ASUS compability problems?

[t4h]

Recently, during a visit to my favourite computer shop on the 'net, I discovered a note they had put up there:

"Do NOT use Netgear's network-cards together with ASUS's motherboards, they will not function together!"

Do you guys know anything about this? I'd hate to slow down my computer upgrade by ordering a new network-card.

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/ Topaz

 

[Guest]

With Asus motherboards this is only an issue with the A7M266 and Netgear FA-311 or FA-312 NICs. Actually, the system will still work with the Netgear NIC but you will have problems rebooting the system (it will hang with a black screen). In other words, your system will work but if you are installing stuff like the OS you will need to hit the reset switch to reboot the system (after it hangs).

The problem actually exists with a number of different brands of motherboards using the AMD 761 northbridge and the Via 686B southbridge including those from Asus, Abit, Epox, etc. As far as I know, no one has come out with a BIOS patch that fixes this problem. It's not a driver issue because the hang on reboot can happen from a DOS prompt or from trying to reboot in the BIOS screen.

Another note is that the Netgear FA-310 model does not seem to cause this issue. Only the FA-311 and FA-312 NICs cause it. From my understanding they are basically the same hardware with a slightly different feature set.

Hope this helps clear up the issue.

Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please. - Mark Twain

 

[t4h]

Damn, and I got the FA-311!

Well, anyway, thanks alot for clearing things up, it helps alot when people informs you what *kind* of problem there is, not only that there *is* a problem.

BTW, can you shut down the computer flawlessly? or does the problem occur to both rebooting and shutting down?

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/ Topaz

 

[Guest]

Hmmm. It's been since March that I dealt with this problem, but I believe the system shuts down correctly. I only remember it as being a reboot issue.

If you are setting up a system for the first time with the OS install and everything, I would suggest leaving the card out of the system until you have pretty much everything else installed. That way you can go through all of those system reboots without running into the problem. Then you can install the card and use it without experiencing as much frustration from the outset.

Like I said, the card does work but it just causes the rebooting issue. You can use the NIC for now and save up a few bucks to go get a different network card in a few weeks or so. I was lucky that I was setting up a new i815 based system for my parents and put the Netgear NIC in that machine and put a 3Com 905C-TX card in my A7M266. The Netgear NIC works fine over in their i815 machine.



Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please. - Mark Twain