Hardware Conflicts

I could use some advice from one of you pros about my Gateway P5-90,
with Win95a. It's been working perfectly for years. Now, my HP4P
scanner is showing that it's not detected. Device Manager shows a
yellow exclamation mark by the Symbios Logic SCSI card and says it's
conflicting with the sound card. I also lost the sound. I deleted the
Joystick entry for the Creative Soundblaster 16 card, and then the
sound card entry disappeared entirely from Device Manager. Also, the
Sportster modem now says it can't connect, even though Device Manager
says it is working properly. Modem diagnostics says it can't connect
to the modem. I went to Control Panel and asked Windows to detect new
hardware. After searching, it couldn't find any new hardware. Any thoughts
on where to start in order to solve these hardware conflicts?

Yes, I know it's a Win95 machine, but it just keeps chugging along, and
I'm sentimental about it. Also, it's my first computer...and you never
forget your first love

Thanks!
Scott

Scott,

Failed or failing motherboard CMOS batteries can really screw up a computer.

Assuming that the motherboard has a C2032 3v coin-sized lithium battery, replace
it. You may not have done so after all these years. After changing the
battery, you will need to reset the motherboard BIOS settings to default. Next
time you boot the computer, Windows 95 will redetect all the devices.

If the battery is a small soldered-on Lego-shaped black Dallas Semi DS12887, the
motherboard is essentially toast, because the battery cannot be replaced. The
early early Pentium boards in Gateways used this sort of battery. Someone
decided to save 5 cents by not socketing this battery, soldered it on, and it
has a typical life of 8-10 years. The later ones used the common coin-sized
C2032.

I don't know if I have any replacement Gateway Pentium boards any more. I used
to sell them a lot. I'm also assuming that because the processor is a 90MHz
Pentium, that the motherboard is baby AT... Ben Myers

On Fri, 03 Nov 2006 12:52:14 -0600, Scott <> wrote:

>I could use some advice from one of you pros about my Gateway P5-90,
>with Win95a. It's been working perfectly for years. Now, my HP4P
>scanner is showing that it's not detected. Device Manager shows a
>yellow exclamation mark by the Symbios Logic SCSI card and says it's
>conflicting with the sound card. I also lost the sound. I deleted the
>Joystick entry for the Creative Soundblaster 16 card, and then the
>sound card entry disappeared entirely from Device Manager. Also, the
>Sportster modem now says it can't connect, even though Device Manager
>says it is working properly. Modem diagnostics says it can't connect
>to the modem. I went to Control Panel and asked Windows to detect new
>hardware. After searching, it couldn't find any new hardware. Any thoughts
>on where to start in order to solve these hardware conflicts?
>
>Yes, I know it's a Win95 machine, but it just keeps chugging along, and
>I'm sentimental about it. Also, it's my first computer...and you never
>forget your first love
>
>Thanks!
>Scott

Classic IRQ conflict. Since the SCSI card has the splat, see if you can
reassign it to another IRQ in hardware mangager. If you can't try moving
the modem, or the soundcard.

The root cause may be that one of these devices isn't connecting
properly. Perhaps something gave up the ghost, but it might just be
dirty contacts. However, I don't think you should mess with ancient
hardware until you've exausted all other possibilities.

Grun


Scott wrote:

> I could use some advice from one of you pros about my Gateway P5-90,
> with Win95a. It's been working perfectly for years. Now, my HP4P
> scanner is showing that it's not detected. Device Manager shows a
> yellow exclamation mark by the Symbios Logic SCSI card and says it's
> conflicting with the sound card. I also lost the sound. I deleted the
> Joystick entry for the Creative Soundblaster 16 card, and then the
> sound card entry disappeared entirely from Device Manager. Also, the
> Sportster modem now says it can't connect, even though Device Manager
> says it is working properly. Modem diagnostics says it can't connect
> to the modem. I went to Control Panel and asked Windows to detect new
> hardware. After searching, it couldn't find any new hardware. Any thoughts
> on where to start in order to solve these hardware conflicts?
>
> Yes, I know it's a Win95 machine, but it just keeps chugging along, and
> I'm sentimental about it. Also, it's my first computer...and you never
> forget your first love
>
> Thanks!
> Scott

