I'd like to know if the Plug and Play functionnality is provided by the Bios, the motherboard chipset or by the os.
By the way i've got an old Dell Gxpro running an pentium pro 200mhz (enough to do little C programming)
If by 'Plug and Play' you're referring to the assignment of IRQ's and DMA's to PnP-compatible expansion cards, then either the BIOS or the OS can provide this functionality. There's an option in most BIOSes called "Plug and Play OS' that if enabled will allow the OS to configure Plug and Play cards. If disabled, the BIOS will attempt to configure them. You would want to let the BIOS do it if you're not sure that your OS will do a good job at it (ie you're using DOS or Win9x).
i don't have any PnP option in the Bios but i read this dell gxpro coulp manage PnP because i read it in the dell service manual for this machine.
I run Win 98 SE.
So if i understand what you're saying, either the Bios or the Os can handle PnP.
I know it's hard, but is there a way to know which take care of PnP?
It's probably permanently set to Plug and Play by BIOS then. The easy way to find out is to attempt to change the resources assigned to the card in question through the OS. You do so by opening up the Device Manager and right-clicking on the device you want to change then opening its Properties page. The section you're interested in is the tab marked Resources.
Just out of curiosity, what do you need to know the resource configuration for? If you're coding in C it should be abstracted from the hardware level (unless you're coding a driver, and then you use the Microsoft driver API's)
It's that i wanted to know how that works because i'm quite new to really understanding computer's hardware.
If i've understood what you said (as my native tongue's not english but french, i'm not always sure to catch up everything!) , if i modify the ressources assigned, and if by then the card stop working, it will mean that the bios and not the os takes care of PnP (because the os then won't be able to reconfigure the card itself) ?
About coding in C, i'm a real beginner and self-teacher and i think there's a long way for me to manage to code anything like a driver!
For the moment, i'm just able to make a pyramide with "stars ("*") in a dos shell but i'm eager to learn.
The bios (if set to... and in your case it sounds like it is btw...)should try and set the cards IRQ's and stuff up when they are first added or first booted but a PNP OS can over ride those settings within Windows for example also.
They are both trying to resolve conflicts but may not agree with each other in the end. If the conflicts are bad enough when adding a new device and the bios was not set to configure the PNP devices you may not even be able to boot up or Windows may not correctly see the new cards etc... So the bios takes first stab at setting the IRQ's and stuff but that doesnt mean Windows won't change them again once it gets drivers loaded and stuff.
So your answer is that BOTH sorta setup the new cards or devices.
Comments
Hope this helps.
-drasnor
i don't have any PnP option in the Bios but i read this dell gxpro coulp manage PnP because i read it in the dell service manual for this machine.
I run Win 98 SE.
So if i understand what you're saying, either the Bios or the Os can handle PnP.
I know it's hard, but is there a way to know which take care of PnP?
Just out of curiosity, what do you need to know the resource configuration for? If you're coding in C it should be abstracted from the hardware level (unless you're coding a driver, and then you use the Microsoft driver API's)
-drasnor
If i've understood what you said (as my native tongue's not english but french, i'm not always sure to catch up everything!) , if i modify the ressources assigned, and if by then the card stop working, it will mean that the bios and not the os takes care of PnP (because the os then won't be able to reconfigure the card itself) ?
About coding in C, i'm a real beginner and self-teacher and i think there's a long way for me to manage to code anything like a driver!
For the moment, i'm just able to make a pyramide with "stars ("*") in a dos shell but i'm eager to learn.
They are both trying to resolve conflicts but may not agree with each other in the end. If the conflicts are bad enough when adding a new device and the bios was not set to configure the PNP devices you may not even be able to boot up or Windows may not correctly see the new cards etc... So the bios takes first stab at setting the IRQ's and stuff but that doesnt mean Windows won't change them again once it gets drivers loaded and stuff.
So your answer is that BOTH sorta setup the new cards or devices.
Tex