What NIC will work in my Iwill 266-R (via 133a)?

[moocat]

I've been having a difficult time getting a network card to work in this board. I've tried a Linksys LNE100 ver. 2.0 and a Kingston KNE100 in PCI slots 4, 5, and 6 and none of them work. I can't get the drivers to install in Win 2k using the Linksys NIC and the computer won't even boot with the Kingston NIC installed. I figured the LNE100 would work with almost any config.

Any suggestions...I've been looking around for known compatibility issues but haven't run across any yet...except for the ones I'm having


ADDITIONAL PROBLEMS WITH THIS BOARD:

I'm using a KK266-R (kt133a chipset) and Win2k. I've been trying to install the 4in1s but have been unable to in 3 attempts. Each time after installation I get this error:

STOP: c000026c (unable to load device driver)
\SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\VIAPFD.SYS device driver could not be loaded.
Error Status was 0xc0000221

Anyone seen this or care to offer possible explanations? This board was recently in a buddie's computer and I had done a complete Win2k install on it a few weeks ago (same version of 4in1s too). I don't know what the heck is going on with it now.

 

[moocat]

I'm still unable to find any reference to issues with the 133a chipset and any particular NIC. Anyone have any ideas?

Win2k is supposed to have native support for the LNE100.

 

[Iron Woode]

Maybe there is something wrong with your board?

My friend has the KK266 and any PCI NIC works just fine.

 

[moocat]

I tried pci 3 and everything worked fine. I have no idea why 4,5,6 didn't work. I wonder if it's quirk with Win2k and ACPI or something. I don't think I have 3 broken PCI slots.

 

[Iron Woode]

Could be a quirk. You never know. However there can be problems elsewhere. A BIOS problem is possible. A flawed VIA chipset is possible. There are many possibilities.

 

[moocat]

I am going to try another PCI device in 4,5, and 6 and see if they are actually bad. It seems unusual to me that one of slots wouldn't work. I really hope I don't have to RMA this board. I'm already behind schedule with this build. Argggghhh!

 

[Shack70]

Im using an Intel Management Plus 10/100 win no probs on that MB

 

[moocat]

Blackflagg, what pci slot are you using and which bios rev?

I was forced to flash mine because it just out of the blue refused to boot because of a checksum error. I flashed to the latest available bios. I haven't gone back and tried the other slots since though. Man this board has been the biggest pain of any I've used so far (including the P3V4X and I thought that one was the worst).

 

[Kris]

Wow.
Interesting question.

I am in the middle of a kk266 build right now.

I will jot down what I find as I try it.

linksys 4.1/pci 4 = no boot (tried 2 cards)
linksys 4.1/pci 3 = no problem
linksys 5.1/pci 4 = no boot
linksys 5.1/pci 3 = no problem (2k wants drivers)
netgear fa311 A1/pci4 = no boot
netgear fa311 A1/pci 3 = no boot (not certain about this card's reliability, am fairly sure about others)
Kingston /pci3 = no problem, 2k sees it......whoops as I type here, a blue screen on bench monitor ??
I always hated kingston nics anyway, I'll try a reboot.

Ok, works this time, 2k 'exclaims' in device manager that it has a lne100tx 1.0.
I installed a kne110tx/20
Probably just a driver issue, I am not going to check it out.
that was all in pci 3
holy sh!t, in pci 4, 2k boots AND is happy (no exclamation point in device manager) with the card as a lne100tx
whatever...
moving onward...
realtek 5100+ /pci3 =no boot !!!!!!!!
realtek 5100+ /pci4 = no boot
hmmm.
no nic = no boot now...
Hmmmmmmm
clear bios
no nic = boot
okay, that's better
whoops, bios defaults loaded, bios okay, 2k no dice.
Hmmm
reset
post yes, 2k no.
what have I done???
cold boot
nothing
reset
post okay, no 2k
dasm dasm dasm, why did I get involved with this post?!?!?!
(of course I uninstalled each card from 2k as we went along above)
cold boot again
post yes, 2k.......OMG, yes!
okay, that was all with no nic....
shall I retest the realtek?
how can I not after all this?
okay, I wish I had stopped.
realtek/pci3 = no post
on a whim, realtek pci1....no post.
okay, fine
back to no nic, cold boot
zero.
I wonder if the grocery store is hiring?
cold boot
post yes, phew......2k....yes
(as an aside, I have to admit, the first thing I tried before taking notes was the realtek in pci 4, and it booted, with drivers)
I can't see stopping until I can reproduce that.
realtek in pci4 = no boot
cold boot
Dirtbag.
realtek in pci4, boot yes, 2k yes
incredible. absolutely amazing.
I learned just about zero from this hour long ordeal.
Well, that's not true. I learned that the kk266 is fickle, as is win2k.
Why do we do this?


Anybody who read this whole post gets a silver star. Anybody besides moorcat who actually followed it gets a gold star!
What a drag...

