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Computer temporarily freezes when transferring files over the network

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First post, by Bark

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Hi,

Have anyone encountered this problem / behavior before?
When transferring files from the network the computer freezes up until the transfer is completed.

I get the same behavior for all three network cards I have tried with. I am using Windows 98 SE and all of them are auto-detected.
- 3c595
- 3c905
- 3c905B

I am using FTP and a 500MB RAR file for test, and the first 20-30MB goes fine and the transfer quickly ramps up to 8-9 MB/sec, then suddenly the screen freezes only with exception I can still move my mouse around, but not responding to any additional input.
After 10 seconds or so, moving the mouse or pressing any keys results in the PC speaker making a crackling sound for every input signal (mouse or keyboard).
The network card itself keeps flashing and after a while the transfer is completed, and everything goes back to normal. The FTP client reports average RX speed to around 5 - 6 MB/sec.

I have checked the resources used by the NIC under System Devices, but no conflicts from what I can tell.
One guess I have is DMA issues, but can't really find any information what DMA channels the network cards is using, if any?

The system itself is a Win98SE installation on a AOpen AX6B mobo with a P3 500 CPU and 512MB RAM, Geforce2 mX400 and a AWE32 CT3980 sound card.
In BIOS I tried disabling the secondary IDE channel as well as the Parallel and Serial ports but without any improvements.

Last edited by Bark on 2023-01-20, 12:58. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 1 of 8, by weedeewee

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interesting, which operating system are you using ?

edit: nevermind Doh.

Last edited by weedeewee on 2023-01-20, 12:58. Edited 1 time in total.

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Reply 3 of 8, by Bark

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weedeewee wrote on 2023-01-20, 12:31:

interesting, which operating system are you using ?

edit: nevermind Doh.

Its Windows 98 SE. The cards are autodetected and the drivers are auto-installed from the Windows installtions CD.

rasz_pl wrote on 2023-01-20, 12:49:

HDD DMA enabled? afaik no DMA for the 905s, but there might be shared interrupts, have you tried different PCI slot?

Good idea, will try disabling it and also try another PCI slot.

Reply 4 of 8, by Bark

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Re: Why Etherlink XL 3C905B freeze my pc?

Found this, might be the same issue but in DOS.
Someone mentioned to not use the microsoft drivers but rather the ones from 3Com, so will also try that..

Reply 5 of 8, by weedeewee

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yes, try the 3com drivers and leave dma enabled. Using pio will only make you suffer.

Right to repair is fundamental. You own it, you're allowed to fix it.
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
Do not ask Why !
https://www.vogonswiki.com/index.php/Serial_port

Reply 6 of 8, by rasz_pl

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Bark wrote on 2023-01-20, 13:00:
rasz_pl wrote on 2023-01-20, 12:49:

HDD DMA enabled? afaik no DMA for the 905s, but there might be shared interrupts, have you tried different PCI slot?

Good idea, will try disabling it

no noo, I meant:
1 is hdd dma enabled?
2 3com 905 doesnt use DMA

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Reply 8 of 8, by Bark

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I give up.. I'm just gonna use another NIC. 😂

Tried disabling DMA for the HDD and changing PCI slot, no difference.
Installed the 3com drivers found in the vogons archive, but they seem to pretty much the same used in windows, just different/newer versions.
Tried selecting NDIS realmode and NDIS enchanced mode, the ODI driver, disabling and enabling checksum offload and flow control in the card settings... no improvement.

konc wrote on 2023-01-20, 14:10:

Does it freeze only when you are transferring the file to that computer or both ways?
Also do you by any chance use some alternative storage like a compact flash card?

Actually it's only when receiving I get this problem.
And the freeze always happens between 19.5 and 20.5 MB of data has been received. So I thought, maybe it is the harddrive somehow?
So put another slower 5400RPM harddrive on second IDE channel and tried again, the speed only reached 1.1MB per second for some reason, yet same thing happened, screen and input froze after 19.8MB received.

So tried to hard set card and the switch port to 10Mbps FDx, and now the freeze does not happened, yet the speed is the about the same as with the 5400 RPM drive.
Then went with 100 Full Duplex but then the problem came back.

So yeah, I think I'm just gonna write this one off as some compability and/or driver issue, as all the 3com cards works fine on my Pentium 2 system.

Just installed a Compaq NIC with a Intel Pro 100 chipset and that works fine, only reaching about 6.5 MB per second in transfer speed but that have to do.

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