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I have a suspected system failure related generally to expansion cards in the system

Explanation: A problem condition with the system overall is arising that implies a possible problem related to one or more of the expansion cards in the system. (This means a problem with the system caused by expansion cards, not a problem with a specific card in a system that otherwise works; look here for that.) This typically means an error message or a failure of the system to boot.

Diagnosis: The wide availability of many different types of expansion cards means that the chances of a conflict between two of them, or between them and the system, are significant. Resource conflicts are the most likely problem.

Recommendation:

• Make sure all the cards are securely inserted into the system. Very long cards, especially those that use the VESA local bus, can sometimes come partially loose, causing strange results.
• Make sure that there are no physical problems with the motherboard or internal connections.
• Disable all shadowing of expansion adapter ROMs and see if that fixes the problem.
• Remove all unnecessary expansion cards (basically, everything but the video card) and see if the problem goes away. If it does, the problem is probably one of the expansion cards you removed. If not, your problem lies elsewhere. Try to isolate the problem by inserting one expansion card at a time back into the system and seeing which one triggers the problem.
• Since the most likely cause of the problem is a resource conflict, look here for ideas on resolving the conflict.
• Troubleshoot the motherboard.

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