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DSL & NIC problem

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by ajdelo

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I have WinME running on a custom built PC with 4 PCI slots. I have an Efficient Networks ADSL modem installed on port 2, a SoundBlaster soundcard installed on port 3, and a Linksys NIC card installed on port 4. All cards have all updated drivers and work properly and there are no IRQ conflicts among any of them (according to SysInfo). However, while I'm browsing the Internet, every now and then (maybe every 10-12 web pages or so) when I go to a web site, it takes 20-40 seconds to load the page up. Efficient Networks says it's an IRQ conflict and that the NIC is sharing resources with the DSL modem at the time that it takes so long to load up a web page. I would like my DSL modem to work with the NIC card to allow for ICS. Is there anyway around this?

Also, as an after thought, any idea why my DSL modem is not recognized in PCI ports 1 and 4 but works fine in 2 and 3?

13 replies

by mckaytech

I'm not sure there is really a problem with your system. I routinely access the Internet from workstations with dialup, cable modem, T-1 and DSL and hit slow-loading pages at about the same rate as you report.

Even if there is a problem, I doubtthat it is due to an interrupt conflict. I think it's more likely that the ADSL driver has a problem with WindowsME and they are blaming it on the hardware rather than fixing the driver. From what I'm hearing from people using WinME, it's not Microsoft's finest product and driver problems have been very common.

paul

by ajdelo

I appreciate the reply. I don't run into the problem though until I install the NIC card. If there is no NIC, my DSL modem works fine and no pages ever load slowly, it only happens when I install the NIC. And I know it's not the OS because I had the same situation before I ever bought WinME.

by mckaytech

Ah... NOW I understand! I'm still not sure I buy the interrupt conflict theory but if there is an interrupt conflict with PCI cards in a PnP environment, it's usually a problem with the motherboard chipset driver.
You've said all the cards have updated drivers so you might want to take a look at the motherboard drivers.

There are a couple other things you can try. First, you could try to explicitly define IRQ settings for the NIC (reserve the IRQ in the BIOS, then define it for the card).

Second, since the sound card is the heaviest user of resources, try removing that and see if the problem goes away. If so, see if you could explicitly define interrupts for that card.

Third, try a different brand or model of NIC card. In particular, you might want to try an ISA NIC if you have an ISA slot available. By doing so, you eliminate sharing PCI resources and the speed disadvantage is not going to be a problem for ICS since the slowest NIC is faster than DSL by a wide margin.
Best wishes - it's a interesting problem!

paul

by tbradley

In your control panel - system - system resources, check DMA settings and PCI steering. Make sure there are no "hidden" conflicts, which sometimes do not show up under the specific hardware categories.

I'm a little confused about your referencesto ports.

Com1=Irq2 Com2=irq3 Com3-irq2 Com4=irq3
are you sure your port references are not to PCI slots?

If you don't use any external USB or Serial devices, you can safely disable the com ports in windows, and in Bios, and free up 2 com ports.

Try changin your Sound Card to irq5, where it normally resides, and the Nic card to Irq 9 which is normally free.

by ajdelo

I mean slots. My DSL modem will not work in PCI slots 1 or 4. Sorry about that.

by jaolson40

Have you had to assign an IP address to the modem? If so, it may be a routing problem. Try typing "route print" at a MSDOS prompt, and see where the default route is headed (the default route is characterized as 0.0.0.0). If the first default route is listed as having the NIC as the gateway then that may be the problem - your computer may be trying to access the internet through the NIC rather than the ADSL modem. If so, you can assign a higher cost metric to the NIC and force all network traffic out through the modem first. The command to do this is:

ROUTE ADD 0.0.0.0 MASK 0.0.0.0 xx.xx.xx.xx METRIC 2 (where xx.xx.xx.xx is the IP of tyhe ADSL modem).

Of course, if there is no IP assigned to the ADSL modem (either through DHCP or static) then all of that is just smoke anyway! :)

Hope this helps!

by compute2u

I would look for a sound driver problem under control panel>system. A section may not be working properly with two N-cards. you would be crawling because of sound files on the Web pages not running/locking up. you should force the cards to free up the sound card. look under Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>System Information and look for shared IRQs. Take out/Disable{under System)the net card, reboot and check the same settings for changes. Then reinstall/Enable the card and change the settings to match the working system. the net card should be forced to work at another irq and that should solve your problem.

by ajdelo

Okay, I haven't tried any solutions because I was waiting to receive an external USB modem from Bellsouth. I finally got it but it did not solve the problem. I have uninstalled the PCI DSL modem and then installed my external USB DSL modem and allseemed well for a couple of hours of surfing but now I have the same problem, only from what I can tell the pauses in action don't last quite as long. I'll keep you posted and in the meantime I will try some of the solutions that are regardless of PCI or not.
Thanks.

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