Broadband System Hang

[jdunderhill]

I have a Win 98 machine that hangs if the cable modem is turned on during boot up, it doesn't quite get into windows and normally has a flashing cursor on the black bootup screen.

I have got Blueyonder broadband 500k connection from Telewest and am using a Netgear FA 330/331 card, I did have Win 98 SE installed earlier but tried a clean install of just Win 98 to see if that cures the problem, it seems to be an issue since there have been two clean installs in 2 months.

If I turn the cable modem off while booting up the PC it gets into Windows fine then I can turn the modem on and access internet, trouble is the PC "Restarts" at any random time from a minute up to half an hour while surfing the net!!

Any ideas or fixes would be very much appreciated

Cheers

Jamie

 

[cdogg]

Do you have another NIC you can try, preferably a different brand or model?

Be sure to remove all instances of the old one as well...


~cdogg

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
- A. Einstein

 

[Crustyoldbloke]

You really should query this with Telewest Broadband. I can't decide from your post whether you had an existing problem prior to Broadband installation, or something has ocurred since. Error! Keyboard not attached. Press F1 to continue
Phil
Si fractum non sit, noli id reficere.

 

[CitrixEngineer]

At a guess I'd say the drivers for the modem look dodgy, or there's a resource conflict of some kind.

Ensure the cable modem is not sharing resources with anything else and try updating the drivers.

Hope this helps CitrixEngineer@yahoo.co.uk

 

[jdunderhill]

Thanks for the suggestions, I will have to look into this further, Last night I had Win 98 SE installed and the comp hanged when I had the modem turned on at bootup, which is a big annoyance, also with Win 98 SE the comp would completely reboot itself at any random moment.

Now with the modem turned off the PC booted up fine every time but still would randomly reboot itself when the cable modem is on. Without the cable modem on I could go on it all day without no problems.

I decided to do a clean install of just Win 98 not SE, I thought that would solve the prob but no such luck, the PC hangs just before the login screen in Windows is about to appear, the screen sometimes goes blank and there is a flashing cursor, sometimes the screen is jumbled up and hadn't been refreshed but you can still see the flashing cursor.

I was wondering if there is an easy way rouind this probl;em because blueyonder ties your network card to your modem to prevent more than one PC having broadband, if not I will try another card or update drivers if I can get hold of them.

Any more suggestions would be appreciated

Thanks

Jamie

 

[Win98User]

Hi,
Could you post a little bit more info. I am a little slow on the up-take, sometimes/most times.

You have a Netgear Network card that connects via a CAT 5 cable to the Telewest modem/router. I take it that the modem has its own power supply and apart from the network cable, it has no other physical connection to your pc.

Picking up from CitrixEngineer, can you check the system IRQ's and if they don't make much sense include them in a follow up post.

Also, picking up and adding to cdogg 's post, is there another NIC that you can try or failing that, perhaps you could swap the card into another PCI slot.

Have you got ACPI enabled and installed?

One last thing, could you list your system details such as mobo, power supply, CPU, hard drives, CD-ROMs etc. so that we can get an overview of what could be clashing and if your system has a reason to be struggling with resources.

Regards. Booting your machine seldom does it any favours.

 

[jdunderhill]

Great thread Win98 user, I will check out the system later on to see a few bits and give an updated thread, I appreciate your support as this is a big annoyance!

Cheers

J

 

[SAMMYK]

I had the same problem a couple of weeks ago when I installed a network card. Every time I went to use the internet the computer would re-boot. I found out the problem was that the network card had a IRQ conflict with another device. I solved the problem by changing the network card to a different slot whuch was tied to a free IRQ. That solved the proble. Hope this helps.

 

[jdunderhill]

Thanks alot for your help, I will have a go on Thurs when I can get on the PC

Cheers

J

 

[jdunderhill]

Call closed, thanks for your suggestions.

The problem was solved by disabling serial ports, parallel port.

I then removed the driver in Windows and rebooted, powered off PC, moved into a different slot

Powered on and installed latest drivers for the Netgear card and now everything is running smoothly!

Cheers

J

 

[Win98User]

Thanks for the update, but...

What led you to the point of "...disabling serial ports, parallel port."?

Thanks.

Running a PC without backups is like driving a car without a seatbealt. Your knack'ed when you crash!

 

[abraham1007]

dear users. I got the same problem. I have Win Xp and Win 98se two systems. when I in the winXp, Netgear FA 330/331 card works good. but when I change to win98 se, it always reboot my computer auto. still cannot figure out that problem. if anyone can re me, I will be so glad. thanks a lot.

 

[abraham1007]

I changed it to a different slot, but it still doesn't work. it always restart my computer when I choise win98 system, or just can enter in to safe mode.