NVIDIA Network Adapter driver problem (MSI K8N Neo4-F)

[tstheisen]

We have an MSI K8N Neo4- F with the Nvidia chipset. We are running Windowx XP SP2 (just upgraded to Service Pack 2). The computer will only boot in Normal mode if we disable or remove the NVIDIA Network Adapter driver. If we attempt to boot in Normal mode, it always ends with a Bad Pool Header problem and then blue screens and reboots. If we boot in Safe Mode with Networking enabled, we can access the Internet. If we disable or remove the driver, then boot in normal mode, we can run in Normal mode but we do not have internet connection.

Does anyone know how we can use the onboard Network Adapter, and still boot in normal mode?

We have been using the latest drivers from Nvidia MSI for this motherboard. Is there a different version that can be used? Is it possible that we have to update our BIOS for it to work correctly with SP2?

I suppose we could install a network interface card and use that, but we would like to use the onboard network adapter if possible.

Thanks for any advice you can give.

 

[Tsaico]

I would first look in your event viewer to make sure that it your network driver that is crashing the kernel. It sometimes can be the driver that loads after it and will cause a conflict if they are hard coded to use the same memory space.

You should also check to make sure your NIC is using a uniqe IRQ.

I would suspect one or the other since the computer works if you load safe mode with Networking and do not BSOD.

 

[tstheisen]

Thanks for the reply.

1) We will check the event viewer as soon as we can get time on the machine. Although it does crash when booting in normal mode when the Network Adapter (NA) is enabled, it does not crash when booting in normal mode with the NA disabled. If we boot in Normal mode with the NA disabled, and then go to the Devices and enable the NA, it crashes immediately when we attempt to enable it ... which I think means that it is the NA driver problem.

2) We are not familiar with how to check for a unique IRQ ... is there a procedure for doing this?

The computer we are working with is our "work horse", meaning my wife needs it available, so my son and I only get to work on it and test things as we can get on the machine, so sometimes it may take a little time to get back to trying different things.

Thanks again for help.

 

[dclive]

Debug the memory dumpfiles (see my web page) and you can then get some measure of confidence in what is causing the dump (and it's quite possible it's not what you think.)

A modern ACPI OS shouldn't need IRQ changes. If you're getting bad pool errors, it's not an IRQ issue. BTW: IRQs are shared in modern OSs, period. Anyone who says differently is talking about a non-Windows OS (and frankly, non-Linux, non-BeOS, non-Unix, non......)

 

[tstheisen]

OK, we will try that when we can get back on the system (may be a quite a while before we can get on the system to try this and get back to you).

Thanks for the reply.

 

[tstheisen]

We finally got back to working on this. We ended up re-installing from scratch with XP Service Pack 2, and everything now works correctly. My wife would not let us mess with the system any more (mostlly her system), so we took the shortest, safest route. Thanks for the help.