3C905CX-TXM in Win 98 hangs copying from NT 4.0 Server

[Bobot]

Hi all!

Well I have a problem that is really strange, and I hope I'm missing something obvious.

Some background should help....

I have a client with a Win NT 4.0 Server and 15 workstations running Win 98, and they were using old 10 MBps 10Base2 Coax wiring (BNC connectors) for all. I recently upgrading all their wiring to Cat 5 cabling, installed 2 3Com OfficeConnect unmanaged switches, and got them working ok on the OLD cards running on the RJ45 jacks at 10MBps.

So today I tried to upgrade the cards to 3Com 3C905CX-TX-M cards and started at the NT server. Wasn't straightforward, but eventually got the TCP/IP configured and it connects to the switch at 100 MBps and gets to the Internet through the attached router fine.

****
So now I start trying to put the 3C905CX-TX-M cards in the Win 98 workstations and I've have had nothing but trouble. I'll spare you the bus mastering problems and get to the common problem....

I had 3 different Win 98 workstations with different 3C905CX-TX-M cards with the EtherCD 5.4 drivers installed act the same. If I open a window on the attached server from the workstation and copy a folder down, then delete the folder, empty the trash, and try to close the server folder window, eventually the system hangs for about a minute before allowing me to click on anything else and continue. If I try to close the folder window, or start another application, it just hangs or puts multiple copies of the window all over the screen. Eventually, it responds, and sometimes allows me to try again, but reboot is normally necessary.

Is is the hardware (NIC's) that are bad, the drivers from 3Com, or some anomaly? I recently read 3Com wants you to run this PreInstall software thing before installing the NIC which I didn't know before, but I'm wondering if that will really make a difference.

Note that I can get to the Internet fine from the workstations, and more importantly I can do everything fine on the server using the OLD 10MBps NIC cards in the workstations. I even tried manually setting the new 3c905CX-TX-M cards to 10 MBps half-duplex but the same problem....

HELP!

Thanks for reading all this crap!

- Bob

 

[Bobot]

Update on my problem....

It appears that it may not be related to the CX cards. I put a 3c905B-TXNM in the NT 4.0 server and installed the EtherCD 5.4 drivers. I then tried several cards in the workstations, 3c905CX-TX-M, 3c906CX-TX-NM, 3c905b-TX-NM, and even the old 3c900b combo. All exhibited the problem eventually, that is, if you copy a folder from the server to the win 98 desktop, then put it in the trash and empty trash, at some point the win 98 machine hesitates for about 30 seconds to 1 minute before the trash empties and you get control of the machine again.

My troubleshooting now suggests it's either the new 5.4 drivers installed on the win nt server, or maybe a problem with the 3com office connect 16-port dual-speed switch which was just installed, or maybe the new cat 5 wiring, or maybe it did it forever and no one ever tried to do this. ???

Any ideas are greatly appreciated.

Maybe you can't copy a folder to your desktop from a server and then delete it....hehehe

It's taboo...

- Bob

 

[Bobot]

Update -

Here's something very cool (or NOT)....

I tried this procedure on a completely different network in another company with the same setup (NT 4.0 server with 98 workstations) and the same thing happened.

It appears to maybe be related to a large number of files in the folder being deleted, not necessary the SIZE of the files but the number of them.

Well at least I know it's not just my one set up and I can maybe get on with my life....

Hehehe

- Bob

 

[Gloryhound]

Well I've administered a similar network before, however we used *cough* D-link switches and cards which IMHO are of poor quality and periodically things like that do crop up. It's more of a problem with your domain configuration and the way your server's browser master function is working. It's been a long time sence I poked around an NT system, but try playing with the server's setup some. If your only getting the problem when you do that particular action then don't do that, close the window first so the server isn't attached to the object your going to delete Then delete it see if you get the same problem, my bet is you won't. I know i've see a similar problem but can't remember exactly how to fix it. try the server's configuration.