Computer stalling for a second every few minutes

[RAB]

The new computer I just built stalls for a second or two every two or three minutes. The mouse stops, programs stop, then they just go on like nothing happened. I've never run across this before. How do I stop the stalling?

The new 'puter is an AMD K6-3 450 in an Epox MVP3G5 (2 meg cache), Vanilla G400 DH, UDMA 66 Maxtor HD, Toshiba 6x DVD, 128 megs, Aureal 2500 A3D sound, Creative PCI modem and a Linksys 100/10 NIC.

Any ideas guys? I suspect it might be a cache setting somewhere, but nothing I've tried has helped.

Thanks,
RAB

[Echo|Fox]

Try removing the IPX networking protocol. Its the first thing i thought of when I saw your post header, then I noticed you have a NIC inside. Its a _very_ common problem. IPX sucks ass anyway :P As i recall, it has something to do with the way its network polling works. If removing it _does_ work, and you're curious, search the web for some info and you can probably find the technical reason why.


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P3-450@558mhz@2.1v, ABit BE6, 128megs 7.3125ns PC133 SDRAM, SB Live! Value, G400 32meg Dualhead (@120%), Acer ALN-201 PCI 10bT NIC, 6.5gig Seagate Medalist Pro 7200rpm, 13gig Quantum Fireball CR, Yamaha 4416e Burner, Pioneer 10x DVD-ROM, Panasonic e70 17" Monitor

[RAB]

Sounds like its worth a try. The NIC installation said that IPX was a required protocal to make it work, but if the stalling stops without it, I guess that's someting I'll have to find a way around.

I had a lot of trouble getting the network to work until I finally realized the other computer on my little network had IPX but didn't have NETBEUI installed. Installed it and that fixed the network. Your suggestion also makes sense, because I don't recall the problem until after I got the network working. I'll try it tonight.

Thanks,
RAB

[Zwisch]

I have similar issues at work but the mose freeze every 15-20 sec... never go to fixing it.. let me know if you find something...

[RAB]

Echo|Fox
You were right, it was the network, but it wasn't IPX. I deleted IPX for all the adapters and its still stuck every couple of minutes. I deleted all the protocals except TCP/IP for my internet connection and everything works fine, except I don't have a network now.

I'll look at it a little more this weekend. Last night there was a little baseball game up in NYC that kept me away from the computer. I live in the same city as Greg Maddux, Chipper Jones and Tom Glavine, so first things first.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

RAB

[Jorden]

RAB, also check the size of your swap-file. Any network is memory hungry like hell ...

P.S: Go Yankees !!!

Jorden.

[This message has been edited by Jorden (edited 27 October 1999).]

[RAB]

Jorden,
My swap file is Windows-managed right now until I get things right. Its a new hard drive with 7 gigs free, so I have not worried about it until now. The Win386.swp file is still only 36 megs. Would fixing it at 256 megs help network performance?

Go Braves!! Some team, some day will make up a three game deficit. It might as well be us.

RAB

P.S. I'll be out of town without a computer until Friday, but keep the suggestions coming.

[paul]

1)check your power management settings, hd spin-down is prb. @ 1 minute
2)do a ctrl-alt-del and be amazed how much crap is running. My neighbor's new hp had 23 items in the list and 12 items on the taskbar by the clock

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k6-3 450 @500 - tyan 1590s bios 1.16 - wdac310100 - g200 mill sgram w/8mb upgrade & bios 2.6-20 PD 5.25 - AGP1x - 128MB 10ns sdram - sblive value 2.1 - 3com 3c905b-tx - cable access (28.8k for emergencies) - win98 service pack 1 + 2
dx7

[Echo|Fox]

Merchant:
Using those IP addresses may be fine if the computers aren't connected to the Internet at all, but to be perfectly "correct" you should only use valid IP's that have been allocated for local use.
This would be the 10.x.x.x subnet, where each x is 0 though 255, and 192.168.x.x.
Personally, I use 10.0.0.1 through 10.0.0.8, with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, and everything works great.
To prevent conflicts, there are certain IP's that are designated as nonroutable, and any other computer on the internet cannot directly "see" such a machine. These IP's are most commonly used behind a gateway/router to share a single internet connection.
So, if this is a LAN cut off from the Internet, you won't have any problems, but the 10.0.0.x subnet is even easier to type, and its the "proper" way to do it.

