PCMCIA Lan card freezes computer

[PAugustin]

Hi all,

I just bought a new network card for my laptop. It'a a Netgear GA511, a gigabit lan card.

The installation went well.

Pb is when I use the network, internet or lan browsing, the PC just freezes after 30s ! I noticed that hot removing the card unfroze the computer. But when I put the card back... freeze !

At first I thought driver issue. I re-installed windows (XPSP2) but the same problem occuerd. I even tried Win2K but it didn't change anything. The computer keeps on freezing.

The card worked on another laptop. So it might be a hardware incompatibility

If you have any idea on how I couls try to sort this out...

The laptop : Dell Inspiron 3200, PII400, 272MB, HDD 20GB, WinXP SP2.



Oh and I called the manufacturer, atm they don't have a clue.

[Rob(QG)]

I would put it down to the laptop not being powerful enough.

A lot of network cards offload a fair bit of work onto the CPU. At gigabit speeds this could be a fair amount, and that CPU is not the fastest....

More expensive network cards do more work on the card, but I'm not sure if they make any like that in PCMCIA format.

[J1NG]

I think it's hardware. I happened to get some Netgear stuff for my brother nearly 6 months ago now (card and router, matched too). Wouldn't work very much like yours. Intermittent connection and transfer results. Eventually diagnosed and got a cheap PCMCIA card that did the same business and worked excellently.

Try a cheap version of the card if you can. If it works. It's a unrepresented hardware fault.

J1NG

[PAugustin]

OK about the power I don't think it's the problem, currently it's hooked to a 100Mb switch and I also forced the card to 100Mb to be sure. Plus it has a cpu offload option I activated.

J1NG : I was hopping it wouldn't be hardware incpatibility. I have a cheap 10/100Mb card that works ok on this laptop. I wanted to go Gigabit for my new flat

I guess I'll have to leave the laptop on 100Mb...

If anybody has another idea, please feel free

[ZokesPro]

I often suggest this but it works especially well on Dell's. Try clearing the static electricity, sounds stupid but sometimes it works, so just remove all power sources then hold down the power button for 10 seconds. Reset bios defaults works sometimes too. Updating bios too sometimes helps.

[PAugustin]

Thanks for the tips. I did the static trick and bios reset. No more updates are available.
Unfortunately, non of this worked. I guess I'm going to return this card and get a refund. Meanwhile I'm going to try another gigabit card I just found a D-Link (DGE-660TD), I'll see if it works better...

[ZokesPro]

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ptwist/specs.htm

For an Inspiron 3200: PC Card connectors 2 (supports 2 type I or type II cards or 1 type III card) The top pcmcia port usually supports type II and type III, the lower one type I and type II.

Do you know if that PCMCIA card is a type II or type III?

[PAugustin]

The card is a type 2 I think. I plugged in the top connector. I though type III where thick cards that eats both slots and connect in the lower slot :??:

[ZokesPro]

Could be the bottom one, it's been a while.

[PAugustin]

i tried the other slot. But it freezes the same way

[ZokesPro]

Sounds like the card then, oh well.

[PAugustin]

Yes unfortunately
I've ordered the D-link and tomorrow I'm going to return the Netgear.