simple.
conflicts on irq5 are very common because of the large variety of devices that have it as an option. since virtually every pc today uses a sound card, and they all like to fuck on irq5, it is almost always taken before you even start looking at more esoteric peripherals... if a second parallel port lpt2 is being used to allow access to two printers or a printer and a parallel-port drive, then irq5 will usually be taken right away. if for some very strange reason you have three parallel ports, watch for a conflict here or with irq7, since 5 and 7 are the only two normally used as defaults for parallel ports. sound cards that default to irq5 are generally best left there, to avoid problems with poorly written older software that just assumed the sound card would always be left at irq5. to whatever extent possible, move devices that can use higher-valued irqs away from irq5. for example, you can't move com3 to irq11, but you usually can move a network card to it
|