26th August 2002

Question: Is there anything I can do to make my older motherboard accept USB 2.0 devices? I don't have any more PCI slots open.

Answer: Well, to tell you the truth... in my opinion, you need an open PCI slot because otherwise you won't have any way to add a USB 2.0 upgrade card to your system. If you CAN take out one of your PCI cards to make room for a USB 2.0 upgrade card, then I would recommend that you first check with your computer/motherboard manufacturer to see if there is a BIOS upgrade, as this would possibly help the computer communicate better with the card. You might also want to keep in mind that you need Windows 2000 or XP to be able to use the USB 2.0 functionality. If you don't have Windows 2000 or XP on the machine, then it will only be able to use the upgrade card at the slower USB 1.1 standard. [BS]

Question: I have a Windows 98 computer that I have upgraded to Windows XP. Now I have two items on the motherboard that are conflicting: the onboard USB, and the sound. I used to be able to change the IRQs in Windows 98, but I can't now that I am running Windows XP. How do I change the IRQs for an item on the motherboard in Windows XP?

Answer: There are many possible answers to this question, but I am only going to highlight a couple. One way you can resolve this problem is to manually change the IRQs for those items in your systems BIOS, and I would refer you to your manufacturer's documentation for information on how to enter the BIOS. Another way to fix this (and by far the preferred way) is to check your computer/motherboard manufacturer's web site for a BIOS upgrade, and follow their instructions for upgrading your BIOS. I can't stress enough to everyone out there the importance of checking for BIOS upgrades before upgrading your computer to a new operating system. A large percentage of upgrade problems would be fixed by just following that one step of checking for a BIOS upgrade. Once you have upgraded your BIOS, if I were you then I would go into the BIOS and check to make sure that where it says "Operating System," it is set to PNP (or Plug-n-Play). This last little fix should allow you to make IRQ changes from the operating system by letting the operating system better interface with the BIOS