two 8139s behaving differently

Hi

(continuation from this thread which meandered way away from original topic)

two NICs both 8139 based connected to a Belkin; to start with one of the 8139's (fitted into a M6TWL motherboard) would sporadically, infrequently, mis-recognise as a 8129

so I swapped the 8139s over to see if the mis-recognition was down to the NIC or to something else, expecting one or other NIC to show as an 8129 eventually...

...which hasn't happened (yet) but someting else has:

in the machine which originally mis-recognised the NIC: when the machine is shut down (Windows shut down but power still connected) the LED on the Belkin for that computer stays on; sometimes it stays on constantly, sometimes it blinks ~1Hz

this "odd" computer (M6TWL) has wake-on-LAN ability but it's disabled in the BIOS

should I expect this if I'm fitting a non-wakeup-able 8139 card into a slot with wake-ability?

I haven't the faintest idea whether the earlier 8139 (which misrecognised) supports wake-on-LAN, but but it didn't keep the light on the Belkin on

the M6TWL motherboard has never been reliable (is why I got it!, IT dept had finally given on the thing and were getting rid of it), but only goes wrong infrequently

best wishes, HJ

 

Hi HJ,

Glad to see you have gotten the system(s) running. I have not had problems with a LAN setup like those you have experienced... anyway, maybe I could throw some suggestions at you.

The lights for the LAN cards will stay on even when the computer "shut down ". I can't say I have noticed "blinking" before, but if another computer in the LAN is running, there may be a an occassional "check" to make sure that NIC is still connected. If all the computers on the network were shut down and there was still blinking, then yes, definite problem somewhere.

As for a motherboard problem, I would look at if there was a BIOS upgrade for it. You say the IT people were "working" on it...mmm...that maybe cause for ALARM!
I would check that BIOS version was the correct one for that motherboard (some BIOS upgrades depend on the Revision number of the model). A BIOS flash may be helpful anyway, even reflashing with the current version. I've seen quite a few strange problems disappear after a BIOS flash/upgrade. Check the model of the motherboard by reading the model number off the board itself, someone may have flashed the wrong BIOS in the past (?).

Why it would work properly with one version of the 8139 chipset and not the other is beyond me, although it would seem to be having trouble reading the firmware of that card ( "are you a 8139 today or a 8129?" ).

Hope you have some success, but sometimes it is just a physical fault in the hardware/electronics that cannot be fixed by any amount of troubleshooting. Apart from flashing the BIOS, I cannot think of many other things to try, other than changing NICs, like you have done, to one that it "likes" (PS if you are thinking of getting another NIC you may want to try an Adaptec, they specialize in networking and maybe more friendly?? for your motherboard, I seem to remember one occassion where a NIC would not work on a particular motherboard, changed to an Adaptec and it worked fine)

Matt