Ben Myers wrote:
>
> Scott,
>
> Failed or failing motherboard CMOS batteries can really screw up a computer.
>
> Assuming that the motherboard has a C2032 3v coin-sized lithium battery, replace
> it. You may not have done so after all these years. After changing the
> battery, you will need to reset the motherboard BIOS settings to default. Next
> time you boot the computer, Windows 95 will redetect all the devices.
>
> If the battery is a small soldered-on Lego-shaped black Dallas Semi DS12887, the
> motherboard is essentially toast, because the battery cannot be replaced. The
> early early Pentium boards in Gateways used this sort of battery. Someone
> decided to save 5 cents by not socketing this battery, soldered it on, and it
> has a typical life of 8-10 years. The later ones used the common coin-sized
> C2032.
>
> I don't know if I have any replacement Gateway Pentium boards any more. I used
> to sell them a lot. I'm also assuming that because the processor is a 90MHz
> Pentium, that the motherboard is baby AT... Ben Myers
>
> On Fri, 03 Nov 2006 12:52:14 -0600, Scott <> wrote:
>
> >I could use some advice from one of you pros about my Gateway P5-90,
> >with Win95a. It's been working perfectly for years. Now, my HP4P
> >scanner is showing that it's not detected. Device Manager shows a
> >yellow exclamation mark by the Symbios Logic SCSI card and says it's
> >conflicting with the sound card. I also lost the sound. I deleted the
> >Joystick entry for the Creative Soundblaster 16 card, and then the
> >sound card entry disappeared entirely from Device Manager. Also, the
> >Sportster modem now says it can't connect, even though Device Manager
> >says it is working properly. Modem diagnostics says it can't connect
> >to the modem. I went to Control Panel and asked Windows to detect new
> >hardware. After searching, it couldn't find any new hardware. Any thoughts
> >on where to start in order to solve these hardware conflicts?
> >
> >Yes, I know it's a Win95 machine, but it just keeps chugging along, and
> >I'm sentimental about it. Also, it's my first computer...and you never
> >forget your first love
> >
> >Thanks!
> >Scott

Ben,

You've warned me about my irreplacable CMOS batter before. I have one of those that's
soldered in. This Gatway is 12 years old, so that's a possibility. I went into the
BIOS and discovered that the peripheral configuration was set to Manual. I changed
it to Automatic and rebooted. Now the modem works fine. The yellow splat is no longer
visible on the Symbios SCSI card, and it says it's working properly. It shows there
are no IRQ conflicts. However, the scanner still does not connect. The sound card
still doesn't show at all on Device Manager.

Could one of those two cards (the sound or SCSI card) have gone bad?

Are there any other settings that I should check in the BIOS?

Next, would it make sense to pull one of the two cards and replace them one at a time?

Thanks again!
Scott

Scott,

Given that you've got an HP scanner with totally unpredictable HP scanning
software, anything is possible. I've had HP scanners "disappear" from my old
Win 95 system, then reappear. Several times, I've uninstalled the scanner
software then scoured the registry for DeskScan entries, deleting them, and
removing all the files still left behind by the HP uninstall. Sometimes that
worked, sometimes not.

You can try one or more of the following, with no guarantees:

1. Reinstall the software for the sound card.
2. Reinstall the HP scanner software.
3. Pull one or both cards, boot the system without them, then reinstall them in
hope that the extremely early and primitive Windows 95a Plug and Play (Now you
now why it is referred to as Plug and Pray) will detect the "new" cards.
4. Delete the sound card, Symbios SCSI card, and scanner entries from the Device
Manager.

And, because this is one of the very early Pentium 3 PCI cards, it's PnP
hardware is not too sharp either. Plus, PnP does not work as well with ISA bus
cards, which is what your modem might be, as well as the Symbios.

Really, you could be worse off replacing the motherboard. The Symbios SCSI ISA
card is a low-end piece of trash sold by HP. You are lucky it has held up all
these years. I've had good luck with Adaptec 2900-series PCI SCSI cards and
SCSI scanners... Ben Myers

On Sun, 05 Nov 2006 19:54:08 -0600, Scott <> wrote:

>
>
>Ben Myers wrote:
>>
>> Scott,
>>
>> Failed or failing motherboard CMOS batteries can really screw up a computer.
>>
>> Assuming that the motherboard has a C2032 3v coin-sized lithium battery, replace
>> it. You may not have done so after all these years. After changing the
>> battery, you will need to reset the motherboard BIOS settings to default. Next
>> time you boot the computer, Windows 95 will redetect all the devices.
>>
>> If the battery is a small soldered-on Lego-shaped black Dallas Semi DS12887, the
>> motherboard is essentially toast, because the battery cannot be replaced. The
>> early early Pentium boards in Gateways used this sort of battery. Someone
>> decided to save 5 cents by not socketing this battery, soldered it on, and it
>> has a typical life of 8-10 years. The later ones used the common coin-sized
>> C2032.
>>
>> I don't know if I have any replacement Gateway Pentium boards any more. I used
>> to sell them a lot. I'm also assuming that because the processor is a 90MHz
>> Pentium, that the motherboard is baby AT... Ben Myers
>>
<SNIP!>
>
>Ben,
>
>You've warned me about my irreplacable CMOS batter before. I have one of those that's
>soldered in. This Gatway is 12 years old, so that's a possibility. I went into the
>BIOS and discovered that the peripheral configuration was set to Manual. I changed
>it to Automatic and rebooted. Now the modem works fine. The yellow splat is no longer
>visible on the Symbios SCSI card, and it says it's working properly. It shows there
>are no IRQ conflicts. However, the scanner still does not connect. The sound card
>still doesn't show at all on Device Manager.
>
>Could one of those two cards (the sound or SCSI card) have gone bad?
>
>Are there any other settings that I should check in the BIOS?
>
>Next, would it make sense to pull one of the two cards and replace them one at a time?
>
>Thanks again!
>Scott

