SUBJECT:

Is there a way that the card automatically identifies a good IRQ and a good Input/output under Windows NT?

QUESTION:

We have installed an NDC PCMCIA card on a Notebook PANASONIC CF-45, under Windows NT. We had again to change the IRQ, enter into the BIOS...
Time spent on that machine: 3 hours. Is there a way that the card automatically identifies a good
IRQ and a good Input/output ?

ANSWER:

No, no way, especially on a notebook PC. Because the NT doesn't supporting the Plug-and-Play feature like the Windows 9x does, all ISA PnP and PCMCIA cards in the world cannot find absolutely a set of availabe resources under Windows NT except that it can support
the add-on NT PnP service feature, e.g. the Creative Sound Blaster ISA PnP card series.

Since Windows NT is not a PnP system, it's the nature of NT requiring the user to input the IRQ and I/O port for PCMCIA card and to take care of resource conflict manually under NT environment. NDC users may find this message from our "NDC ISA/PC Card User Guide" (at Step7 on page 15). They may also find the following messages from the on-line help of
NDC NT Installation in order to find/resolve the resource conflict manually.

Interrupt Number:
Select an interrupt level for this adapter card. In the "Windows NT Diagnostics" utility (in Administrative Tools" group), the "IRQ/Port Status" window contains the current status of interrupts.

I/O Base Address:
Select a number (expressed as hexadecimal string) to specify the I/O port base address. In the "Windows NT Diagnostics" utility (in "Administrative Tools" group), the "IRQ/Port Status" window contains the current status of I/O addresses.