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Weird Issue With RTL8139 in Windows 98

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First post, by Figgy2112

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So I recently started having an issue where my RTL8139 Ethernet card just stopped working in Windows 98 for no reason and I cannot fix it, I have several other OS’s on my PC that it works fine with including Windows 95, DOS and Windows 2000 The 98 refuses the connection for some reason, i’ve gone about reinstalling windows 98 like twice and reinstalled the driver over and over again and nothing changes and I’m just so damn confused, what could be causing this and is there anything I can do to fix it?

Reply 1 of 48, by myne

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Done anything physically to the machine at all?
Moved slots? New card? Even reset bios?

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Reply 2 of 48, by Figgy2112

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myne wrote on 2024-10-24, 09:23:

Done anything physically to the machine at all?
Moved slots? New card? Even reset bios?

I did change around some of the com parallel port stuff, but I put it back to what it was before and that didn’t work

Reply 3 of 48, by Figgy2112

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myne wrote on 2024-10-24, 09:23:

Done anything physically to the machine at all?
Moved slots? New card? Even reset bios?

I did change around some of the com parallel port stuff, but I put it back to what it was before and that didn’t work, I think it has to do with windows itself because of my other windows installs working

Reply 4 of 48, by myne

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Maybe. Maybe not.
Some os' allocate and tolerate IRQ sharing differently.

Try turning off all lpt/com/whatever else in the bios and see if it changes.

What does device mgr say?

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Convert old ASUS ASC boardviews to KICAD PCB!
Re: A comprehensive guide to install and play MechWarrior 2 on new versions on Windows.
Dos+Windows 3.11+tcp+vbe_svga auto-install iso template
Script to backup Win9x\ME drivers from a working install
Re: The thing no one asked for: KICAD 440bx reference schematic

Reply 5 of 48, by Figgy2112

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myne wrote on 2024-10-24, 09:58:
Maybe. Maybe not. Some os' allocate and tolerate IRQ sharing differently. […]
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Maybe. Maybe not.
Some os' allocate and tolerate IRQ sharing differently.

Try turning off all lpt/com/whatever else in the bios and see if it changes.

What does device mgr say?

It says the driver is working properly and there’s nothing wrong but like I can’t ping anything in the dos prompt and it’s just not working, and if anything turning off the com or parallel port was actually caused more weird cryptic issues with the dma stuff than not

Reply 6 of 48, by myne

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Change IRQ? Try 10

I built:
Convert old ASUS ASC boardviews to KICAD PCB!
Re: A comprehensive guide to install and play MechWarrior 2 on new versions on Windows.
Dos+Windows 3.11+tcp+vbe_svga auto-install iso template
Script to backup Win9x\ME drivers from a working install
Re: The thing no one asked for: KICAD 440bx reference schematic

Reply 8 of 48, by Figgy2112

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The weird thing is windows has an automatic thing that already supposed to handle memory addresses and all that so I don’t understand what’s going on

Reply 9 of 48, by Figgy2112

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The computer had a Dell pentium 3 Intel 815 board which I heard has some weird things when it comes to IRQ

Reply 10 of 48, by Figgy2112

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Also device manager reports that there’s no conflicts with the device

Reply 11 of 48, by myne

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Check all the settings in one of the working window's.
Manually try them in this one.

I built:
Convert old ASUS ASC boardviews to KICAD PCB!
Re: A comprehensive guide to install and play MechWarrior 2 on new versions on Windows.
Dos+Windows 3.11+tcp+vbe_svga auto-install iso template
Script to backup Win9x\ME drivers from a working install
Re: The thing no one asked for: KICAD 440bx reference schematic

Reply 12 of 48, by ratfink

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Could this be a chipset driver issue?

Reply 13 of 48, by Figgy2112

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myne wrote on 2024-10-24, 12:14:

Check all the settings in one of the working window's.
Manually try them in this one.

Oooh good idea will try

Reply 14 of 48, by Figgy2112

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Well, tried that and tried installing two other drivers and it’s still not working and I’m just at a loss

Reply 15 of 48, by Figgy2112

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Could it be I have like fucked up network system files in windows itself and just need to replace those.

Reply 16 of 48, by Figgy2112

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And the card is blinking and seems like it’s trying to communicate something when it’s in windows, but it’s still just showing no connection going through and the ethernet is working

Reply 19 of 48, by ratfink

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Sure, I took it as a general possibility that one OS could mess things up for another OS in some arcane way involving card eeproms, hot and cold boots etc.