Lost network card - Solved

[Claude Jones]

James Wilkinson wrote:

>Claude Jones wrote:
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>
>>I have a fairly brand new install of FC3 with all the latest
>>patches. I replaced the on-board video with a Radeon 9200, today.
>>    
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>AGP or PCI? I'm guessing PCI...
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>>When I came back up, the machine couldn't find the network card.
>>It comes up inactive and it says it does not appear to be present
>>if I try to activate it with the Network Configuration utility. If
>>I remove it from the configuration in the same utility, Kudzu
>>doesn't redetect it.
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>... snip ...
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>>I solved this by deleting it in the Network Configuration utility, and 
>>shutting down, removed the card, then restarted; Kudzu detected it was 
>>gone and removed it; I rebooted back to the desktop, then shut down and 
>>reactivated the NIC (it's a built-in configured on/off with BIOS 
>>settings); when I came back up, Kudzu recognized it and let me configure 
>>it.
>>
>>Since this happenned right after installing the new video card, is it 
>>safe to suspect that the new video card created an IRQ or other 
>>resources conflict?
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>>
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>"Probably." I'm slightly surprised that Windows worked OK.
>
>My experience has been that the Radeon 92x0's PCI implementation is
>finicky. A couple of PCI boards (I only had one in at a time) didn't
>want to work at all in a BX-based motherboard. They didn't even start to
>display anything, the computer didn't even beep, and it certainly didn't
>POST.
>
>I've a suspicion that was because the BX had PCI version 2.1, while the
>Radeon expected 2.2. But I've never seen another otherwise-working card
>that will do that.
>
>Even on newer boards, I had problems getting the Radeon to work.
>
>PCI has its own IRQ scheme: IRQs are labelled IRQ A to IRQ D. All four
>IRQs are available to each slot, but the order in which they are used
>varies. If you have more than four PCI slots *and* add-in PCI devices on
>the motherboard, some of those IRQs will be shared. If you have PCI
>devices that need more than one PCI IRQ (and I believe the Radeon does),
>then some of those IRQs will be shared. And the Radeon appears to be
>less than happy with sharing at least one of those IRQs.
>
>I don't know what your motherboard is like. It may be that disabling the
>NIC and re-enabling it changed something about the way the board handles
>resources. It may be that getting Kudzu to redetect it and re-enable it
>after a reboot meant that it chose different resources. A
>"before-and-after" view of your /etc/modprobe.conf file could be
>enlightening.
>
>If your card is AGP, then that should take the IRQs out of the equation.
>In which case, I'd guess the most likely candidate was where on-board
>memory was mapped: it could be that the extra memory of the Radeon was
>mapped "over" the network card's buffer, and the remove / reboot /
>redetect cycle mapped the buffer somewhere else. And I wouldn't have a
>clue why the network card could "move" its buffer and the Radeon
>couldn't.
>
>But in my experience, yes, it's safe to blame the graphics card.
>
>Hope this somewhat rambling post illuminates more than it confuses!
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I found it useful. For the record, the Radeon is an AGP model.

-- 
Claude Jones
Bluemont, VA, USA