 

[moocat]

LOL...I'm sorry I brought it up I am glad to see that the problem can be reproduced by someone else though. I seem to have fixed the problem with a bios flash. I was able to boot with the Linksys LNE100 v. 2 in PCI 6 last night. I didn't have time to try others but 6 gave me problems before the flash.

What bios are you using right now? Unfortunately I don't know what bios I had before flashing.

 

[moocat]

I cut 'n pasted this from another of my threads concerning the KK266. I'm having other problems with this board as well. I may just go back to '98 and see if this crap clears up.

******
I'm using a KK266-R (kt133a chipset) and Win2k. I've been trying to install the 4in1s but have been unable to in 3 attempts. Each time after installation I get this error:

STOP: c000026c (unable to load device driver)
\SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\VIAPFD.SYS device driver could not be loaded.
Error Status was 0xc0000221

Anyone seen this or care to offer possible explanations? This board was recently in a buddie's computer and I had done a complete Win2k install on it a few weeks ago (same version of 4in1s too). I don't know what the heck is going on with it now.
******

 

[moocat]

Started from scratch with the Win2k install for the sixth time...you know what they say.."sixth time's the charm" Well, I decided to install the Raid drivers for the AMI raid controller during install (hit F6). Apparently that was the problem with the 4in1s refusing to install properly because that part of the build went great this time and everything is kosher.

The LNE 100 also works in any pci slot since I updated bios. I think the bios was flakey and even a reflash to the same bios probably would have worked. I put the latest one in though.

I'm having some problems with the zip 100 and the VIA/Iomega IDE patch but I have a few things to try before I come whining to forums

I thank everyone for their help.

 

[bupkus]

I built 3 pc's for family members using the Iwill KK266 mobo. I just built another VIA based pc using the Soyo Dragon Plus.
I thought I did pretty good until I bought 4 NEC zip100 drives for each and every machine. They really don't like either the Iwill or the Soyo. Now I guestion just how good it is to buy VIA.

 

[SunnyD]

I've got a KK266-R with a Linksys LNE100TX card running fine and stable for the past 6 months. Check out my rigz for specs. I think the NIC is in the second to last PCI slot next to the ISA slot or edge of the board, if there is an ISA. Can't remember.

Do you have a SBLive! Card? And what BIOS rev are you using?

SunnyD

 

[kgraeme]

I have the same mobo, and I feel sorry for anyone who buys one. It is a lot more finicky than other boards I've used. Many people have just given up trying to get Zip drives to work without resorting to a PCI ide adapter. The USB just went out on my board. Whee!

 

[moocat]

Win98 is working pretty well for me. 2000 was a nightmare. The only
problem I'm having now is that I can't get Win98 to see a data drive
that is hooked up to one of the raid ports. The drive shows up in
device manager but not in Explorer or under MyComputer. Under device manager it appears Windows is treating it like a removeable drive. There is no DMA checkbox and it has all the same options as the zip100.

I've already gone through all the FAQs at the Iwill site and tried
many different approaches to getting this to work but so far...no go.

I thought I'd never hate a board as much as I hated the Asus P3V4X, but this one comes close

 

[SunnyD]

I still don't understand what would be causing your problem here.

#1 - Are you trying to install the VIA 4.37 Drivers?

#2 - What speed CPU are you using? I had some flakey results using a 200MHZ FSB CPU with an async ram clock (133MHz) with cheaper ram. Might try dropping memory into conservative settings and try again.

#3 - again... what BIOS rev are you using? 1022?

I haven't had a single problem with mine since the SBLive! fiasco. And even then I got it fixed.

SunnyD

 

[moocat]

I tried the 4.37 4in1s and the set that came on the utility disk. I don't know what bios I'm using. I just grabbed the latest one from the Iwill site. My cpu is a 1.4ghz (not overclocked), 133mhz fsb and ram setting to conservative (like I always do for initial OS and hardware installation).

I don't understand what was causing my problem either as far as the 4in1 installation. The PCI problem I think was a result of a dicked up bios since it worked fine after the flash. The ATAPI zip drives are a known problem with the KT133A chipset so that may have clouded the issue.

I really have to put hardware failure out of the picture since Win98 is running flawlessly with the exact same hardware and bios as I was using with Win2k.

It appears from responses to this thread that I'm not the only one to experience problems with this board.

 

[kgraeme]

BTW, I have a NetGear FA311 in mine in PCI5.

 

[AkumaBao]

Use the 4.35 4-in-1's. Much better. That's quite odd. I've ran 5 of those boards so far with no trouble at all.

 

[SunnyD]

My LNE100TX is in I think PCI #3 - counting from AGP, PCI1, PCI2, PCI3...

Hope this helps.

BTW: Not having any problems with 4.37's.

SunnyD

 

[kgraeme]

SunnyD, what slot do you have your Audigy in? I put my sound card in PCI3 since that is the same IRQ/slot that the on-board audio uses. I figured disabling the on-board audio and putting an audio card in there helped the general cosmic IRQ karma. It's worked for me.