Types of Adapter Cards: Sound Card, Network Card, input/output Card, Modem + Com Port, Scanner Interface card, SCSI interface Adapter Card.

 What you need: PC with spare BUS slot on your motherboard that matches your card e.g. ISA, PCI , VESA.

Adapter cards:

Software considerations:

Installation Procedure:

STEP 1. Boot your PC into Windows 95 and open ‘My Computer’ – ‘Control Panel’ – ‘System’ and then click-on the ‘Device Manager’ tab.

Now double-click on the ‘Computer Icon’ at the top of the list of all the devices. Use the buttons to highlight your current settings for IRQ’s, I/O’s, DMA’s and memory.

RECORD all the available (unused) IRQ, DMA and I/O settings.

STEP 2. Shut-down the PC and turn off the power. Remove the frame’s slot

Note! If you have a legacy – type adapter card to install then you must now set the jumpers to the available settings that you recorded in Step 1.

Insert your adapter card in the available BUS slot and firmly (but carefully) rock it into position. Check both ends of the card as you insert it in the slot.

If you installed a legacy card (with jumpers) or a PnP card then go to Step 4.

STEP 3. For Jumperless adapter cards (adapter cards set for Jumperless mode) insert your Windows 95 bootdisk (with CD ROM support) into your floppy drive and reboot your PC.

Did your PC lock-up and just hang? If it did, then go to the Jumperless troubleshooting section at the end of this guide.

At the DOS prompt A:> insert your manufacturer’s software floppy disk or CD ROM and run the SETUP program provided. This program will generally be called ‘SETUP.EXE’ (sometimes ‘DIAG.EXE) and may be anywhere on the disk.

You should eventually presented with a MENU that offers a few options. Select the option that lets you view the current configuration settings of the adapter card. View the current settings and compare them to the available settings you recorded in step 1.

Note! You may have a ‘BOOTROM’ option available. A ‘BOOTROM’ allows a PC such as a diskless workstation to download part of the operating system from a network server.

If you need to change the current settings of your adapter card then escape back to the MENU and select the option that allows you to change the current configuration (e.g. ‘change current configuration’, ‘change settings’, etc).

Now change current settings to correspond with the available settings you recorded in Step 1.

Note! If your configuration settings for your adapter card include a ‘BOOTROM’ facility you would generally ‘DISABLE’ it.

SAVE your new settings and escape back to the DOS prompt A:>.

Remove all disks and REBOOT your PC into Windows 95.

STEP 4. If Windows 95 detects your new hardware (i.e. Adapter card) during the boot process then get ready to provide the software from your manufacturer’s disk and Windows 95 installation disk(s) when prompted.

If Windows 95 did not detect your hardware then you now need to install it by firstly going to ‘Control Panel’ and double clicking on ‘Add New Hardware’. This will start the ‘Add New Hardware Wizard’.

Follow the prompts and choose ‘YES’ to elect Windows 95 to ‘Search for your New Hardware’. Click-on ‘NEXT’ and go and make yourself a beverage of some description ………….. as this process will take about seven minutes to complete.

If all went well during the detection process then Windows 95 will announce that it has found New Hardware. Your hardware should be included in the details of the New Hardware it has detected. Click-on the ‘details’ button to view the list of hardware detected.

Now click-on the ‘finish’ button to have Windows 95 finish installing your new adapter card hardware. (Get ready to provide the necessary software when prompted).

Choose NOT to ‘restart your computer’ when prompted by Windows 95 as it is good practice to check that the resource settings allocated to your adapter card correspond with the settings you configured earlier.

At the end of the installation process Windows 95 may show you the settings it has allocated to your adapter card. If these do not correspond to the settings you configured earlier then you must change them. To do this…. go back to ‘system’ in control panel and select the ‘device manager’ tab. Now select the type of device you just installed from the devices listed. Click on the ‘+’ sign to open the list of installed devices. Double click on the device you just installed to open up its properties.

When you are presented with the properties of the device you selected click-on the ‘resources’ tab to view the list of resource settings Windows 95 has allocated to your adapter card.

You should now be viewing the resources allocated to your adapter card. Remove the tick from the ‘Use automatic settings’ box and then click-on the setting you want to change (e.g. I/O’s, IRQ, and DMA's). Now click-on the ‘change’ button and change the setting to correspond with the setting you configured for your adapter card previously.

Now click-on ‘OK’ to save these resource settings and ‘shutdown’ and ‘restart’ your PC for all the new changes to take affect.

Is your new adapter card working correctly? If not … do you need to install other software or configure other settings related to your new adapter card? (e.g. A Network adapter card may need a Protocol, client or service configured or installed etc.).

 Legacy: Depending on the choice of settings available you can first view and record your PC’s hardware configuration settings and then set your adapter card’s jumpers to prevent any conflicts. This can all be done before physically installing the adapter card in a bus slot. If you have a conflict at start up it is best to remove the legacy adapter card completely from the operating system and bus slot and start again. Remember that you may not be given sufficient choices for your legacy adapter card configuration – so you must also consider the option of changing the settings of another adapter card.

Jumperless: If your PC refuses to boot then you must have an initial conflict with other devices in your system. The adapter card must be removed and your PC’s hardware configuration details must be recorded on reboot to find what hardware is causing the conflict. If this hardware can be temporarily removed, then make sure it is removed from the operating system first before physically removing it from the bus slot after shutdown. Now install the previous adapter card and change its configuration settings through the setup software provided by the manufacturer (i.e. change: I/O, IRQ, DMA and memory address range to those that are available. You may have to change your O/S settings to correspond with the new settings also.

Now reinstall the other adapter card and configure the settings if necessary to prevent any conflicts. This procedure may be tedious but sometimes it is the only sure way to deal with the hardware conflict.

Plug n’ Play: Problems generally occur when other adapter card types are also present. Some newer BIOS types have provision for resetting configuration data. However, the interaction between the BIOS and PnP aware O/S tends to keep the original settings. The complete removal of an adapter card is often necessary to enable the settings of another to be changed (see above). Removal of the PnP card causing the conflict and re-installing it can often solve the conflict problem. Don’t forget: the card must be removed from the operating system and physically from its bus slot.