Adding an ethernet card disables CD-RW, not IRQ issue

[DBecker]

Here's the deal. I have a new computer that uses an Asus A7S333 motherboard. But when I add an ethernet card to one of the PCI slots the computer fails to recognize my CD-RW. When I remove the card, the computer suddenly sees the drive. This is happening at or before the BIOS level. I'm going through the documentation on the motherboard to see if there's some wacky jumper setting somewhere that's messing things up, but all the jumpers seem to be automatically determined for the purposes of adding hardware. I have tried all the PCI slots and I still see the same problem. When I add in a modem card, I do not have this problem.

The ethernet card seems to be using IRQ 18 which is not in use when I boot the computer without the card.

The ethernet card is a netgear, the CD is a generic CD-Rw 40x12x48, the OS is WinXP Pro.

I am frankly at a loss as to what is the source of the problem.

 

[JetsFanatic]

Good Luck with this one......

Sounds very very strange

 

[DBecker]

Yeah, I'm completely befuddled. I'm going to try putting the card in a friend's computer this weekend and see if I just purchased a wacky card.

 

[LiLithTecH]

I believe there is a Diagnostic Program included
on the NIC Driver disk that will give you a better
idea of what the IRQ really is.

Sometimes the IRQ holder for PCI Steering can
conflict with the NIC or other hidden device which
will not show up in Windows Device manager.

Look at your IRQ settings in device manager.
If you find IRQ holder for PCI steering on an IRQ by
itself or a duplicate on the same IRQ of the NIC,
most likely a hidden device is sharing that IRQ.

 

[DBecker]

OK, I couldn't find the diagnostic program, however WinXp allows me to look for hidden devices (this is my first time with WinXp and I had never heard of hidden devices before).

I still can't find any conficts with the ethernet card. However, I removed it and found the following three devices still present:

Netgear FA311 Fast Ethernet Adapter - Packet schduler mini port
Netgear FA311 Fast Ethernet Adapter #2- Packet schduler mini port
Netgear FA311 Fast Ethernet Adapter #3- Packet schduler mini port

Does this ring any bells with anyone?

 

[LiLithTecH]

I think you would be safe to remove those if you uninstalled the NIC.

You can get the Diagnostic program by Downloading the V1.8 driver from Netgear.
Netgear FA311 v1.8 driver

Also, have you updated your VIA (4-1) chipset drivers?

 

[DBecker]

The chipset drivers -should- be up to date, but I'll double check. I'm not going to discount anything at this point.

Thanks for the link.

Some web-surfing has found some pages suggesting that the Netgear FA311 is not comatible with all AMD processors. Like I said, I'll make sure all my drivers are updated, but if the imcompatibility is true it would qualify as a "bummer".