Hi.

> Dale:
>
> The I/O cards use standard hardware configuration (IRQs,
> I/O  addresses, etc.) and do not need drivers (unless you
> have a local bus I/O card, and then only to get 32-bit access
> and other benefits).
...
> I never liked Sound Card IDE controllers. Generally, they use the
> tertiary IDE channel, so you have to check that there are no IRQ
> conflicts. You have to set an enable jumper and run installation
> software to gain this channel.
>
> Hope that helps.
>
> John Chin
>

        Well, if you have four IDE disks, and want an IDE cd, you
need a third IDE port, and a good solution is get it from a sound
card (and solve port/irq conflicts).
        On the system I'm writing this, a CDROM is in the SoundBlaster
(not PnP) IDE, as quaternary/IRQ10. I have CD in OS/2, DOS/Windows,
Linux, W95 and NT4. There are jumpers, but no installation software
(do you refer to PnP ones?). No problem, other than when switching
os's, sometimes going into W95 there is no cd, and a hard reset is
needed.
        A different thing is that these SB boards have some type of
incompatibility with some on mobo floppy controllers: if you disable
the IDE through its jumpers, the on mobo floppy controller stops working,
so a workaround seems to have it always enabled, but the irq jumper off.

************************************
Javier Vizcaino. Ability Electronics. [log in to unmask]
  Starting point:        (-1)^(-1) = -1
  Applying logarithms: (-1)*ln(-1) = ln(-1)
  Since ln(-1) <> 0, dividing:  -1 = 1     (ln(-1) is complex, but exists)