can't boot with pci modem installed

[eliya]

hey guys,

i recently tried to install a 56k pci modem (don't know the manufacturer, rockwell chipset).
now i put it inside, and nothing! at all... only the power led comes on but no fans, no hard-disk, nothing at all.
when i remove the card, everything's back to normal. (my computer is a duron@900 on epox 8kta2).

obviously, i thought the modem is broken, but it works in my dad's old k6-200!
what the hell is wrong with this thing?!...

if anyone knows what it could be, i'd be very interested to hear from you.

thanks in advance, eliya.

 

[ST4RCUTTER]

Welcome to Anandtech!

Are you overclocking the FSB? Have you tried another PCI slot? It may not be the modem, but the interaction of the modem using the IRQ of that particular slot in conjunction with another device using another IRQ.

 

[eliya]

(of course, it seemed so trivial to me that i forgot to even write it down... )

yes, i did both. i dropped the fsb back to 100mhz before installation, and i tried it in two other pci slots.
still no luck.

any more ideas?
(thanks for the lightning-quick response, btw )

 

[ST4RCUTTER]

Damn that's strange. Have you tried removing the other neighboring devices? How about booting with just the basics (proc, mobo, RAM, and video card etc.? I would try booting a barebones system with the modem and then add cards until it crashes. I suppose one very slim possiblility could be that your PSU is riding on the edge of its capabilities and the modem is sending it over the edge...doubt it though. Is the the quick POST set to enabled in the BIOS? Shouldn't matter, but you never know...

 

[eliya]

hehe, here's the strangest part!

it's already bare-bone!.. it's only the modem and the video card (tnt2) in there!...
i doubt it's the psu, since it's 300w and there's not much sucking power from it (3 fans, 1 cd, 1 hd, 1 floppy, modem&video, mobo&cpu).
plus, i used to have an isa modem in there before this one, and it worked. ( - however it's probably the best explanation for this so far)

 

[RC5Bri]

Have you gone into the BIOS to see if it is trying to save IRQ's for legacy devices? I don't think that would do it...the fans/hd don't even spin up.

What about shorting a ground somewhere? I don't know, remove the motherboard from the case, and then power up I would have to guess that somehow the modem is grounding power to the case. But then the LED shouldn't come on either...

I don't know what your problem is...but at least I threw out some ideas.

 

[clumsum]

eliya,

The modem is bad, the same thing happened to me with a brand new pci modem ..........( a cheapo)!
I tried it in every slot .............. same result .............. no boot!
Nothing I tried worked .................. ?

So I went out and got a new US Robotics Pro and it works great!

I cannot explain why it works in your Dad's pc ............. did you try it in your Dad's AFTER your failed attempt in your pc?

 

[freebee]

I have an epox 8k7a with similar problems. When I put in a cheap old motorola sm56 modem it would not POST..but when I replaced it with a LT winmodem it worked. And the motorola modem works on my other computers, just not the epox board. Never quite figured it out why it did it either.

 

[panhead49]

same here.....8kha+ board......tryed a modem out of the old system....every pci slot....bios acpi...os arrange irq's ...manual setup...everything....no boot....bought a new modem...works first time....sometimes they just quit workin...

 

[eliya]

clumsum:

<< did you try it in your Dad's AFTER your failed attempt in your pc? >>


yea, works there just fine after/before... :/

i also see it's a more common problem than i thought...
maybe we epox ppl should try to ask 'em (epox) about it? could be manufacturer-specific?
(i wonder if people with other boards have those problems too)

anyway, thank you all very much for your help/ideas
it turned out to be a very friendly forum

 

[DN]

The only thing I could suggest is disable your serial ports in the BIOS setup and retry..

 

[clumsum]

My modem problems were with the new Chaintech mATX CT-7SID DDR mb that uses the SiS 735 Chipset, so apparently it's not just the Epox that this can be a problem on ................