Realtek 8139D LAN NIC "Not Found" by DOS diagnostic (rset8139.exe) 2

[NarlyMarly]

Motherboard - ABIT IC7-G
Dual boot - XP/WinNT4
I'm trying to get a Realtek 8139D NIC to work with NT4 so I can run an obsolete/unsupported CAD program (that's licensed to the MAC address) on my new 'wide screen' system ('cause NT4 and dual monitors = oxymoron). The Realtek NICs, as I have been led to believe, allows for re-flashing the MAC address in firmware.
SO...
XP sees it, starts to install it. I stop it. ( I don't need it to work with XP).
After failures by NT4 to have 'found' the card when installing the drivers, I have noticed/done the following...

It DOES appear in the bootup device listing with IRQ=5

Changed PCI slots - no effect.
Bios things...
Disabled the OnChip LAN (the competing mobo Intel NIC). This free'd up IRQ 11.
Disabled 'AUTO' PCI IRQ assignments.
Manually assigned PIRQ_5 to IRQ11
Disabled USB2.0 controller (it shared IRQ11)

In each case, I rebooted with a floppy to DOS and ran Realtek's diagnostic program - rset8139.exe - only to be greeted each time with the "FATAL ERROR - There is no LAN board found..." message.
Anyone have any clues?
Perhaps some other 'favorite' IRQ#?
Perhaps a combo of PCI slot/IRQ#?

 

[G0AOZ]

I ran the RSET8139.EXE on my Reatek 8139D having booted with 'DOS 7' from a WIN-98 floppy. All appears to be ok, card recognised, and diags passed.

You say you stopped installation proceeding under XP as you didn't need it. Perhaps it might be worth allowing that install to proceed so that you can verify the card is working ok and can connect to a LAN and the Internet.

If it's of any consequence, I'm using Realtek's Setup and Diags version 5.01.

The motherboard is a Asus P5S800-VM/S and the diags report the card as I/O E800 and IRQ 11.

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[BadBigBen]

The Realtek NICs, as I have been led to believe, allows for re-flashing the MAC address in firmware.

have you done this already? if so, it may not recognize that it is a RealTek card anymore...

if not, why not get another NIC and try that, it may be that the one you use now, is a dud...

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[NarlyMarly]

Thanks guys - for the corroborating 'it might be a dud'. I was kind of hoping all those cheap cards for sale on eBay were there for some other reason.;-)
I did think of allowing it to install under XP, but since 'recognized as existing' was more than what I was getting with it's own diagnostic, and it WAS showing up in the device list OK, my impatience won out.
No, didn't re-flash yet. First things first - find out what the MAC address is so I'll recognize it in the eeprom.
I'm assuming the directory name of rset8139.509 that contained the rset8139.exe means I have version 5.09.

I think I'll try to find out just exactly how 'functional' a card has to be for the system to assign it an IRQ and get the name of the device - but still not 'work'. Seems to me that 'not found' is a level below 'not recognized'. If only Realtek would post a diagnostic flow chart(the idealist dreams on...)

Will still keep trying - might learn something.

 

[NarlyMarly]

An update...
Yes, it IS rset8139.exe version 5.09, 2008 for RTL8139X.
Yes, it works fine in XP. In fact, I'd say it works really fine, as clicking my shortcut to a folder on the slave computer (Dell DIM8100/ME)popped up so fast I had the thought "Gee, that opened faster than it does on the computer it came from!".
SO... I tried changing the PCI clock latency from it's default of 32 to 0 and then to 128 and then to 255. Still no-go.
Oh, BTW, the exact wording of the DOS box response (for those future phrase-searchers looking for a solution) is....

FATAL ERROR
There is no LAN board found...

Again, it works fine with XP with the bios PCI settings on AUTO where it shows up in the boot-up device list as a class 200 8139 device on IRQ 5. It just isn't recognized as existing by Realteks diagnostic program or by WinNT4 SP6.

'Go figure'.

 

[BadBigBen]

In the BIOS, what is the setting "Plug and Play OS" set to?

anything before XP SP2 should be set to NO, there after it can be set to YES...

another thing that pops to mind, is this an onboard NIC, or a third party board? if third party, which PCI SLOT is it attached to? (Some mainboards have what is called a SLAVE PCI SLOT or SLOTS) so try another PCI SLOT and see if that changes anything...

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[tlcscousin]

http://www.helpdrivers.com/ingles/listado/dow.asp?codigo=19676

http://download.cnet.com/Realtek-8139-8169-Lan-Driver-zip/3010-2112_4-430516.html

http://downloads.zdnet.com/abstract.aspx?docid=562877&promo=100511&tag=content;col1

Here are 3 places that list 8139 drivers and they supposedly work on NT4

 

[NarlyMarly]

Thanks Ben - I went looking for the 'OS' thing last night but all my bios has in that dept. is a "Is it OS2 or not" (not) thing. I've tried end slots and a middle slot - no diff., but did notice that the NIC card registers as being on PCI bus 2. I noticed that the only other things on that bus are the '1394' and SATA controllers. I think I'll try ALL of the PCI slots with the onboard LAN and USB2.0 disabled and IRQ manually assigned to 11 - next. I think my goal now should be to see if I can get it to show up on PCI bus 1, like the onboard LAN is when it's enabled.

 

[NarlyMarly]

Addendum...
By enabling all integrated devices the Realtk NIC is pushed to PCI bus #3. Can't disable enough things to get it down to #1.
It's funny - apparently not all AwardBiIOS v6.00PG bios menus are equal. The BIOS screenshots I found online (

http://www.buildeasypc.com/pics/bios_pnppci.jpg

) shows the 'PnP OS thing' Ben referred to - but I have an AUTO/MANUAL setting in that spot.
I booted to XP to get the MAC address and while I was there I opened the DOS command window and ran rset8139.exe from there.
It ran - but filled it's device list window with 16 entries (0-15) saying I had more than one network controller and I had to select one. They were all the same 'device that was not a network controller' - all with IRQ 57.
Down-arrowing past the 8th one on the list generated a 'can not open new window' error. Selecting one before that generated a 'invalid IRQ' error (IRQ 57 - uh duh!).
I'd suspect the rset8139 program but remember - this all started with WinNT4 failing to see the board.
I just got a Linksys 10BaseT EtherPCI board with an eeprom on it. I'm giving up on this Realtek - sorry everyone who was hoping to see this one solved.
Adios amigos.

 

[BadBigBen]

Thnaks for the update...

and yes, no BIOS is the same, except on the same hardware (and then sometimes it is AMI or Award/Phoenix)...

I took a look at the manual, and yes you do not have this setting... Bummer...

but as I noted in the first post, it probably is a DUD...

get another NIC, they are cheap anyways these days...

good luck...


Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[NarlyMarly]

Yup! 'Dud' or 'incompatible' or whatever - I moved on. The Linksys 10BaseT EtherPCI NIC with a Winbond chip is now in and working and showing it's MAC address like a good NIC should. It took a little 'back-n-forth' - installing/uninstalling/disabling onboard LAN/reinstalling NIC - to get this NIC to be 'top dog', but it eventually happened. The 93LC46B eeprom is out and sitting on my bench. I recommend the 'hot air' method of removal - it worked very well.