NIC causing Windows to pause

[Jorden]

Something that's been bugging us for some time now.

We, Holly and me, both have a RealTek 8139 PCI 10/100Mbit NIC. Both of the NICs work perfectly, so that's not the problem.
Our problem is, that when either of us has one PC on, and the other starts the PC up, the Windows on the first PC halts for a couple of seconds. Be it Windows alone, this is no problem either, but if the other is playing a game, it will usually either crash or slow down enormously.

I know it's due to the initing of the NIC, giving a broadcast on the network saying "Hey hello, I'm MAC xxxx, who are you?", but it shouldn't be doing this. So my question, obviously, would be: How do we get rid of that long pause?

Jord.

[joelau]

Haven't seen such a case before. I assume this's a 2 computers peer to peer network.
1) Are u using 10/100 hub or switch ? Brand ?
2) UTP cat5 wiring ?
3) Network protocols ?
4) Have you tried to change 1 of the computer to a different brand NIC ?

Regards.

[HollyBerri]

Actually, I don't get a "long pause"... I actually flash out to the Windows desktop (or actually the Litestep desktop, but no matter ).

This was a much worse problem before the new drivers, as this was essentially an Alt-Tab out of the game and back, and I would come back to a black screen, though the game was still running.

With the new drivers, the game returns normally after the network is initialized (twice-- on power-on and again at logon), but naturally it's still easy to get killed while you have no control...

Do other brands of NIC behave this way?

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Holly

[Jorden]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by joelau:
Haven't seen such a case before. I assume this's a 2 computers peer to peer network.
1) Are u using 10/100 hub or switch ? Brand ?
2) UTP cat5 wiring ?
3) Network protocols ?
4) Have you tried to change 1 of the computer to a different brand NIC ?</font>

You assume wrong, joelau No peer-to-peer, but a DNS network.
1) No
2) Yes, cat 5.5
3) DNS, no gateway, no WINS, fixed IP addresses.
4) Nope, as we don't have other NICs lying around.

I ought to explain that it happens in both WinME and Win2k. Neither NIC shares IRQs with other hardware.

Jord.

[MultimediaMan]

Do you have a bunch of shared drives and folders? Are any CD/DVD-ROMs or other removable media drives shared?

If you have a bunch of shared resources, and you open explorer or any other file system viewer, you are going to eat up some resources getting all the header information from the shared files.

Realteks are a little weird anyway...also WinME can do some strange things by automatically scanning for shared resources every 10 minutes or so. You can turn of the feature in the Control Panel.


[This message has been edited by MultimediaMan (edited 02 March 2001).]

[Jorden]

Thanks M, but our problem does not lie in Windows itself. All drives on both PC's are shared, but for the CD-burner on Holly's PC.

But our problem does not lie in Windows, I think?

When my PC is already on, and Holly starts up her's, I get an immediate feedback, while her PC is still going through BIOS/POST, worsening when she hits the dual-boot menu.

When her PC is on, and I start up, it's during the late POST, start of the dual-boot menu that she has the problems.

This relates to me as checking in DOS for the cards, in so far that NETLOG.TXT checks for the NICs.

I just wonder, if none of us both load drivers for the NIC in DOS, how can we get rid of that delay?

Btw, I do have a Realtek Diagnostic Program in the system tray & Control Panel, but I cannot disable scanning shared drives from there. Where do I do that?

Jord.

[This message has been edited by Jorden (edited 02 March 2001).]

[HollyBerri]

Hate to correct you, sweetie, but like I said, If I'm on and you turn on your PC, I see an effect in 2 places:[list=1][*] As your PC powers up (initializing your NIC in DOS), and[*] when you log on to the Windows desktop (Windows initializing the network between us).[/list=a] I don't think I get booted out to the desktop until you actually type your login name and hit "Enter" to get into Windows, though. Once the Windows network is initialized, I'm free.

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Holly

[This message has been edited by HollyBerri (edited 02 March 2001).]

[joelau]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by Jorden:
You assume wrong, joelau No peer-to-peer, but a DNS network.
1) No
2) Yes, cat 5.5
3) DNS, no gateway, no WINS, fixed IP addresses.
4) Nope, as we don't have other NICs lying around.

I ought to explain that it happens in both WinME and Win2k. Neither NIC shares IRQs with other hardware.

Jord.

</font>

I don't really understand your network setup.
1) There's no hub, so are u using crossover cable ?
2) How far apart are these 2 computers ?
3) Who's the DNS server ? Why do u need to use DNS ?
4) NIC link light. Does it blink/break connection when the hang happens ?
5) NIC activity light. Is it on or off when the opposite computer hang ?

Regards.

[Colin Morey]

I assume he means he's using DNS for name look-up rather than WINS,.

quite what a DNS network is I don't know.

as for realtek, (spit) gimme 3com.

*griN*

[The PIT]

I've had great fun with those realtek cards in the past causing crashes and freezes but not in the way you describe.
The cards are now in the bin where they belong and I'm running nicely on 3coms.
How've you got your network setup. Fixed ip address's ???
What happens if you disable the shares??

[Taz]

Jorden, my guess is as the cards are connected via a crossover cable they are trying to determin whether to run at 10 or 100 and full or half duplex. If you can aquire a hub from someone and see whether this fixes it as they will get this info from the hub rather than the other PC. If you can force the cards to 100 then that might cure it aswell.

[Jorden]

Joelau,

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">1) There's no hub, so are u using crossover cable ?
2) How far apart are these 2 computers ?
3) Who's the DNS server ? Why do u need to use DNS ?
4) NIC link light. Does it blink/break connection when the hang happens ?
5) NIC activity light. Is it on or off when the opposite computer hang ?</font>

1) No hub, cross-over cable from the network to both PC's
2) You mean in real distance, or by network cable distance? In real distance about 3 meters, in network cable distance about 10 meters. Well within limits
3) As we're using Client for Microsoft Network compatibility, it was easier to give both PC's their own IP address, with coupled to that DNS, both looking for my PC. In a sense my PC is DNS server then.
4) To be honest, I haven't checked that, for it's a bit inaccessible on both PC's, unless you do yoga or are a magician of sorts
5) See 4.

Colin, aye, 3com would be nice, but these cheapo cards were a gift from Holly, so hush

TP, fixed IP addresses yes. I could test the disabling of the shares at some point as well, but what's the use of the network then?

Taz, both cards run at full duplex, 100Mbit connection. This is checked out through tests, and it works when we're eventually in Windows.

I do wonder though, on the Properties of the network card, in My Network Places (stupid name, MS), I have the option to disable Detect connection to network media. Does anyone know what this means? And would it make a difference when I disable that one?

Jord.

[dZeus]

I guess that's exactly what it says: windows will alert you when you unplug the cable, and will change the connection icon to 'not connected' state

[Sasq]

Just wondering, what protocols do you have installed in windows for the cards?

just tcp/ip or do you have other protocols installed as well?
if yes, try removing all the protocols except tcp/ip

[Gurm]

Jord,

Let's slow down here for a moment. You're blowing past something which has already been suggested to you.

When you turn on the machine, the card HAS TO initialize. It does it again when windows loads in the NIC drivers.

Since you are using a crossover cable, the only device which can respond to the card is the OTHER card.

This is what causes the pauses. (Hey, I rhyme!) At least, that's my opinion.

Do you have a hub around to test? Even if it's an old slow one, it'd tell you if this is the problem.

If not, I'm already sending you guys some CD's... (wink!)

- Gurm

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