[PCMCIA] Realtek 8139 was not assigned an IRQ

I just bought a "twister" pcmcia 10/100 networkcard, and apparently it has a 
Realtek 8139 chip in it.
 
I use debian GNU linux, and I downloaded and compiled the rtl8139.c and 
pci-scan.c files according to the docs on the website 
(http://www.scyld.com/network/rtl8139.html).
 
So far so good. Everything is going nicely up to the point where the module is 
to be installed.
 
At that point I get the message: "PCI device '...' was not assigned an IRQ"
"It will not be activated"
 
How strange... so I boot Window$ to see if the card is ok. And there it gets 
IRQ 10 assigned to the card and it functions fine (although IRQ 10 is shared 
with the IRQ of the Intel Cardbus). 

The Cardbus works fine with my other Xircom 10mbit pcmcia networkcard and 
CF-cardreader under Linux, so there's no problem with the Cardbus or its 
drivers.
 
Next thing I do is read http://www.scyld.com/expert/irq-conflict.html
 
And there they talk about all kinds of nice solutions like enabling or 
disabling the PnP OS option in the bios. But the problem is that I have this 
Dell Inspiron 3500 and this one doesn't have an option called PnP OS or 
anything like it. So I've tried disabling some devices to get more IRQ's 
free, but still I keep getting the same error..."PCI device '...' was not 
assigned an IRQ"

When booting from a dos disk, and using the driver disk that came with the 
card I could run the program rtpci.exe and rtbios.exe. If I do this with no 
extra options no IRQ gets assigned to the card, for example I must run rtpci 
/i 3 for IRQ 3 and then I can run the diagnostics program rset8139.exe that 
came with the card.
So apparently the BIOS of my laptop does not assign an IRQ to the card (why 
does it get one in Windows?), but I can set it using the dos rtpci program.

Because my laptop lacks the BIOS options like PnP OS, I don't know what else I 
can try. Is there a possibility in Linux that I could assign an IRQ to the 
card in the way that the program rtpci.exe does? Or is there a simpeler 
solotion to all this, other than buying a new networkcard/laptop?

Kind regards, 
Bram Platel