PC to PC direct networking causes machine to reboot?

[mxnerd]

I never used a ethernet cable to connect 2 PCs direcly.

I tried it today, both PC has gigabit port which supposed to have MDX capability, one is Realtek, the other INTEL.

And it did work, yet only sometimes. Many times it worked a while, then one of the NIC malfunctioned (the INTEL PRO), and everytime when I tried to move the cable a bit see if it fit snuglly, the PC with INTEL PRO rebooted.

Why is that?

 

[mpilchfamily]

Sounds like a defective cable.

 

[masteryoda34]

Just get a router or a switch and save yourself a lot of hastle.

 

[ScottMac]

Could be a power issue, could be a mechanical mis-alignment of the port (causing a short) ... sounds bad whatever it is.

 

[mxnerd]

Well, apparetly INTEL PRO is the culprit.

I cnnected both PC to a switch and after a while, the INTEL PRO still malfunctioned and has a yellow exclamation mark.

This is a brand new card. 🙁

 

[cholley]

check the IRQ the intel is on, or go into your BIOS and disable com 2, IRQ conflicts can cause your reboot issue

 

[mxnerd]

This is an old P4 PC. I checked the BIOS and found the hyperthreading, ACPI and IDE master was off and machine was slow, the IRQs were already set on PNP though.

The client has a Win2000 adv server CD with 25-user license but was not installed and just laying around so I installed it on the machine. Planning using it as PPTP & OpenVPN server and as a backup storage server.

After updating all the necessary drivers, installed service pack and all hotfixes, connected to the switch, the INTEL NIC seems working OK now.

Sometimes the explorer will still crash, I don't know if it's the crappy MSI motherbaord or the OS itself.

*EDIT*

It still is the INTEL PRO that's crappy. It affected the system stability and even made keyboard input funky. Replaced with another card and it's all fine.