At 12:28 PM 05/16/2000 , Benjamin Hawes wrote:
>I recently installed a 3Com Etherlink 3c905c-tx-m Fast Ethernet PCI card on my
>DFI K6BV3+ board (it has an AMD k6-III 400 chip and 64 megs). It is recognized
>in the Device configuration screen, but I can't get any logon - it won't
>display the other computers in the network (I am connecting into a college
>ethernet system from my apartment). Someone from the college came and tested
>the wires and the jack, and both are good. I spent 11/2 hours on the line with
>a guy @ 3Com, but we couldn't make any headway. He suggested I go through a
>complete uninstall/reinstall of all of the Dial-Up networking files via
>Microsoft's instructions from their knowledgebase. So I uninstalled the
>driver,  physically removed the card, and followed the instructions. At the
>end of it all, it's exactly the same -- no logon. The diagnostic tool that
>came with the card says that the network connection works, but when I run the
>diagnostic tool on the NIC itself, it crashes thae computer and restarts it.
>Any ideas?


Though you have not stated it, I am assuming you are using Windows95
or Windows98, since I have seen this issue a few times with these operating
systems.   The problem is that Windows will assign the first available IRQ
to the Network Interface Card, (NIC).  NICs by there very design
want IRQ 10 or 11.

That is not to say that they will not at times work on other IRQs...  but, they
want IRQ10 or 11.  I believe if you have the card on any other IRQ that if
you reassign it, your problems will disappear.

Changing the IRQ in WIndows98 can be a real hassle.  If Windows98 has
already assigned a different IRQ, you will need to manually assign it in your
CMOS settings of the BIOS for the particular PCI slot.

     Bob Wright
The NOSPIN Group

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