Ben Myers wrote:
>
> Scott,
>
> Given that you've got an HP scanner with totally unpredictable HP scanning
> software, anything is possible. I've had HP scanners "disappear" from my old
> Win 95 system, then reappear. Several times, I've uninstalled the scanner
> software then scoured the registry for DeskScan entries, deleting them, and
> removing all the files still left behind by the HP uninstall. Sometimes that
> worked, sometimes not.
>
> You can try one or more of the following, with no guarantees:
>
> 1. Reinstall the software for the sound card.
> 2. Reinstall the HP scanner software.
> 3. Pull one or both cards, boot the system without them, then reinstall them in
> hope that the extremely early and primitive Windows 95a Plug and Play (Now you
> now why it is referred to as Plug and Pray) will detect the "new" cards.
> 4. Delete the sound card, Symbios SCSI card, and scanner entries from the Device
> Manager.
>
> And, because this is one of the very early Pentium 3 PCI cards, it's PnP
> hardware is not too sharp either. Plus, PnP does not work as well with ISA bus
> cards, which is what your modem might be, as well as the Symbios.
>
> Really, you could be worse off replacing the motherboard. The Symbios SCSI ISA
> card is a low-end piece of trash sold by HP. You are lucky it has held up all
> these years. I've had good luck with Adaptec 2900-series PCI SCSI cards and
> SCSI scanners... Ben Myers
>
> On Sun, 05 Nov 2006 19:54:08 -0600, Scott <> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> >Ben Myers wrote:
> >>
> >> Scott,
> >>
> >> Failed or failing motherboard CMOS batteries can really screw up a computer.
> >>
> >> Assuming that the motherboard has a C2032 3v coin-sized lithium battery, replace
> >> it. You may not have done so after all these years. After changing the
> >> battery, you will need to reset the motherboard BIOS settings to default. Next
> >> time you boot the computer, Windows 95 will redetect all the devices.
> >>
> >> If the battery is a small soldered-on Lego-shaped black Dallas Semi DS12887, the
> >> motherboard is essentially toast, because the battery cannot be replaced. The
> >> early early Pentium boards in Gateways used this sort of battery. Someone
> >> decided to save 5 cents by not socketing this battery, soldered it on, and it
> >> has a typical life of 8-10 years. The later ones used the common coin-sized
> >> C2032.
> >>
> >> I don't know if I have any replacement Gateway Pentium boards any more. I used
> >> to sell them a lot. I'm also assuming that because the processor is a 90MHz
> >> Pentium, that the motherboard is baby AT... Ben Myers
> >>
> <SNIP!>
> >
> >Ben,
> >
> >You've warned me about my irreplacable CMOS batter before. I have one of those that's
> >soldered in. This Gatway is 12 years old, so that's a possibility. I went into the
> >BIOS and discovered that the peripheral configuration was set to Manual. I changed
> >it to Automatic and rebooted. Now the modem works fine. The yellow splat is no longer
> >visible on the Symbios SCSI card, and it says it's working properly. It shows there
> >are no IRQ conflicts. However, the scanner still does not connect. The sound card
> >still doesn't show at all on Device Manager.
> >
> >Could one of those two cards (the sound or SCSI card) have gone bad?
> >
> >Are there any other settings that I should check in the BIOS?
> >
> >Next, would it make sense to pull one of the two cards and replace them one at a time?
> >
> >Thanks again!
> >Scott


Ben,

OK, I'll try the steps you suggested. In checking the BIOS under Parallel Port Mode,
there's Compatible, Bi-Directional and EPP-ECD. It's set to Compatible. Does that sound
right? (I have an HP 722C printer).

Also, my Desk Scan software (on floppies) is v2.2. I found v2.9 available on HP's site.
Is that likely to be of any help?

