JSI Tip 7441. Windows 2000 Professional BSODs with 0x00000077 when IRQ 2 is assigned to a COM port?

If your Windows 2000 Professional computer has an Award 4.51 PG BIOS, if you assign assign interrupt request line 2 (IRQ 2) to a COM port, when you restart your computer, you receive the following BSOD:

Fatal System Error: 0x00000077 (0x00000103,0xC000000E,0x00000000,0x00032000)

The problem occurs because on your computer, IRQ 2 is a cascade interrupt for IRQ 8 through IRQ 15, and is NOT available for assignment to a COM port.