DSL / ethernet causing computer to crash

[cmaccaux]

I upgraded from Win98 to ME about 6 weeks ago. On Nov 22nd I subscribed to DSL from SWBell. I am having serious problems with my computer crashing ever since I installed the ethernet card and SWBell's Enternet software. The tech support people at SWBell said that ME has serious bugs in it, and they had no other ideas...

Here is exactly what happens:
1. I start the computer
2. I log into DSL using SWBell's Enternet program
3. I open Outlook Express and check mail
4. I start IE (ver 5.50) and start browsing.
5. At any point, the whole thing just shuts off. It can be after 15
minutes, or 4 hours later. No time limits.

When I say it shuts off, I mean it literally. It's like someone pulls the plug out of the wall. The monitor goes black with NO warnings, and immediately it goes into the restart sequence, almost as if someone had clicked on "restart" from the start menu. The difference is, when you do click Restart, at least the thing takes the time to shut down properly. In this scenario, the screen and computer just dumps. Then, during restart, the scandisk pops up and says that I shut down incorrectly and scans all the disks. It's done this like 20 times now since Nov. 22nd and I'm kind of getting concerned over possibly losing some information I don't care to lose on there.

One thing I did notice was that both the display and the LInksys ethernet card were both on irq 11. Think this would matter?

If anyone has any ideas, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks,
Chris Maccaux

 

[Pete]

Do you have any sort of power management enabled? Is the power going to your computer consistent? As I know nothing of IRQs, I'll let someone else handle that.

I'm assuming this spontaneous shutdown doesn't happen when you don't browse or use the SWB s/w at all--right?

 

[odog]

PPPoe is the devil.... with that said... ditch enternet.. or get the newest version(which is supposedly ME compatible)



i perfer RASPPPOE it works in almost every Windows OS and is just plain less buggy

find it here RASPPPOE

 

[cmaccaux]

I ran down to Staples after realizing that both the display and ethernet modem were on irq 11. It just hit me like a ton of bricks that "duh", you can only have 1 thing per irq like that, and what was happening would have coincided perfectly with the problem statement. At times, the mouse pointer would also lock up on the screen, but if you continued to move the mouse around, you could still see the "shadows" of the mouse as it moved over what would have been one of the IE buttons up top. Dang, dead giveaway.

I just installed an external ethernet adapter to my USB port with a cable, and it seems to be doing fine... (crossed fingers). I have this pile of hardware, though, that I'm going to have to take back to Staples. Maybe even enough so to pick up the router.. =)

Hopefully the problems' fixed.
Thanks,
Chris Maccaux

 

[R2D2]

Have you tried removing any unused protocols?

 

[edblor]

Hello!!!

You CAN have more than 1 item on the same IRQ!!! Look at your BIOS bootup screen..It will no doubt tell you that multiple items are occupying the same IRQ!!

I have 4 items occupying the same IRQ!! The point is...That WinXX will determine what IRQs and resources each installed device gets! It will also sometimes share IRQs and will do this all behind the scenes!!

That is NOT your problem here (IRQ sharing)!! It is more likely to be APM or even ACPI. disable that in your BIOS and see if the same problem(s) occur. I bet your using an AMD chip/processor! That was my problem!! BIOS updates and BIOS tweaking helped me, and it may help you!!

Good luck and hope this helps!!

Edblor

 

[Unsickle]

Get a router. You need a firewall anyways. Then your computer will only see DHCP and everybody will be happy.

 

[corkyg]

There are basically two things that do not like to share IRQs . . . one is the display and the other is a SCSI card. Sounds like you figured out the problem . . . you were hit with a total IRQ conflict. My Ethernet card shares an IRQ with the USB controller. No problems. Most of the IRQ assignments in my systems are determined by which PCI slot you use. Slot 1 shares with AGP . . . that is because you can have either a AGP or PCI display adapter . . .but . . . if you have AGP, then you can't use Slot 1! Slot 2 is not shared . . . and that is where I have my SCSI card.