Xristos