mpipes
08-20-01, 05:06 PM
Hey folks, maybe someone can help me here.. nobody else has been able to so far.
A month and a half ago I received a 3com PCI DSL modem from my ISP when I switched from Dial-up. It worked... kinda... I had problems whenever I needed to reboot, kept getting blue screens right off the bat and it appeared it was the 3com driver calling NDIS and NDISWAN. Sometimes the machine would boot fine, then when I used the Dial-Up network (PPPoA) to connect to the ISP I'd get a blue screen.. Other times everything worked normally.
Well one day it just went to hell in a handbasket and after about 10 tech support people the last guy asked me about the connectors on the card... they were not gold plated, part of a bad batch from 3com that they've been having problems with.. OK.. (later it's discovered the connectors are not the problem)
Since 3com discontinued their DSL stuff they sent me a D-Link 100D PCI DSL card.. I got this one two weeks ago.
Well things arent much better now, although I am able to connect on DSL.. albeit a pain in the neck.
Here's what's up...
I installed the card, rebooted, let Windows find the new card and install the driver off the CD. It asked me to reboot so I did.
The machine reboots, loads the desktop.. then locks up.
I reboot the machine into safe mode, remove the DSL card from Device Mangler, reboot. This time I decide Im gonna cancel the installation and let the machine load completely.
Now I use "Add New Hardware" to install the card.. reboot.. same problem.. desktop loads then the machine locks up. No bluescreens, just "dead".
OK so I boot back into safe mode, take the card out of Device Mangler again, reboot, cancel the auto-installation and let the desktop load. Now I go back to Add New Hardware to install the DSL drivers, but this time I click "NO" when it prompts a reboot.
Bingo... now the DSL works... flawlessly.. until I try to disconnect when occasionally it locks up. heh.. wonderful.
This is how I connect to DSL like I am right now... if I have to reboot for any reason I have to remove the card from Device Mangler before rebooting, then reinstall it once the desktop loads.. what gets me is that it even works without rebooting the machine.
I thought it may have been a hardware conflict so I removed a few things from the system.. a dial-up modem, a soundcard, and even the IDE controllers since my machine is all SCSI anyways. Nada.
OK so I swap the PCI Modem, PCI vid card, and PCI SCSI card around in their slots.. pick a slot, any slot.. nope nothing worked. I have a number of IRQ's open as well.. at this point there's 3 or 4 available. Nada
OK so I start playing with the PCI setting in the BIOS. Nothing.
I took a break for a while to cool off, and then I could think logically.... it cant be a hardware conflict otherwise the card wouldnt work AT ALL, right? But it DOES work.. it works GREAT.. I just cant reboot or disconnect the machine! This would be fine if I was runnin Linux but Im on Windows so reboots are inevitable. =) I actually talked with an engineer at D-Link and he agrees its not a hardware conflict, but a driver problem.
So... now I'm thinkin it's the drivers.. I have the latest ones available.. still nothing..
Anyone think it's just the fact that the PCI DSL modems might just suck? I'm starting to think I need to get a NIC and external DSL modem.. hopefully the NIC will jive better than the PCI DSL.
Any help is greatly appreciated..
If it makes any difference, (in case of known conflicting devices) here's my system specs:
Win98SE
Pentium 133
Aopen board w/TRITON chipset
64MB RAM
Diamond Stealth VRAM
Adaptec SCSI adapter
USR 33.6 Modem
D-Link 100D PCI DSL modem
A month and a half ago I received a 3com PCI DSL modem from my ISP when I switched from Dial-up. It worked... kinda... I had problems whenever I needed to reboot, kept getting blue screens right off the bat and it appeared it was the 3com driver calling NDIS and NDISWAN. Sometimes the machine would boot fine, then when I used the Dial-Up network (PPPoA) to connect to the ISP I'd get a blue screen.. Other times everything worked normally.
Well one day it just went to hell in a handbasket and after about 10 tech support people the last guy asked me about the connectors on the card... they were not gold plated, part of a bad batch from 3com that they've been having problems with.. OK.. (later it's discovered the connectors are not the problem)
Since 3com discontinued their DSL stuff they sent me a D-Link 100D PCI DSL card.. I got this one two weeks ago.
Well things arent much better now, although I am able to connect on DSL.. albeit a pain in the neck.
Here's what's up...
I installed the card, rebooted, let Windows find the new card and install the driver off the CD. It asked me to reboot so I did.
The machine reboots, loads the desktop.. then locks up.
I reboot the machine into safe mode, remove the DSL card from Device Mangler, reboot. This time I decide Im gonna cancel the installation and let the machine load completely.
Now I use "Add New Hardware" to install the card.. reboot.. same problem.. desktop loads then the machine locks up. No bluescreens, just "dead".
OK so I boot back into safe mode, take the card out of Device Mangler again, reboot, cancel the auto-installation and let the desktop load. Now I go back to Add New Hardware to install the DSL drivers, but this time I click "NO" when it prompts a reboot.
Bingo... now the DSL works... flawlessly.. until I try to disconnect when occasionally it locks up. heh.. wonderful.
This is how I connect to DSL like I am right now... if I have to reboot for any reason I have to remove the card from Device Mangler before rebooting, then reinstall it once the desktop loads.. what gets me is that it even works without rebooting the machine.
I thought it may have been a hardware conflict so I removed a few things from the system.. a dial-up modem, a soundcard, and even the IDE controllers since my machine is all SCSI anyways. Nada.
OK so I swap the PCI Modem, PCI vid card, and PCI SCSI card around in their slots.. pick a slot, any slot.. nope nothing worked. I have a number of IRQ's open as well.. at this point there's 3 or 4 available. Nada
OK so I start playing with the PCI setting in the BIOS. Nothing.
I took a break for a while to cool off, and then I could think logically.... it cant be a hardware conflict otherwise the card wouldnt work AT ALL, right? But it DOES work.. it works GREAT.. I just cant reboot or disconnect the machine! This would be fine if I was runnin Linux but Im on Windows so reboots are inevitable. =) I actually talked with an engineer at D-Link and he agrees its not a hardware conflict, but a driver problem.
So... now I'm thinkin it's the drivers.. I have the latest ones available.. still nothing..
Anyone think it's just the fact that the PCI DSL modems might just suck? I'm starting to think I need to get a NIC and external DSL modem.. hopefully the NIC will jive better than the PCI DSL.
Any help is greatly appreciated..
If it makes any difference, (in case of known conflicting devices) here's my system specs:
Win98SE
Pentium 133
Aopen board w/TRITON chipset
64MB RAM
Diamond Stealth VRAM
Adaptec SCSI adapter
USR 33.6 Modem
D-Link 100D PCI DSL modem