Black Screen after Second NIC is Installed

[ohmnet]

I have a Gateway DX4200-ub001a

6gb ddr2 ram
ati radeon HD 3450

The onboard NIC is 10/100 base-t and I wanted to disable it in the bios and use two Gigabit PCI cards.

I disabled the onboard LAN from the BIOS then installed the the two PCI GB NICs. When I boot up.... nothing. No post beeps, no lights, black monitor. Nada.

If I take out one PCI NIC, it boots fine. It has no problems when I run one GB nic and the onboard lan connection at the same time. It even works when I disable the onboard lan and just use one GB PCI nic.

But the second I put in the second PCI NIC, It just doesn't boot. Not even a light on the MB, no fan, no bios, nada.

Google hasn't helped much.

Could it be an underpowered PS? irq conflicts with vid card?

Any sugestions would be helpful!

Thanks in advance!

 

[C1]

Do both NIC cards register properly as available in device manager?
A guess is that you need to have network management software that is able to manage two simultaneous NIC cards. To test this, disable one of the NICs in Device Manager and see if there is network availability via the active card.

 

[ohmnet]

That's the thing, With both cards in, there's no power what's so ever, I can't get to the device manager. Each card by them selves works fine. It's when I put them both in that the computer doesn't even start. No post, no fan, no bios. Nothing.

 

[C1]

Im out of my league here. When one sees multiple NICs then it seems to be associated with servers.

If you absolutely need multiple ethernet connections, a dual or quad card might be the way you have to go:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000H6MNX4/...SIN=B000H6MNX4

 

[ch33zw1z]

What cards are you installing, and which slots?

Got a spare power supply laying around to test with?

 

[ohmnet]

They are two Rosewill pci GB cards. There is only two PCI slots on the computer. I've tried using just one card in each slot and it boots up just fine. It's when I use both PCI slots that the computer doesn't boot.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833166005


Should I move this thread to the highly technical forum?

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Do you have any other PCI cards that you can install? I'm wondering if it's a problem with both slots being used, rather than both NICs.

 

[ohmnet]

Do you have any other PCI cards that you can install? I'm wondering if it's a problem with both slots being used, rather than both NICs.

Now there's an idea I haven't tried yet! Thanks, I'll let you know how it goes when I'm back at work...

I can never find my own missing semi-colons either.

 

[ohmnet]

OK, I installed two old PCI raid controllers I had lying around and it booted up fine. Then put the two GB nics in and got nothing.

Stranger still, I put in just a single PCI nic and it's not booting at all. Not even a fan or post beep.

Took out the PCI Nic and it boots back up. I then tried an Intel pro GB nic and nothing. Tried both PCI slots, nothing.

So I used to be able to get it to boot fine with just one PCI Nic, but now it wont boot at all with ANY PCI slot filled with a NIC. Other PCI cards seem to work fine.

I've tried the NICs in other computers and they work great.

Any ideas? I'm pulling my hair out on this!

 

[ch33zw1z]

Clear the CMOS.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

If clearing CMOS doesn't work, it's got to be a motherboard issue. Can you try the dual NICs in another PC?

 

[Steltek]

Out of curiosity, what happens if you leave the onboard NIC enabled in the BIOS and try to boot with one or both of the PCI nic cards installed?

 

[ohmnet]

If clearing CMOS doesn't work, it's got to be a motherboard issue. Can you try the dual NICs in another PC?

The NICS work fine in other PCs.

Here's what I did:

Both PCI slots where empty. Moved the clear CMOS jumper, powered up. Fan came on, post beep, waited for a few, shut down. Moved the jumpers back and rebooted. The bios came up cleared and fresh, shutdown, unplugged.

Put one NIC in a PCI slot, plugged in the power, Hit the power button.... Nothing.

Unplugged, leaving in the NIC, moved the clear CMOS jumper, plugged in, hit the power button.... Nothing. No fan, no post.

It's kinda funny, a week ago, I was able to get the internal Ethernet and one NIC working fine, but I wanted to use this box as an Untangle box so wanted two 1GB NICS. Now, none of the NICS work in either slot at all.

I tried putting in two pci raid controllers and it boots up just fine. It just doesn't like NICs. To add insult to injury, they never released a bios update!

 

[ohmnet]

Does anyone know if there's a third-party or vendor bios update for the MB?

Now I have Amibios v. 08.00.14
Release: 05/05/08
I'd: 7b3p081g

Checked Gateway's support site and they never released a bios update for the DX4200-UB001A model.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

The NICS work fine in other PCs.

Here's what I did:

Both PCI slots where empty. Moved the clear CMOS jumper, powered up. Fan came on, post beep, waited for a few, shut down. Moved the jumpers back and rebooted. The bios came up cleared and fresh, shutdown, unplugged.

Put one NIC in a PCI slot, plugged in the power, Hit the power button.... Nothing.

Unplugged, leaving in the NIC, moved the clear CMOS jumper, plugged in, hit the power button.... Nothing. No fan, no post.

It's kinda funny, a week ago, I was able to get the internal Ethernet and one NIC working fine, but I wanted to use this box as an Untangle box so wanted two 1GB NICS. Now, none of the NICS work in either slot at all.

I tried putting in two pci raid controllers and it boots up just fine. It just doesn't like NICs. To add insult to injury, they never released a bios update!

You've proven that the motherboard is the issue, and it seems to have degraded with this testing. It's time to cut your losses and either get a new motherboard or another PC.

 

[TerryMathews]

Check the back of the board and see if it's contacting the metal case. Would explain the intermittent nature revolving around insertion and removal.