Netgear Wireless PCI card connection problems

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com hath wroth:

I presume that means that it wasn't happening before you installed the WG311v2.

No interference from other 2.4Ghz sources? Try this list:

and see if anything sounds familiar.

Ok, that's a clue. Download and run MS Process Explorer from:

See if you can determine what process is hogging all the CPU cycles. If you click on the CPU column, the tables will sort in order of increasing CPU clock cycle consumption. You may want to set the "update speed" to something faster than the default 2 seconds. Incidentally, this is one program that's well worth reading the docs as there are lots of buried features and goodies.

First, verify that it's really a BSOD and not some fake screen produced by a virus or worm.

This would have been easier if you would have specified the maker and model number of your computah. There are several motherboards that default to checking PCI parity by default. If you're lucky, your motherboard BIOS will have an obscure setting called "PCI Parity on/off". Turn it off and the errors parity errors will stop.

Yeah, that's the symptoms. Look for "PCI Parity on/off".

Memtest86 v3.3 is very good at diagnosting memory problems. However, it has fooled me more than once. It says everything is fine, but replacing the RAM fixes the problem. I guess it can't test for everything. I usually leave it running continuously overnight.

Thanks for the reply.

That is correct.

Possibly, but not likely. I have my laptop sitting right next to it, and it has never had a problem.

I downloaded and ran, but couldn't for sure isolated anything that was causing the problem. It seems like whenever it spikes, the processes don't update during the spike, so it's difficult to tell if its a process that's freezing it or not. I have noticed that the freezing occurs when it loses connection to the internet however. The strange thing is that it still shows as connected to the internet, and is still sending packets, just not receiving any. I have to repair connection or manually disconnect and reconnect for it to work again. This happens every 5 minutes or so.

I am running a Compaq Evo W6000 with an Intel Xeon 1.7 processor, which I suspect might be the cause of some of my issues as its not a typical desktop. Netgear support suggested this as well. I was able to disable the PCI Bus Mastering Option and the PCI Serial Generation Option, so now the computer at least shuts down okay. Some progress.

The Evo uses Rambus, so replacing RAM on a hunch is a little cost prohibitive. One theory I had was that the wireless card was accessing certain bad RAM addresses that hadn't been used before and that's what was causing the problem, but I don't think this is the problem anymore.

If I can just fix having to reconnect every five minutes now, I'll be golden. Thanks for the reply. Travis

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com hath wroth:

That's unusual. Even a virus that busys out the CPU will show up on the process table. Try speeding up the sample rate and see if it helps.

Ok, but probably backwards. I suspect the disconnects are caused by the freezing.

Can I assume that you've installed the latest greatest WG311v2 drivers?

Is is a consistent interval, or duz it vary somewhat?

I don't think so. I have a customer with an office full of those. However, there's no wireless in sight so it's not a good comparison.

One problem I've noticed on some machines is the effects of overtemperature. Most motherboard BIOS's belch a message on the screen followed by an immediate shutdown. However, I've seen a few that just stop the CPU, let it cool down slightly, and then continue where it left off. That might be what's happening here except that the off time is something like 30 seconds, which is not what you're seeing.

I've also seen some weirdness when the machine has multiple wireless client managers installed. Most of them run all the time in the background and are not terribly smart about relinquishing control. For example, I installed Wi-Fi Hopper on several machines that has other client managers running. The result was that the CPU became very busy for about 1 second every 10 seconds. Disable either client manager and things would work. If you have some of these surplus management programs installed, either uninstall them or disable the background programs.

That was too easy. However, you had two problems, and the wireless problem is still there. Keep going.

Well, the obvious tests would be to:

1. Remove the WG311v2 card, but leave the driver. See if the machine goes busy as before.
2. Remove the WG311v2 card and remove the driver. See if the machine goes busy as before.
3. Replace the WG311v2 with something else.

I'm not sure it's the card or driver, unless either is ancient. I have several XP SP2 machines running this card at various customers and have not seen any similar problems. Perhaps it's the combination of wireless card and machine (motherboard or bios). Check the Compaq web pile for a BIOS update.

Could give it another try...had it up to 1 second updates, just made it that much tougher to catch the culprit, as it was going to fast.

Not sure if one causes the other, but they are definitely associated somehow. After the internet stops working, the PC intermittently freezes still.

Yup. Even tried non-Netgear drivers.

It varies. I can be anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes.

I considered this, but it does it even after it has just been booted up and its still very cool.

I have minimal TSR's running, and have tried using both the Netgear manager and Windows Zero manager in XP. Doesn't seem to matter. Just as soon as the device is enabled, I have problems.

Already eliminated the driver as a problem.

Nope, something with the card that causes a problem.

I assume you mean the card? See, that's the crazy thing. I ran this card in a much crappier computer to test it, worked like a charm. I stole a friend's Linksys card to test in mine, and it worked fine also. Had very low signal, but I think that could be tweaked in router settings. As soon as I switched back, problems.

I've always been frightened of updating BIOS, so I have never done it. I'm not sure how to go about it, or what the implications even are. The PC was built in 2002 or 2003 I think, perhaps it's time for an update? Any good guides on how to do that?

One more thing I just noticed: if I leave the card enabled, but don't connect it to any network so it just sits idle, I don't run into any freezing problems. It only happens when it's connected to a network. Strange?

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com hath wroth:

You should find something on the Compaq web pile. Most BIOS updates are to add support for bigger hard disks, but there are bug fixes. IF the specific WG311v2 worked on another machine, it's highly likely that there's something wrong with the Compaq Evo W6000.

Check the version numbers first.

I've had fairly good luck with BIOS updates. Most of them are smart enough to verify that it's the correct version, for the correct machine. I used to do it with a UPS, just in case the power would die in the middle, but that proved un-necessary. I follow all the instructions exactly and usually ignore phone calls and interruptions.

However, about a 2 weeks ago, one of my more knowledgeable customers updated the BIOS on a very new HP something desktop. It failed. The ASUS motherboard offered no recovery proceedure. We had to ship the unit to the authorized service center, which somehow recovered the BIOS, and didn't bother telling me what they did. So much for foolproof.

One other suggestion, but it's a real time burner. Remove the hard disk, and install some other hard disk temporarily. Run the HP recovery or install CD to install XP SP2. Don't bother with updates beyond SP2. Install the Netgear WG311v2 and drivers. If that works, then there's something screwed up with the Windoze install. If it fails the same way, it's probably the EVO W6000.

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com hath wroth:

Not really strange. If you're not connected, there's no traffic moving. However, once connected, you're going to be moving some data, which results in the IRQ line being cycled. PCI bus activity is quite different when connected than when idle.

Hmmm.... Check the BIOS and see if the WG311v2 card is sharing an interrupt with another motherboard device. Try juggling the IRQ's around and see if it helps. Whatever you do, try to avoid sharing the networks card with the same IRQ as the video.

I don't think the risk is worth it, I would rather send the card back and get something else. I love Newegg.

I think I found my process...looks like SVCHOST.exe, which isn't a total shocker since we are dealing with the network. Spikes and freezes every time I disable the adapter. I have no idea what to do from there, scvhost could mean so many things to me. If this doesn't give you any genius ideas, I think at this point I'll just ship it back and spend $20 more on something a little nicer...