For non plug and play boards/drivers, the base address, interrupt, and DMA resources must be assigned without help from the operating system. However, Windows Device Manager can give a comprehensive list of resouces already in use. When in Device Manager, highlight the icon for Computer at the top of the list, and then click the Properties Button along the bottom of Device Manager's screen. This allows the I/O, IRQ and DMA resources to be viewed. If, for example, IRQ 5 does not show up in the list, it should be available for your board to use.