Net setup woes: IRQ conflict with Vid board?
Don Tyler
that, if I post a problem to the boards, I find the answer, and quite
often find the answer even before I receive replies. So invoking that
superstition once again....
We bought two computers. We're trying to network them. In short, the
network cards can identify themselves, intermittently. Computer #1
also occasionally glimpses #2, but that's about it. My current theory:
I notice that my vid card and the net card both demand IRQ 11. Could
be trouble? If so, how would one re-route either vid or net to, say,
IRQ 9 which seems to be available?
By the way, with these new systems, we're moving up from a 486/66 and
Win 3.1. I thought I was going to get Plug'n'Play and never worry
about an IRQ conflict again. Just kidding. I'm not THAT naive. But I
am learning how to find my way around in Win 98 at the same time I'm
trying to learn network installation. I have monkeyed inside the boxes
since the Radio Shack Model I days, but I feel like a complete novice
here!
I've been through three techs at Netgear trying to resolve this.
Thanks to tech #1, I've (supposedly temporarily) pulled out my audio
card and uninstalled my audio software, and I've moved the card to the
#1 PCI slot (farthest away from the ISAs). You know, doc is really
inadequate on such points!
Thanks to tech #2, I got Windows to quit telling me on startup that
the net boards weren't installed properly. I'm still not sure I've got
all the Windows net setup done right. But at least I know my way
around it now. And boy is the Win98 Help file on networking lame!
With tech #3, I discovered that pinging from computer #2 to computer
#1 caused both lights to flash on the hub, but pinging from #1 to #2
caused only one light to flash. He told me firmly that the problem
therefore must be a faulty cable. I've replaced the cables. I've
switched the cables around, tried different ports in the hub, and even
switched the card in one computer with the other. That changed
nothing.
At this point, I'm betting it's the IRQ conflict. I get no device
conflict report for vid or net cards in Win98/ Control Panel/ System/
Device Manager/ Properties/ Resources. But should I trust something
buried that deep? :)
Here's the relevant specs:
AMD II/450 on FIC (I think) VA-503+ mainboard
ATI Rage Fury video card
Netgear EN104TB four-port 10BASE-T hub
Netgear FA310TX 32-bit auto-sensing 10/100 cards
And 2 Godmade humans who've lost a valuable day and a half already
trying to get this stuff to work.
Useful guessers will have my everlasting gratitude and a free cup of
coffee (at least) at our cybercafe, if this ever gets working.
--
:Don Tyler, Washington County, Oklahoma USA
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Don Tyler
to my own message.
>Over the years, going back to early days on CompuServe, I've found
>that, if I post a problem to the boards, I find the answer, and quite
>often find the answer even before I receive replies. So invoking that
>superstition once again....
...worked. Technician #4 at Netgear managed to resolve my problem. He
said it was a problem with (big surprise) Windows 98. If anyone cares:
Our problem wasn't an IRQ conflict with the vid board, but it was an
IRQ problem. Win98 was forcing the net card to an IRQ that disagreed
with the hardware. Reserving IRQs 9, 10, and 11 finally forced Win98
to put the net card on IRQ 5, agreeing with the hardware. Also had to
fiddle with the BIOS some.
This shows up, the tech said, about one time in ten. Something funny
happens in Win98 installation. For unrelated reasons, I had
re-installed Windows 98 on one computer, but had not on the one with
the problem. So, thank you, once again, Mr. Bill Gates!
Now I get to disable the net card, unreserve the IRQs, re-install the
sound card, see what IRQs it wants, re-reserve the others, and see if
I still have a network.
Yessir, plug'n'play! Har har!
dad
by the mouse)
Then set the network cards to use this IRQ (3)
Another one to note is that most sound cards are preset to use IRQ 5,
so you could try removing that one as well.
Then try pinging both machines
A useful tip with pinging is to type "DOSKEY" before the command line
and then use the "UP ARROW KEY" instead of having to type the whole
line out each time you want to try to ping.
This usually gives you a good idea as to the cause of the problem, as
if this works, you can be pretty sure that the problem is the IRQ
settings for the cards.
PNP can be useful, but it can also cause a lot of problems.
A lot of PNP cards cause this sort of problem, I find the best way
sometimes is to install them one at a time.
If the problem is still there and you still suspect the IRQ's, I would
remove any non essential cards from the case as this will free a lot
more IRQ's and try again.
On Fri, 16 Apr 1999 15:47:51 GMT, mindful...@sprynet.com (Don
Tyler) wrote:
>Over the years, going back to early days on CompuServe, I've found
>that, if I post a problem to the boards, I find the answer, and quite
>often find the answer even before I receive replies. So invoking that
>superstition once again....
>
>We bought two computers. We're trying to network them. In short, the
>network cards can identify themselves, intermittently. Computer #1
>also occasionally glimpses #2, but that's about it. My current theory:
>I notice that my vid card and the net card both demand IRQ 11. Could
>be trouble? If so, how would one re-route either vid or net to, say,
>IRQ 9 which seems to be available?
>
daetr...@enterprise.net
http://homepages.enterprise.net/daetronics/
Don Tyler
on Sun, 18 Apr 1999 16:58:21 GMT,
daetr...@enterprise.net (dad) wrote me.
As my follow-up message noted, I did get the problem solved, finally,
and it did involve playing around with BIOS as well as reserving IRQs
in Win 98. Then I got to do it all over again when I re-installed the
sound board. What fun!
Now I'm feeling cocky, so I think I'll try adding my old 486/66 to the
net [grin]. OR, at least, pull out its 56K modem, put it in one of the
new machines, and start looking for a proxy server. (MORE fun!)
>A useful tip with pinging is to type "DOSKEY"...
Well, I found F3 to be sufficient in that regard. BUT, since I'd never
heard of (or had long forgotten about--not sure which) DOSKey, I went
right into DOS and entered DOSKEY/? to find out about it. (Ah, good
old DOS. How I mostly miss it nowadays.) Thanks!