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computer wont start with nic

M

mikieboy

Senior member
epox board kx, athlon 500, 228 ram, dvd decoder card, us robotics modem, netgear pci nic, aureal sound card. every time we put nic in either pci 2 or 3 the computer wont start up. gets to win98 screen and stays. put isa nic in and that just makes the computer take forever to start up. any ideas...
 
Take the modem, sound card, and decoder card out to see if it boots with just the netgear in. Try putting it in different pci slots besides 2 and 3.
 
You said this was an ISA nic? You may be limited on the choices of slots to put the card in, but if you have more than one try em all. If you only have one ISA slot on your board, and you have a free PCI slot, spend the $15 - $20 to get a decent PCI nic. If you have to stick w/the ISA, check the documentation that came w/the card to make sure that all jumpers are set properly.

**Just reads your post**

Okay, don't I feel like a sheep *baaaaaa*
Have you tried the nic in a dif computer? Double check that there are no IRQ conflicts [start computer in safe mode if you have to] and that you have an IP assigned to the nic. That will shave some boot time off and may resolve the freeze problem. If not, new nic?
 
First try the PCI NIC in all available slots -- sounds like you did that already. Next, boot without any NIC and see what you have open for IRQs, IO addresses, the ISA NIC probably cannot share an IRQ or IO. Then, put the ISA NIC in and boot to the DOS prompt by pressing F8 when the Starting Windows text appears. In DOS, run the ISA configuration utility for the NIC. (There should be a floppy with the NIC that has a setup.exe on it or look at the card maker website to get it.

Try to put the card in PNP mode if the ISA card has a PNP mode. If the ISA card is a true legacy/Non-PNP card, pic resources that you know are free. (Remember, you just looked, maybe pull the card and look again to make sure, this is critical).

So, exit the ISA utility (almost done). Now reboot and go into your BIOS (If you are in PNP mode, ignore this step). In the BIOS look for a list of interupts that may be set as PNP or Legacy. Set the interrupt that the Non-PNP NIC is on to "Legacy" or "in use" or whatever it happens to be called. Shut it all down, reboot, should work fine.

jerem806
 
I hope you're not getting overwhelmed by too many replies... I have a hunch it's choking on IRQ delegation. In which case turn PnP OS off in the BIOS. It could also be a m/b issue, so check you have the latest BIOS as well.

Another possibility is "ghost devices"... restart in Safe Mode and have a look in Device Manager; get rid of any old or duplicate entries. Hope this helps.
 
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