Strange Network Problem with nForce board.

[Netopia]

Greetings all!

I?m having a VERY strange problem with a system that I just put together.

The following are the components involved:

Windows 2000 Professional (SP2)
MSI K7N420 Pro
Powerman 300 Watt PS
Duron 1 Gig
256 Megs of Crucial PC2100 DDR (non-registered)
Maxtor 20 Gig 7,200 RPM Drive (D740X-6L)
Samsung 52X CD-ROM
Teac Floppy

I flashed the BIOS to the latest available from MSI?s sight (Version 2.3) and downloaded the latest drivers from nVidia?s sight. Everything is fine until sometime after I install the drivers? then for no apparent reason, the entire machine starts locking up about one second out of every two. If I look at the task manager under the performance tab, there is a clear SPIKE of usage about every two seconds that jumps up to about 70% CPU usage. If I go to the processes tab and sort by CPU usage, nothing shows up but System Idle Process at 99% and an occasional taskmgr.exe for a couple of percent. The other symptom is that I loose all network connectivity. Trying to reinstall drives is futile. I should also point out that there is NOTHING on the system except Win2K Pro and the nVidia drivers.

I?m sure that the problem is with the network hardware or software, because if I go in under safe mode with no networking, the freezing and CPU usage is not present. If I go into safe mode WITH networking, both the freezing and the CPU spiking are back.

Has anyone else had any weirdness like this? What makes it even more disconcerting is that this is the first of probably a total 6-10 machines that I?m going to build with configuration as general usage desktop machines, but I obviously can?t with this going on. HELP!

As always, thank you in advance for even reading my dilemma. Any suggestions will be both tried out and APPRECIATED!

Joe


PS I'm cross posting this in General, Motherboards and Tech Support to try to get a wide audience.

 

[AndrewChong]

this might not be helpful but... try another OS like XP or 98

 

[Netopia]

Work environmnet. IE the OS is standardized.

BTW... thus far the nForce boards and 98 don't play too well together!

Joe

 

[Netopia]

I just put Win2k SP2 back onto the machine from a Ghost. If I just leave everything alone, the machine runs fine, but obviously, without drivers for audio, video and network, there isn?t a whole lot I can do. After I loaded the nVidia all in one drivers and rebooted, everything was still fine. Then I put in my IP config info and rebooted and I?ve got the trouble back!

I downloaded a program that I?ve used before called TaskInfo. It has identified the culprit as:

DPC Time Placeholder

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks,

Joe

 

[DaiShan]

I had network problems on one machine for a while (real slow when connected to network, random lockups etc.) I couldn't figure it out, finally I got really mad, backed up important files, and formatted and did a clean install of the os, doesn't have problems any more with networks, I wasn't clear when reading your other posts if you had tried a clean install or not, but if all else fails it's worth a try!

 

[Netopia]

After I reinstalled Win2k about 3 times in two hours, I did a Ghost of the partition so that I can restore to a fresh copy of the partition in just a couple minutes. Still no go... I'm beginning to think that I should probably revert to an older BIOS and/or older drivers.

Joe

 

[DaiShan]

sounds like a stupid question, but have you tried a network adapter? just plugging in a nic I mean. also what network protocols do you have installed?

 

[Netopia]

No, I've not plugged in a seperate NIC. I'm really starting to pull my hair out on this one... perhaps the mobo is bad.

I've tried with Bios' 2.20, 2.21, 2.22, 2.23
I've tried those combinations with both the old and new drivers.

With the new drivers I get the problem that I've had all along.
With the old drivers, everything seems ok until I try to enter my IP information and the when I go to save, the system just hangs.

ARGHGHHGHGH.... been at this all day. This is the sort of stuff that makes you feel like you don't know what you're doing even though you do.

I guess I'll disable the internal NIC and see what happens. The only protocol that I'm using is TCP/IP.

Thanks,

Joe

 

[Netopia]

Just an update:

I called MSI tech support when they opened yesterday. After I told the Tech everything I had done and what the results were, he didn't even bother to ask me to try anything else. What he DID do was have me list off EXACTLY the components that were in my machine one at a time.... so that they could build an EXACT replica of my setup at their sight. AMAZING! I've never had a tech support be willing to do something like that before... it looks like they are also interested in what this BIZARRE network problem is. They asked me to give them 24 hours to do the testing... which I am.

Joe

 

[DaiShan]

let us know how it turned out?

 

[Netopia]

Here?s the latest:

MSI built up a machine using the same brand/type of components that I have and could not replicate the problem. That?s good news for most people because it should mean that this isn?t a common problem. It didn?t help me though.

MSI gave me the go ahead to ship them my parts and whatever else I thought necessary. They encouraged me to only send mobo/ram/cpu to save on shipping, but I opted to pay the shipping and send them an entire box with everything in it (a completely built computer) and with the OS loaded and malfunctioning. I also sent them a burned copy of the Win2k disk just incase MS has done anything strange with this new iteration of Win2k. This disk is different than others I?ve had in that it installs Win2k Pro WITH SP2 already installed? so I don?t know if they have done anything else to make this install different than any other? so just to be safe, I sent the disk.

Anyway, I sent it all yesterday and it should be there by the middle of next week (FedEx Saver).. they asked to have a couple days to look it over, so I?ll post when I hear back from them. The other unit is actually already in use with the onboard NIC disabled and an Intel Pro/100 installed and is working excellently.

Joe

 

[yazz]

i know for sure that after you flash the MSI Nforce BIOS you must clear your CMOS. when you do this make sure that there is no cord in the power supply. no engery to the board is the only way to clear the BIOS successfully. leave the jumper on for about a minute to make sure.

Another thing you should look into is getting the new Nforce Unified Drivers for WIN2K. Go to the MSI Site and download the 7MB file. execute it and let it update. if it ask you to reboot.... DO NOT. make sure the program is all finished installing. after that then reboot your machine....

 

[tm37]

HOLPP CRAP!:Q

MSI had you ship the entire unit? THAT IS AWESOME TECH SUPPORT!

Are you a reseller perchance?

 

[Netopia]

Are you a reseller perchance?

Nope. But I am the Director of IT for one of the top 500 Printing and publishing companies in the US.... but they didn't know that. I never mentioned anything except the two boards in question and that I was probably going to build another handful if I could get this straightened out.

Joe