Telewest Broadband (UK) warning

An area for people to discuss Scope related problems, issues, etc.

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subhuman
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Post by subhuman »

Also with win98SE and the i815 chipset - you MUST install the Intel i815 .INF drivers!! Download the latest version from Intel's site directly, should be small enough to fit on a floppy. This will fix instability, and is absolutely necessary although I'd be surprised a new machine wouldn't come with this installed?!?
mr swim
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Post by mr swim »

Glad to hear I have a nice board, it was rather expensive !

I will have a few drams of whiskey and then carry out surgery as advised (I would NEVER make a surgeon though), and thanks so much for your research and calm advice. I certainly need someone talking me through this one. I never realised there was so much importance about which slot was used, it didn't occur to me that one PCI was different to another !
mr swim
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Post by mr swim »

So - an update.

Firstly, I had a problem putting souncard in slot 1. The fan on the graphics card came right up to the card, but also there was a protrusion on the actual case which meant I couldn't push the card down into its slot. So I put it in slot 3 (so cards were slot 3 and slot 5) and booted up.

BUT NOTHING HAPPENED !

The computer beeped a few times and whirred a lot and then shut itself down. So, I put the soundcard and the ethernet card back all as was but this didn't make any difference. Same beeping noises, same whirring, same shutting down.

AAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH
w_ellis
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Post by w_ellis »

Fortunately beeps tend to be useful for letting you know what's wrong with your machine. Unfortunately I don't know exactly what the different beeps mean for your motherboard. It will tell you in the motherboard manual, which you should be able to download, if you don't have a copy (either on paper or on a CD).

It's likely that some memory or the graphics card has been dislodged during surgery. I shouldn't worry too much at this stage. Check the list of beeps first.
w_ellis
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Post by w_ellis »

Being aware of how scary a non-booting PC is, I had a look on Asus's site and here is the beep list:

One short beep when displaying logo-> No errors during POST.

Long beeps in an endless loop-> No DRAM installed or detected.

One long beep followed by three short beeps-> Video card not found or video card memory bad.

High frequency beeps when system is working-> CPU overheated. System running at a lower frequency.

Hope you can identify one of these as being your 'beep'!
mr swim
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Post by mr swim »

"One long beep followed by three short beeps-> Video card not found or video card memory bad."
Sounds like this is the problem. What would 'video card memory bad' mean pragmatically ? New video card ? Tweaking the leads ? Killing myself ?

The fact that the screen didn't light up at all upon booting makes it sound definitely like a graphics card problem. This might have happened when I was trying to push the soundcard into the slot next to it, but this would mean it was a physical problem. How easy would it be to break this thing ?

Could it be a driver problem ?

How do I fix it ?

And THANK YOU AGAIN - you have been my only comfort over the last few days ! At least some people are rooting for me !

p.s. I've actually been thinking about getting a new graphics card as in a fit of madness I bought a TV adaptor for an ATI card and don't think my graphics card is actually ATI ! Maybe this is my other comfort (unless I have damaged the motherboard !)
w_ellis
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Post by w_ellis »

Probably best to remove the AGP card and put it back in again, as it is most likely that it has just come loose from its slot (which can happen quite easily). I think the memory thing might be a red herring for the time being.

Also check that when you wedged the other card against the fan you didn't move anything on the card. Even if you have broken the card (which is really quite unlikely), it shouldn't be too expensive to replace it with a fairly good one. I just bought a dual-head Matrox G400 on e-bay for about £30 the other day.
mr swim
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Post by mr swim »

Will try.
They are collecting the whole lot next wednesday, so I'll have to get everything sorted at least back to the state it was in when they screwed it !

I'm happy to buy a new card if it means they still accept liability for everything else.
borg
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Post by borg »

i'm keeping my fingers crossed for you, behind the scenes... i hope you can make some music pretty soon again. i'm definitely in need of a tune to tapdance to :wink:
i bought the new speedy j yesterday, and gone are the wicked beats, the mayhem sound (well it's all still there, you know what i mean if ya hear it),... i'm not disappointed (i like some great pounding 4 to the floor once in a while), just surprised.
andy
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mr swim
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Post by mr swim »

ah Andy, cheers mate. I think the circulation to my fingers is just about cut off with worry now, but its good to hear someone will be keeping that torch alight.
If I think I can get away with it I will try and load up the tune I did pre-argameddon for ya'll from work, just so I still FEEL in the loop !
And speedy J ? Has his anger all drained away ? He can't have had any computer melt-downs recently then . . .
mr swim
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Post by mr swim »

So, another update.

I pushed my graphics card back into its slot, and that solved the non-booting terror. Then it re-loaded my soundcard drivers, got me to put my keys in again. Then I re-booted, went into the BIOS and changed the IRQ of my soundcards to 5, and YES ! They now work as if nothing had happened !

The only thing that doesn't work now is my ethernet card (boo hoo hoo). So I don't know whether this is just cos I don't know how to install it properly or because there really is an insoluble hardware conflict and I'll need a different ethernet card. Judging by Sub's opinion of the PCI use of the NETGEAR, though, getting a different card wouldn't seem like the end of the world anyway . . .

SO, THANKS ANDY, WILL, SUB, VAN HOIGHT - you've all been saviours...now they won't take my baby into care !
w_ellis
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Post by w_ellis »

Here's some info I found on Google Groups:

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=NETGE ... com&rnum=3

Looks like you should try the latest drivers first and if they don't work, bin the card! I'm recommending that Jim (my colleague) does the same. I'll let you know how he gets on.

Good to know you can make music now though! Don't worry, Telewest is worth the bother, as the internet service is pretty reliable and quick.

