problem i've had for months, please help!!

[parkbench]

Hi,

I have a problem that (seemingly) stems from a bad network setup.

My home computer successfully boots Windows XP RANDOMLY. Many times when I boot up my computer freezes *before* loading of the start taskbar. I have found a workaround which involves pushing ctrl-alt-delete, and logging off my account. I then restart the same account and it successfully boots windows xp.

I have a realtek NIC with the newest drivers installed.

In the Control Panel Device Manager under Network Adaptors, Realtek rtl8139/810x family fast ethernet NIC is reportedly working fine.

BUT Realtek RTL8139 family pci fast ethernet NIC - packet scheduler miniport and Realtek RTL8139 family pci fast ethernet NIC #2 (why there are two i have no idea) - packet scheduler miniport, and WAN Miniport (IP) - Packet Scheduler Miniport all have exclamation marks next to them and report problems. Windows XP will NOT let me uninstall saying "Failed to Uninstall - this device may be needed to start your computer."

Also, AOL (go ahead, laugh) will not properly load my buddylist and upon sign on it says "AOL has detected an error with your connection to the Internet. Please exit the AOL software, restart your computer and then sign on again. AIM works fine, as do online games and internet surfing (to an extent, but that is more due to my spotty SMC Barricade).

I'm running and AMD 850 thunderbird w/ a gigabyte 7z-x mobo, the newest 4in1 drivers, a geforce2 gts-v, sb live with the newest drivers, a pioneer 16x dvd, teac 12x10x24x cdrw, 512 mb of ram and windows xp.

The computer is part of a 2 system network. Both are connected to an SMC barricade -> Motorola cable modem. The other computer (an amd w/ a k7s5a mobo) is working properly.

I've been dealing with this problem for months and I have too many programs and files to consider formatting, although I'll do it as a last resort.

You anandtechers seem to have a knack for helping people, any takers?

 

[gaidin123]

Hi there! Welcome to the AT forums!

As to your problem, unfortunately I don't have any specific fixes for your problem but I can suggest a few things that you may/may not have already tried.

First, pull the NIC out of your machine completely and see if XP will boot sucessfully on several consecutive occasions. If that works, then try placing the NIC into a diferent PCI slot than the one it was originally in. Perhaps you are having some sort of IRQ conflict. Make sure the NIC is not in PCI-1 which is the slot directly beneath the AGP slot.

If you can, try uninstalling all the realtek drivers, not just the ones with the exclamation point.

Reinstalling will possibly fix the problem but if you can manually remove all realtek drivers and put it in a different slot you will at least be reasonably sure that Windows itself is hosed (or the NIC). If you have a spare NIC that uses different drivers then by all means try that one out too.

Good luck!
Gaidin

 

[parkbench]

hi, thanks for your quick reply!

Physically removing the card does eliminate the lockups. In fact, removing the sound card also eliminates the lockups (although the NIC drivers still have the ! next to them). But when I try to move the cards around to different slots, the system will not even boot. Maybe IRQ sharing is not working properly?

Removing the NIC drivers doesn't help, because when i reboot, they just come back, improperly configured and all. CompUSA is running a sale on Linksys NIC's for $9.99 today so I'm going to buy one and see if it magically fixes my problems.

These lockups and network hassles are going to be the end of me.... any other suggestions guys?

 

[JackMDS]

When you have ghost NIC drivers, or when you want to ?really? remove the current installation.

1. In Control Panel Network, Unbind every thing that is associate with the card.
2. Shut off the computer and take the card out.
3. Boot into safety mode, and remove the Drivers.
4. Boot again the computer without the card (I also run a RegClean program.)
5. Shut off, boot, and Install the card again.

 

[parkbench]

thanks JackMDS, Would you be able to step me through unbinding exactly, I dont know what that means.

First I tried just physically removing the Realtek card and putting in the Linksys.. same problem! The nonworking Realtek drivers are still showing in the control panel in addition to the 1 Linksys driver (still won't let me uninstall Realtek).

I then removed the Linksys and put the Realtek back in. I took a guess to what unbinding means and removed the checkmarks next to the client for ms networks, file and printer sharing for ms networks, QoS packet scheduler, and tcp/ip, then I physically removed the Realtek again and rebooted to safe mode and it still didn't allow me to uninstall the drivers.

throughout this whole mess AOL is still detecting an error in my setup, and although my computer hasn't been freezing lately, it will probably still happen (like i said, it's random).

how hard can it be to put XP back to its original network settings?? help, anyone?

 

[parkbench]

Another thing I should mention is that when I physically uninstall the network card, my computer sees a "multimedia audio controller" but it can't find drivers for it. I have onboard audio fully disabled.

Whether this has anything to do with the network or a lame quirk of SB Live and its crappy XP support, I dont know.