First post, by ElBrunzy
- Rank
- Oldbie
I have that new p4 computer based on the I845G chipset. It has this infamous NIC built-it RTL8139/810x that I was never able to make receive or send a packet thru the twisted pair wire. I did try some different cable/switch but was never successful. Apparently it's a common problem I thought would only affect Win98 but I upgraded to Win2000 and face the same issue. The problem is that I now run low on PCI expansion port on that computer. Since I intend that computer to watch early Windows demos, running Win2000 allow for some more interesting GPU than Win98. The two PCI are used for Nvidia 9400gt 1gb and SB Live!, but unless someone tell me that an AGP x1650pro is faster than the Nvidia (or help me figure out the 8139 problem, but now I give up and disabled it), I will have to rely on ISA bus for my network need.
So my problem now is that I have no success having my NIC to work, I did try. Two that I believe to be the best contender are the UltraChip and 3Com Etherlink 3:
- Etherlink III 3c509B-C & TP), SOFT, TP is 1995, C is 1994
- AT/LANTIC NIC-2003 KC331101, SOFT, (maybe 1994)
- UMC UM9007F, SOFT, no date
- SMC 83C690LJ, SOFT/HARD, 1992
- SMC UltraChip 83C790QF, SOFT/HARD, 1993
I wonder which one I should focus on, I went by date of birth and what's already supported from Win2000, maybe someone know better. But the Etherlink ]I[ 3C509B-C never showed up when I asked the wizard to autodetected device, so I forced an installation but don't know what IRQ, I/O value to set (did try some common one on a NIC). I read on an Internet tutorial that I should first know the value from dos, but my understanding from ISAPNP (aka SOFT on NIC silkscreen ?) is that this don't warranty it will stay after a reboot on Win2000, and I can't find a Win2000 diagnostic tool.
Then I went to the SMC UltraChip (how can you resist such a name?) that I can set in hard to io:280 irq:3 ram:D000 but I could just select closest driver that is Elite16 Ultra (nothing less) which I can set value and Win2000 tell me it loaded the driver fine, but with such chipset difference it's not unexpected that I cannot go outside the computer...
Next thing that come to mind is ask for help on my favorite forum, so there I am!