Will
borg
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Post by borg »

what a good feelin' hey? being back in the game again?

that's what hapiness is all about... you don't know what's good for you, until you have to miss it.
andy
the lunatics are in the hall
subhuman
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Post by subhuman »

Nice one. :smile: FYI - I had absolutely no problems with my 3com card on my CUSL2 ...
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bassdude
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Post by bassdude »

Hellow mr swim, have cuslc-c with netgear pci nic over hear running along side 3 pulsar cards no problem at all. It's just a matter of configuration.

I have all pulsar cards assigned to IRQ10 in slots 2,3,4. I disabled the printer port to free up irq 7 which is assigned to the nic. Serial ports are disabled, usb disabled. IRQ 9 is free and irq 5 is free.

However, I do run multiple boot and all the real work is done on the partition where the nic is disabled in the windows configuration to free up max resources. That said I have another "test/scratchpad" partition which I can boot into that has the pulsar software installed as well as the nic enabled and have not had any problems.

Good Luck!

Oops, quick edit, I forget to say that the nic is installed in the very last slot down the bottom of the motherboard (slot 6?). Also I meant cusl2-c not cusl-c!

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: bassdude on 2002-07-16 20:06 ]</font>
subhuman
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Post by subhuman »

Yes, slot 6 is the one I was recommending for the NIC as well. But do note - there AREdifferent NetGear cards with different controlling chipsets - and only a few (see link earlier in this thread to google groups) have a problem with their drivers. And I have had the same problem with the same model NetGear so I know it's true... also had a (different model) netGear work under 98 on a BX. Sometimes, it isn't the config but a buggy driver and if it's not working its not worth pulling your hair out over a $15 NIC - just get a new one.
mr swim
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Post by mr swim »

Andy - it is a lovely feeling, and you are very right, pleasure can be (and often is) the absence of pain . . . now it is all sorted out, I am certainly happier than before ! I am even thinking of getting a pulsar card to celebrate !

With regards the slot 6 thing, I think my actual case is a bit crap. I can't get anything in slot 1 (except the USB thingys I have)because of a blob sticking out of the case, and getting things in slot 6 is also very very fiddly. For now, I have had enough terrifying emergency operations - as I said I am no surgeon. I have been looking at LinkSys cards, but am probably going to be having more words with telewest so will see what they think too.
Bassdude, all that partitioning sounds scary, but I will definitely look into the irq assignments. While I don't have a printer, I think I'm actually using the port (might be wrong, I'm more a musician than a tech) to sync with my Korg N5 EX. If not, it may as well be disabled.

Cheers all,

Will.

p.s. the most recent driver for the netgear I found on the net was 1.8, and my floppy says its got 2.0, so the driver I'm using seems to be pretty up to date.
Also I checked the installation disc for the motherboard and that does have the .INF files you were talking about on it sub, so I presume the guys I got to build my machine put it on there (the file is a is a bit bigger than a floppy !)
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<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: mr_swim on 2002-07-17 08:34 ]</font>
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bassdude
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Post by bassdude »

Hello Sub, I have 2 fa310 ($60AUD each) nics and they have been running fine. I have not been having the problem mentioned in the google post. They get used quite a bit too as I transfer all the music files over to the storage server (unix) for backup. Very curious.

And mr swim, the partitioning is not as scary as it sounds. There is a product called Partition Magic (there are others too) which allows you to set this sort of thing up pretty easily. The software includes a boot loader utility called "Boot magic".

At any rate there are plenty people here, myself included, to give you a hand if you decide to give it a try.

Cheers!
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Neutron
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Post by Neutron »

On 2002-07-16 03:43, mr swim wrote:
So, another update.

I pushed my graphics card back into its slot, and that solved the non-booting terror. Then it re-loaded my soundcard drivers, got me to put my keys in again. Then I re-booted, went into the BIOS and changed the IRQ of my soundcards to 5, and YES ! They now work as if nothing had happened !

The only thing that doesn't work now is my ethernet card (boo hoo hoo). So I don't know whether this is just cos I don't know how to install it properly or because there really is an insoluble hardware conflict and I'll need a different ethernet card. Judging by Sub's opinion of the PCI use of the NETGEAR, though, getting a different card wouldn't seem like the end of the world anyway . . .
Just a note. whenever you put in ram or a card or a hard drive ccable it often causes the AGP card to come a bit loose. so make a habit of pressing it down to make sure it is tight last thing before you start up your system after changing something.

I am sure the network card is ok, probably just needs to be reconfigured. if you moved it windows probably redetected it and you have 2 or more of the same settings in your registry for it.

in win9x boot into safe mode and remove all the entries for it from device mangler. Reboot, And put in the settings from the ISP
mr swim
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Post by mr swim »

Another update for all those missing the soap opera . . .

I eventually plucked up the courage to change the NIC card to slot 6, but nothing seemed to be different.

It still didn't recognize new hardware, would let me install the software, but wouldn't do anything after this.

If I go into IPconfig I get a fatal error message, which apparently can be caused by the IP stuff not having a card to go with it.

In other words, my computer refuses to recognize the card in any shape or form.

So, I'm getting them to refund me for the NETGEAR card (after all they should have realized it didn't work and never left it in my machine) and think I'm going to pick up a Linksys tomorrow.

Then they are not going to be able to come round for months, partly because I'm going away for a few weeks and partly because they can't book things more than a month in advance (they are SOOOO shit at that place, they have actually helped with my Zen-like calmness !).

Hopefully, of course, sticking the new card in will be just about all I need (except getting the IP address etc) and I'll never have to see another telewest logo in my life.

Cheers all, things would have got smashed without you.

p.s. Will, do you use the Blueyonder software, or is it best kept clear of ?
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