Thanks!
Scott

The "compatible" printer setting is the least invasive in terms of its use of
hardware resources. The parallel port is compatible with the old original
Centronics parallel port, one-directional. Perfectly fine for the 722c, which
does not have any fancy memory resident software to monitor ink levels and other
stuff.

Wow! I never even saw DeskScan 2.2. Must be almost original. DeskScan 2.9
may or may not help. My crystal ball is not good enough to predict what will
happen with any HP scanner software. It's a damned shame that HP software
developers do not know how to do scanner software right. HP scanners are
pretty decent when the software is working... Ben Myers

On Sun, 05 Nov 2006 22:19:27 -0600, Scott <> wrote:

>
>
>Ben Myers wrote:
>>
>> Scott,
>>
>> Given that you've got an HP scanner with totally unpredictable HP scanning
>> software, anything is possible. I've had HP scanners "disappear" from my old
>> Win 95 system, then reappear. Several times, I've uninstalled the scanner
>> software then scoured the registry for DeskScan entries, deleting them, and
>> removing all the files still left behind by the HP uninstall. Sometimes that
>> worked, sometimes not.
>>
>> You can try one or more of the following, with no guarantees:
>>
>> 1. Reinstall the software for the sound card.
>> 2. Reinstall the HP scanner software.
>> 3. Pull one or both cards, boot the system without them, then reinstall them in
>> hope that the extremely early and primitive Windows 95a Plug and Play (Now you
>> now why it is referred to as Plug and Pray) will detect the "new" cards.
>> 4. Delete the sound card, Symbios SCSI card, and scanner entries from the Device
>> Manager.
>>
>> And, because this is one of the very early Pentium 3 PCI cards, it's PnP
>> hardware is not too sharp either. Plus, PnP does not work as well with ISA bus
>> cards, which is what your modem might be, as well as the Symbios.
>>
>> Really, you could be worse off replacing the motherboard. The Symbios SCSI ISA
>> card is a low-end piece of trash sold by HP. You are lucky it has held up all
>> these years. I've had good luck with Adaptec 2900-series PCI SCSI cards and
>> SCSI scanners... Ben Myers
>>
>> On Sun, 05 Nov 2006 19:54:08 -0600, Scott <> wrote:
>>
>> >
>> >
>> >Ben Myers wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Scott,
>> >>
>> >> Failed or failing motherboard CMOS batteries can really screw up a computer.
>> >>
>> >> Assuming that the motherboard has a C2032 3v coin-sized lithium battery, replace
>> >> it. You may not have done so after all these years. After changing the
>> >> battery, you will need to reset the motherboard BIOS settings to default. Next
>> >> time you boot the computer, Windows 95 will redetect all the devices.
>> >>
>> >> If the battery is a small soldered-on Lego-shaped black Dallas Semi DS12887, the
>> >> motherboard is essentially toast, because the battery cannot be replaced. The
>> >> early early Pentium boards in Gateways used this sort of battery. Someone
>> >> decided to save 5 cents by not socketing this battery, soldered it on, and it
>> >> has a typical life of 8-10 years. The later ones used the common coin-sized
>> >> C2032.
>> >>
>> >> I don't know if I have any replacement Gateway Pentium boards any more. I used
>> >> to sell them a lot. I'm also assuming that because the processor is a 90MHz
>> >> Pentium, that the motherboard is baby AT... Ben Myers
>> >>
>> <SNIP!>
>> >
>> >Ben,
>> >
>> >You've warned me about my irreplacable CMOS batter before. I have one of those that's
>> >soldered in. This Gatway is 12 years old, so that's a possibility. I went into the
>> >BIOS and discovered that the peripheral configuration was set to Manual. I changed
>> >it to Automatic and rebooted. Now the modem works fine. The yellow splat is no longer
>> >visible on the Symbios SCSI card, and it says it's working properly. It shows there
>> >are no IRQ conflicts. However, the scanner still does not connect. The sound card
>> >still doesn't show at all on Device Manager.
>> >
>> >Could one of those two cards (the sound or SCSI card) have gone bad?
>> >
>> >Are there any other settings that I should check in the BIOS?
>> >
>> >Next, would it make sense to pull one of the two cards and replace them one at a time?
>> >
>> >Thanks again!
>> >Scott
>
>
>Ben,
>
>OK, I'll try the steps you suggested. In checking the BIOS under Parallel Port Mode,
>there's Compatible, Bi-Directional and EPP-ECD. It's set to Compatible. Does that sound
>right? (I have an HP 722C printer).
>
>Also, my Desk Scan software (on floppies) is v2.2. I found v2.9 available on HP's site.
>Is that likely to be of any help?
>
>Thanks!
>Scott