posted
Well well well... I finally got my DSL back up and running (after a week and a half of bein stuck on dial-up)..
When I first had problems my ISP tech support and I had just about exhausted every resource imagineable to get it fixed to no avail... then the last guy I talked to asked about the connectors on the DSL card... they were a silver color.. Tech guy says 3com sent out a bad batch of cards that didnt get gold plated, the card's the problem.
So I waited and waited.. about a week.. for a new DSL card to arrive.. it came in yesterday.. Whaddya know? It's a D-Link brand, not a 3com. (3com discontinued their DSL equipment).
I'm thinkin OK COOL.. just jam the new card in there load the driver and go..
Nope.. I'm runnin Windows.. nothin's that easy. The computer locks up right after loadin the desktop.
Anyways, 20 hours ago I received the new card, now I finally got it runnin.
It turns out there was an IRQ conflict in my computer, except I had four IRQ's open for the taking. For those that dont know computers/IRQ's (interrupt request) , an IRQ is like an address, allowing the device to talk to the computer.. each device in your machine needs an IRQ although sometimes devices can share IRQ's.. but some devices dont like sharing IRQ's while other devices want to use a specific IRQ instead of a random one. Sounds messy? Tell me about it.
Anyways... I had four IRQ's available, the card could have picked any one of them but nooooooooo.......
So... I ended up going into the mainboard's setup and rearranged some settings (at random, hehehe) and even opened up one additional IRQ.
This is where it gets funky...
I reboot the machine... windows comes up, wanting to install the driver for the DSL card which I cancelled (cause I wanted to check the IRQ's through windows before loadin a bum driver). I check the IRQ's.. HMMMMMMM....... OK I opened up that new IRQ and it was now filled.. with two devices.. my video card and SCSI drive controller. Weeeeeeeelllll how about that? The ONLY two cards in the computer (besides the DSL card) were waitin on a new house to open up so they could shack-up together, even though they were completely happy in their previous dwellings.
This means I now have 6 IRQ's open.. previously had four, opened a new one (that makes five) then one more IRQ opened up cause the SCSI and vid decided to share. I decide to go for broke and install the DSL drivers again... the card is still in the machine at this point but without drivers loaded the machine doesnt know it's there.
I installed the drivers.. I hit NO when it told me to reboot, I wanted to see if it took a free IRQ or if it would conflict with something else first. Next thing I know I see an icon flashing next to the computer clock.. the DSL link is up.. cool... didnt even have to reboot!
I checked the IRQ on the DSL card.. P.O.S... it took a free IRQ alright... IRQ 10, which has been OPEN throughout this entire ordeal!!
So... I guess the 3com card I still have here actually is good, it was just conflicting a bit differently.
------------------ Mike Pipes Digital Illusion Custom Graphics Lake Havasu City, AZ http://www.stickerpimp.com
Posts: 8746 | From: Lake Havasu, AZ USA | Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
Si, yes! I can finally quit my whining and get back to downloading porn.
A, yes I am happy.. Although.. I still havent tried rebooting the computer yet sooooo... there's still a chance for problems to arise.
Glenn, Plug -n- Pray is right... that's why it's been disabled on my system. =) In fact, I even tried enabling PnP to see if it would do any better.. the machine wouldnt boot at all... it hung up after the memory test.
------------------ Mike Pipes Digital Illusion Custom Graphics Lake Havasu City, AZ http://www.stickerpimp.com
Posts: 8746 | From: Lake Havasu, AZ USA | Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
Tell ya what.. something evil is going on here.. Called my ISP yet again this morning.. no luck... "This is beyond our scope, our responsibility lies in making sure the DSL service into your home is working and it apparently is if you are able to connect and browse the web and receive email." Yeah I can connect via the DSL, I just cant reboot my machine. ISP says "You need to call D-Link for tech support if you are having problems with their hardware." - They shoot, they score! Nice way to shuffle off the problem. I understand this reasoning, makes sense that the card manufacturer should know of any quirks or oddities regarding their hardware... So......
Called D-Link - I get this schpiel about how they dont deal with the end-users directly (huh? they wont support their own products??) and I need to contact my ISP tech support.. "wait a minute man, they just shuffled me off onto you guys."
"OK Sir, let me take down your information and a brief description of the problem and I will have someone contact you as soon as possible."
Great... I've gotten more support from a broken jockstrap....
Now, every person that I've talked to about this (and there's been alot of 'em, believe me) has the same reaction when I describe the problem. "WHAT??? You mean the card and drivers work after installation, but without rebooting the machine?? Then if you reboot the machine, it wont come back up??"
First instinct says it's a hardware conflict.. but if that's so, the card shouldnt work AT ALL cause it would have problems from the get-go at boot-up, like not being recognized by the system. Since the card DOES work (and ever so beautifully fast at that) but not after rebooting (when the drivers get written to the registry) it sounds like software (drivers, Windows) conflicting with the hardware.
Here's my system configuration as displayed by MSINFO.exe.. You'll see there's no conflicts listed here.. shoot there's not even any IRQ sharing.
IRQ Device 0 System timer 1 Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural Keyboard 2 Programmable interrupt controller 3 Communications Port (COM2) 4 Communications Port (COM1) 5 Communications Port (COM4) 6 Standard Floppy Disk Controller 7 D-Link DSL-100D ADSL Modem 7 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering 8 System CMOS/real time clock 9 Adaptec AHA-294X/AIC-78XX PCI SCSI Controller 9 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering 10 (free) 11 Diamond FireGL 3000 11 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering 12 (free) 13 Numeric data processor 14 (free) 15 Secondary IDE controller (dual fifo) 15 Intel 82371FB PCI Bus Master IDE Controller
------------------ Mike Pipes Digital Illusion Custom Graphics Lake Havasu City, AZ http://www.stickerpimp.com
Posts: 8746 | From: Lake Havasu, AZ USA | Registered: Jun 2000
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The computer locks up right after loadin the desktop.
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