Added Memory Causes Hardware Conflict w/Eathernet Adapter

Question

I have a Dimension 2300 with Windows XP Home. It came with 256MB of ram. Today I installed an additional 512MB of ram from Crucial. I bought the part that their memory configurator said I should get for this system. The installation went fine. When I turned the system on, a black screen came up telling me that the system memory had changed and it gave me the option to continue, go into setup, and a couple of others. I went into set up and saved the changes and exited as Crucial's installation guide suggested. The system finished loading and came up. The memory was recognized and I thought all was O.K. Silly me! Everything worked fine untill I got on the Internet(dial up) then the computer stopped responding. After turning it off and back on, I went into device manager and found that I now have a conflict with the Eathernet adapter. It is a GVC-REALTEK Ethernet 10/100 PCI Adapter. It uses interupt request 11. The properties page for the device says that the device can't find enough free resources to run. Error code 12. When I click the resources tab on the properties page, it says the same thing in the box where the memory range and interrupt request numbers normally are. It also says that I will need to turn off something to get the device to work. It shares Interrupt 11 with the Intel(R) 82801DB/DBM SMBus Controller-24C3 device. So I thought I would try to reassign the IRQ for this device, but the settings area of the resources page is greyed out, so I can't change it. The next thing I did was to remove the memory module I had installed to see if having only the original memory would resolve the conflict. It didn't. I disabeled the device and can get on the Internet w/no problem. I tried enabling the device, but when the system reboots, the conflict is still there. I have reinstalled the memory module and then disabeled the device so I could get on the Internet and come here to get some help. I have not tried uninstalling the adapter thru the device manager and rebooting to let windows detect it and reinstall. Thought I would try to get help first. Thanks!

jmwills · Answer

Two things to try:

Put the new memory module in slot 0 and use only that one. If all is okay shut down down and put the other module in slot 1 and reboot to see what you get.

This could be nothing more than a bad memory stick.

godawgs · Answer

jmwills,Thanks for the reply, but the problem dosen't seem to be the memory. Anyway, I did what you suggested the system recognized  all memory and seems to work fine except that occasionally when I go to the Internet thru the dial up connection, the system quits responding after the home page loads, just as it did when the hardware conflict was there before I disabeled the network card. But the problem changed even before I did what you suggested. After I disabeled the network card the Device Manager showed the card with a red X over it. Now, the Device Manager doesen't even show a network card. But if I click the View menu in Device Manager and then click 'Show hidden Devices', the Network Card icon and heading does show up with the following under it:        direct parallel       gvc-realtek ethernet 10/100 pci adapter-mcafee firewall network filter miniport       gvc-realtek ethernet 10/100 pci adapter-packet scheduler miniport       ras adapter       wan miniport (IP)       wan miniport(IP)-mcafee firewall network filter miniport       wan miniport(IP)-packet scheduler miniport       wan miniport(L2TP)       wan miniport(PPPOE)       wan miniport(PPTP)That's 10 hidden devices. Yesterday, it was only 3 and the wan miiport wasn't any of them. After I disabeled the network card yesterday, I went to Help and Support>computer information>system configuration of your dell and the network heading showed none installed.Today, it shows 2 as follows:NETWORK CARD:model: wan(ppp/slip)interfacedriver: unknown NETWORK CARD:model: wan(ppp/slip) interfacedriver: ndiswan.sys saturday, august 18,2001 supportedbut not the GVC-REALTEK card.Also, if I go into System Information and click on Connections>Newtork>Adapter, it shows that the Realtek card is installed, but the adapter isn't availabel.The Intel(R) 82801DB/DBM SMBus Controller-24C3 that was sharing IRQ 11 with the network card has now changed to IRQ 5 and there isn't anything on IRQ 11.Do I need to remove all hidden network devices in Device Manager and reboot to see if Windows will recognize the installed network card, or what? Do I need to stop VirusScan and Firewall before trying that? I need to find a way to get the system to recognize the installed card. Thanks for any help! JC

jmwills · Answer

I would first make sure you have all the current drivers installed including the Chip Set drivers and see what BIOS version you have (tells you at boot up).  a BIOS flash may be necessary also.

godawgs · Answer

Thanks again for your help. The most current Bios on the site for my system is A02 Dated 9/18/2002. My System Information shows Bios:MITAC CORP A02 Dated 8/26/2002, but since I didn't order the system till Oct. 2002, do you think I need to flash the Bios? The most current Chipset Drivers on the Dell site for my system doesen't show a number, but it does show a release date of 5/20/2002. I don't know where to find the info. on my system for the chipset drivers, where do I find the info.? And since I don't know what they are, what are chipset drivers? Anyway, since the system wasn't ordered till Oct. 2002, I'm thinking I have the most current set of drivers. There aren't any new network drivers for the card I have, GVC-REALTEK Ethernet 10/100 PCI Adapter There aren't any new modem drivers for the modem I have. The only other downloads I can find on the Dell site for my system are for the monitor(video), and I don't think that's causing the problem. What would you suggest now? Thanks! JC  Message Edited by godawgs on 02-13-2006 02:54 AM

jmwills · Answer

The most current BIOS is A02 so that will not help. The only thing I can think of at this point would be to unistall the modem and then install the memory.  Make sure everything is stable with the memory and then install the modem to see if will get another IRQ address. Message Edited by jmwills on 02-13-2006 08:59 AM

godawgs · Answer

jmwills-Thanks for the help. Your most recent reply brings up a few questions.

When you suggest I uninstall the modem and then install the memory, do you mean uninstall the network card? Because I have both installed on my system and the modem isn't what I'm having the problem with. As for the memory, I've had the additional memory in the computer since 2-10-06 and I'm not having any problems with system stability except very occasionally the system stops responding when I go on line thru my dial up connection (not the network card) and the list of hidden network adapters seems to grow. So do I still need to uninstall the memory? If so, do I uninstall the memory and network card at the same time? Or would it be O.K. to just uninstall the network card and leave the memory in for a while to check for stability, then reinstall the network card?
Should I remove all instances of the hidden diveces for the network adapter before I uninstall the network card or just uninstall the card and then check Device Manager and remove the hidden network devices then (if any are left)?
In my last post I asked where I should look on my system to find out what chipset drivers I have so I can check against the Dell site and see if I need to update them. Can you tell me where to look?

Thanks again.

JC

jmwills · Answer

Uninstall the modem after the memory is installed which will hopefully let the memory override that IRQ setting then install the modem and see what happens.  You may have to give that modem a different setting.

godawgs · Answer

I understand and thank you. I'm sorry to keep asking the same questions, but if it's possible to tell me, I would like to know if you think uninstalling the network card will remove all the instances of "hidden devices" for the network card or should I remove all the hidden device instances for the network card first and then uninstall the card?

Also, the question I asked about the chipset drivers...should I have posted that elsewhere or can you tell me where I should look to see what I have so I can check it against the Dell site?

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Added Memory Causes Hardware Conflict w/Eathernet Adapter

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