pcdabbler

But be wary of the heavier items, they have been known to break the socket retainer due to excessive weight !

Very strange. When changing from 3com to intel Pro cards, XP didnt like it. What actually fixed everything was running the new network wizard when the intel card was detected, and setting up the workgroup name from that. Had previously done it manually .. anyhow, the cards now work fine. If only I knew how to remove the brief splash text on boot up..

If its a REALLY old drive, chances are it wont support DMA. If it is meant to, I'd say the drive is ready for the bin ..

Thats the wierd thing. If I assign a manual IP to the PC with the Intel card in it in the correct range and mask it still cannot ping other pc's through the Netgear switch (Its a 10/100 8 port) Nor can it ping the router. I do run Norton Internet security on the main PC but have had it it disabled to try the ping tests between it and the other PC with the intel card in it. I have been uninstalling the 3com cards using device manager then shutting down, I wonder if there is some residue thats screwing things up ? A deliberate Act from 3Com to nobble users from switching to intel ? (Joke) Again, after 2 hours of head scratching the 3com card has gone back in and ran instantly..

Here's a strange one .. Have three systems all running XP connected via a Netgear switch, and an Asus EV ADSL modem for internet. The asus uses DHCP and assigns IP's in a pre defined range. All is working fine using 3com NIC's. If I remove the 3com card and install an Intel Pro 100 management adapter card in a system, I have no connectivity at all. The system with the intel card cannot connect to the internet or any other PC. I notice that it has a privatly assigned IP, because it has failed to get an IP assigned via DHCP. If I assign an IP manually, the card will not ping to other systems, and cannot be pinged. Status shows the card sending packets, I see flashing on the switch, but no one answers it. The link light is lit on the card though. I just bought three of these intel cards for another project and they all give the same symptoms. After a few hours of pratting about, I have just put a 3com card back in and it has instantly been detected, and works with no twiddling. Very strange. Has anyone come across this before ? Are intel cards to be avoided ? Do they hate my switch ?

Well well well, as a follow up, it WAS a Maxtor 30gb Drive on an Asus A7V133 Motherboard that mucked up. NTFS formatted as well. Glad I don't run them at home. I'll probably get flamed for this, but just take a look around the boards about the number and diversity of problems reported, look at the specs .. VIA chipset in almost every one. Nuff Said.

Managed to run chkdsk from the conosle promt now, it has repaired the drive, but the registry is corrupt. No matter, the data on the drive has returned, thats the main thing. Still at a loss to what may have caused it though .. Virus or drive failure ?

Am trying to repair a crashed XP Pro install at work, but don't have access to the CDrom's till tommorrow. Could someone help me out and either attach Autochk.exe or post a link for me ???? Thanks in advance ! By the way, trying to fix a STOP 0x000000ED Unmountable boot volume fault. Have booted the system with XP boot floppies, but cannot see anything in C: Think the drive is trashed ... Chao!

It's true to say booting to Dos renders NTFS partitions invisible, but the Norton Ghost program recognises them .. but then only offers a chance to back it up to a Non NTFS partition or CDRW or tape .. Bummer

I put up with My Via M/B for six months, with periods of reasonable stability mixed in. What a sucker. Bought an intel board, put the same cards and software in, and it was up and running within an hour. No Stops, no blue screens nothin. IMHO Via have some way to go before they can claim their chipsets are stable. Are they still releasing a "service Pack" every two weeks perchance ? How many people bought Branded ram ? How many a bigger power supply ? How many binned their SBlive ? Wow. 8)

Just to clarify, swapping the network card on the P3 system to a different slot cleared up the 100% CPU usage problem. Must have been a conflict. Network cards can be fussy, but apart from the CPU usage, there were no other symptoms . .

I have fond the later 3com 509C's give better performance on Windows XP. Roughly .. 3com 3com 509-TX 80% network utilisation 60% CPU (on 2G P4) 3Com 509C-TX 80% Network utilisation 25% CPU (on 2G P4) The later "C" cards are quite a bit better .... Also just swapping the NIC PCI slots on one box reduced CPU utilisation dramatically, so may have been a slight conflict there, but nothing showing in control panel nor any other problems ?

I have three systems, all win XP PRO networked thro a switch and ADSL Modem, two of them really fly on large file transfers PC to PC (80% network utilisation)one is a P4 the other Athlon 1600+ but the third is at 100% CPU and 18% on large files. WIERD .. All have 3com 3C905's. The slow machine is a 1G P3 with loads of RAM. I expected it would be slower, but not this much ? I have not installed QOS on any of them and have added the reg entry to disable QOS in software . .Anybody any ideas ?

Try it without overclocking ...

I ran an Athlon in an Abit KT7-Raid for six months. Fast yes, No way was it ever stable. Countless lock ups in games,AGP problems, USB problems, I could go on. A new Via 4 in 1 every two weeks. 7 Bios upgrades .... Sblive problems, trying different slots... etc etc. I bet this sounds familiar to many people. I sold up and I bought an Intel P3 and motherboard, reinstalled windows, and within an hour had a rock steady system. You pays your money, you makes yer choice. I have to say, all the problems appeared to revolve around the VIA Chipset. Just look at icronticforums, people there have made a career out of trying to make their systems stable !