irq conflicts?

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Hello, I am running kernel 2.0.36 up from redhat 5.0 and I 've set up
my system for ip forwarding and ip masquerading and all works great using
the 3com905B-TX to connect to my cable modem and a linksys 16 ISA (nec2000
compatible) for my LAN. THe corresponding modules are 3c59x and ne.
I had the great idea of installing an adaptec 2910 scsi card. All went well
with it but I cannot get the linksys card its own irq.
I 've said no to 'PnP aware system' in my BIOS setup, and the card itself
has been set to irq 10 and io=0x240 using a msdos setup program. If I give
other values the setup program refuses to write to the PROM saying there
is a conflict.
In the BIOS settings I am offered a list of IRQs and I can reserve each one
for PnP/PCI or ISA/EISA. I 've put irq 10 to ISA/EISA.

During boot time this is what I get

eth0: 3Com 3c905B Cyclone 100baseTx at 0x7c80, 00:10:5a:08:e5:7f, IRQ 9
  8K byte-wide RAM 5:3 Rx:Tx split, autoselect/NWay Autonegotiation interface.
  Enabling bus-master transmits and whole-frame receives.
ARP: arp called for own IP address

This is OK
and then this

ne.c:v1.10 9/23/94 Donald Becker (becker@cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov)
NE*000 ethercard probe at 0x240: not found (invalid signature 42 42).
ne.c: No NE*000 card found at i/o = 0x240
  
Do my problems have to do with the invalid signature?

The system has a 1995 BIOS, 4 PCI and 4 ISA slots.
There are PCI video,sound,ethernet and scsi cards and an ISA modem and the linksys.
In an attempt to economize I also disabled the IRQ for the PCI video.

I can send /proc/pci and /proc/interrupts if anybody requires it.


Thanks a lot for any ideas and advice.

-- 
G. Vetoulis