  isacfg good for what IRQs you? 
 The Question is:
 
I am trying to add a second IEEE-488 card (ISA bus) to my Digital 433au PWS.
 The procedure to add an ISA device is to use the "isacfg" utility to set the
 slot number, IRQ#, dma chan#, and base I/O address. Unfortunately, the "show
 config" command invoked
from the boot prompt indicates that all available IRQs are used up. For this
 reason, I used "isacfg" to remove a device called "ES1888" to free up an IRQ
 for my second IEEE-488 card. I was informed that the "ES1888" is a sound card
 and not needed by the s
ystem.
 
Unfortunately, the system now crashes at random times, sometimes within minutes
 and other times after several hours, after I start up a particular
 application. By crash I mean the monitor is blank and the PWS is unresponsive
 to keyboard commands or the PW
S resets to the boot prompt.
 
It is becoming evident to me that the application, may in fact, "need" the
 device that I removed and that the device may not be a sound card afterall.
 
Question: The device that I removed is of type "Embedded" as indicated using
 the "show config" command. May I remove a device type "Embedded"? Is it safe
 to assume that devices of type "Embedded" cannot be removed?
 
 
 The Answer is :
 
  Embedded indicates the capability is implemented on the motherboard,
  and the DECwindows keyboard (among other users) expects to have a
  sound device.  (This is how the keyboard bell is implemented.)
 
  You must free an(other) IRQ using isacfg (after re-configuring the
  sound), or re-configure and then move to a PCI-based card -- it would
  clearly appear that the additional card or the removal of the sound
  device has destabilized the system.  (You are now also aware of why
  ISA and EISA buses were replaced -- Q-bus CSR and vector settings
  are approximately equally painful to manage.  This in addition to
  the low performance of the ISA or EISA (or Q-bus) bus, of course.)
 
  The OpenVMS Wizard would move to a PCI-based IEEE 488, or to a
  network-based connection.
 
 Answer written or last revised on  2-AUG-2003 