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P3-450@558mhz@2.1v, ABit BE6, 128megs 7.3125ns PC133 SDRAM, SB Live! Value, G400 32meg Dualhead (@120%), Acer ALN-201 PCI 10bT NIC, 6.5gig Seagate Medalist Pro 7200rpm, 13gig Quantum Fireball CR, Yamaha 4416e Burner, Pioneer 10x DVD-ROM, Panasonic e70 17" Monitor

[merchant2112]

you can set up your network cards to use tcp/ip

1 install the ms tcp/ip proical for all nic cards on your systems.

2 in network propertys for each card (tcp/ip protacal property for nic card) choose manule ip address under ip address use 100.100.100.1xx (where xx in the last number is difrent for each system in your net work. i use 100.100.100.110 and 100.100.100.120 and 100.100.100.130 for my 3 networked systems

the submask net settings for all computers should be the same. 255.255.255.0

lastly make sure your computer id workgroup names are all spelled the same (caps too)i use the defualt name of WORKGROUP (all caps)the other two headings should be diffrent from each other.

with the above settings your systems should talk to each other if you want to be able to share files and stuff or see your difrent computers in network hood. then also in network propertys close to the bottom checck off shareinf files and printers.

then go into windows explorer right click on your hard drive root dir and click on shareing, pick shared as and itehr make a name or leave it defualt and apply (click ok, close window)

important if you use file shareing make sure you check the protacal propertys of you dial up tcp/ip and that you turn off file and print shareing for your dialup addapter. other wise others can see your system if they are looking for it.

ps if you did not need this ignore it hehe but you would be supprised at how many don't know how to get a network running.

[merchant2112]

cool, thanks for the info. will use that range insted. althoue i haven't run into a problem yet.

[This message has been edited by merchant2112 (edited 01 November 1999).]

[This message has been edited by merchant2112 (edited 01 November 1999).]

[RAB]

OK network gods:
I ran out of cable, so I haven't got everything back together. Could this be my problem: two of my computers use plain old 10 meg NIC's (one ISA and one PCI) and they work fine together. My new computer has a 10/100 card. Could the stalling be caused by the new 10/100 card trying to sync to the older 10 meg cards?

The old NIC's and 10 meg hub are cheap generic stuff except the new 10/100 is a Linksys Etherfast - a little better than generic. I got it so that I could upgrade my hub and the other PCI card to 100 sometime soon. The ISA is in an old ISA only 486 that my wife still uses, so I don't think thats upgradable.

Thanks,
RAB

[This message has been edited by RAB (edited 03 November 1999).]

[Echo|Fox]

It's possible, although unlikely. Most 10/100 cards are smart enough to drop back to 10 properly.
To test you can force it to 10megabit operation though. Goto your control panel, Network, thne bring up the properties for your network card, goto the advanced tab, and there will be an option, probably: "10 megabit, 100 megabit, or autoselect", and it'll probably be on autoselect. You can try forcing it to 10 and see if it helps.


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P3-450@558mhz@2.1v, ABit BE6, 128megs 7.3125ns PC133 SDRAM, SB Live! Value, G400 32meg Dualhead (@120%), Acer ALN-201 PCI 10bT NIC, 6.5gig Seagate Medalist Pro 7200rpm, 13gig Quantum Fireball CR, Yamaha 4416e Burner, Pioneer 10x DVD-ROM, Panasonic e70 17" Monitor, Antec KS-188 24" Tower, 6 year old Honeywell-SUH 101key Keyboard, Logitech Trackman Marble+

[RAB]

Thanks everyone, it was the NIC!

I'm sorry I didn't post results sooner. I finally figured out the stalling problem. As it turns out, it was the network card, but not what I expected, but I should have known better.

On the Epox/VIA board, it looks like the NIC has to be on a higher IRQ than either the modem or sound card. The easiest way to do this is to make it the first card in the stack after the video card. I put it in slot 2 and it works fine now. (I leave slot one open and leave the slot cover off so that the fan will draw air through it and across the G400 to keep it cooler.)

The NIC is now on IRQ 11 along with the G400, but so far no problems at all with this setup. I'm still not sure if the conflict was with the modem or sound card, but since it works now, I'm leaving well enough alone. (BTW, the newest BIOS for the Epox board allows you to assign IRQ's to specific slots, but I never had to do it.)

A further warning: Device Manager never showed a conflict under any of the card arrangements. So if you SS7 users are baffled by a conflict, don't expect Device Manager to always lead you in the right direction. (Thanks, Chris, for pointing this possibility out to me. You were correct.)

RAB

[This message has been edited by RAB (edited 14 November 1999).]