What I would be interested in knowing is what IRQ was assigned to the card
before and after you swapped slots.  There is another thread going on right
now that has to do with USB and NIC sharing IRQ's, and I would suggest that
the problems might be interelated.

Where I work we use 3COM cards EXCLUSIVELY on systems where the NIC is not
integrated into the motherboard.  Not one of these NICS has ever been able
to successfully share an IRQ.  If there is another device on the same IRQ,
either that device or the NIC is very flakey.  So, if the NIC in question
here were sharing an IRQ with another device for whatever reason, I would
suggest that the slow boot may be a result of this.

One afterthought.  Back in the 3COM 905-TPO days (before the 905b or any
iteration thereof), I discovered that these devices did not like it when
they WEREN'T connected to a network.  About every four seconds they would
make an appeal to they system, looking for a network connection.  This had
the annoying repercussion of making the mouse freeze ever-so-slightly every
four seconds.  There may be some such anomaly occurring here as well.

Kyle Elmblade
[log in to unmask]

From: "Chris Rivenbark" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, September 17, 2000 5:52 PM
Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] NIC Causes 2min Boot


> I loaded the latest Win98 Chipset (Intel 430TX) drivers for the mobo.  Got
the
> correct version of Win98 cab files (Win98 first ed.) on the system.
Physically
> removed NIC.  Removed and re-installed all networking "components"
(Clients,
> Protocols, Services).  Re-installed NIC.  The boot up was still nearly 2
minutes
> following P.O.S.T.
>
> Changed the PCI slot of the NIC to the 2nd PCI slot (under video CCA) and
the
> system locked up booting in to Windows.  Changed the position of the NIC
again -
> this time to the lowest PCI slot (ISA shared slot).  (Dropped ISA sound
CCA down
> one ISA slot to accomodate this move.)  That cut the boot time in half (to
right at
> 1 minute following P.O.S.T.) - networking function is returned (can see
local
> system and other nodes on the LAN now in Network Neighborhood).  The
improvement is
> significant enough to warrant a halt to this battle and move on to others.
I am,
> however, still open to feed back re: the cause of this problem and why
moving the
> NIC to a different PCI slot improved the situation.  I'm sure I'll see
this again
> sometime.
>
> Note: The mobo has no AGP slot - and, one cannot assign IRQ's to expansion
slots on
> this  board.  The slots can only be designated PnP or Legacy ISA.
>
> Thanx again to all who contributed.  I really appreciate your taking the
time to
> help.
>
>
> --
> Chris Rivenbark

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