Toshiba P25-S676 Toshiba Online Users Guide for Satellite P25-S676 - Page 214
Resolving hardware conflicts on your own, Memory Access DMA. The DMA provides a dedicated - bios
UPC - 032017250505
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214 If Something Goes Wrong Resolving a hardware conflict Resolving hardware conflicts on your own Computer components need resources to accomplish a task. A device, such as a disk drive or a modem, needs a channel to the computer's Central Processing Unit (CPU). It also needs a direct channel to the computer's memory to store information as it works. These channels of communication are commonly referred to as system resources. Direct Memory Access Similarly, the data required by the device is stored in a specific place or address in memory called the Direct Memory Access (DMA). The DMA provides a dedicated channel for adapter cards to bypass the microprocessor and access memory directly. If two or more devices use the same DMA, the data required by one device overwrites the data required by the other. That may cause 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 plug in the device and turn on your computer. The operating system automatically sets up your system to accommodate the new device. If you install 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 216.