Definition: A system resource is any usable part of a computer that can be controlled and assigned by the operating system so all of the hardware and software on the computer can work together as designed.
These resources might come from the CPU, the motherboard, system memory, etc.
While there are many individual segments of a complete computer system that could be considered "system resources," there are generally four major resource types, all viewable and configurable in Device Manager:
- Interrupt Requests (IRQ) Lines
- Direct Memory Access (DMA) Channels
- Input/Output (I/O) Port Addresses
- Memory Address Ranges
System resources can not usually be used by more than one piece of hardware. The major exception are IRQs which can, in certain situations, be shared among multiple devices.
Windows automatically assigns system resources to hardware devices if the devices are Plug and Play compliant. Nearly all devices, and certainly all commonly available computer hardware devices available today, are Plug and Play compliant.
Also Known As: Resource (Device Manager), hardware resource
Examples:
"I installed an old video card in my PC so I could hook up a second monitor. After installing it, Device Manager showed that there was a resource conflict. I manually changed the IRQ for the PCI card and then it started working fine."
