Another update, More success > An update (Sucess!!!): > After jogging some people's memory I found out that this machine has a > PCI token ring card (which I wasn't using) because the on-board > ethernet went flaky. This certainly helps explain my intermitent > network, and quite possibly the short up-times before crashing. As we > guessed - a hardware problem. > > Is there any way (jumper ?) to disable the onboard ethernet? I may try > not loading the modules for it and see if the machine becomes stable. > Would a standard PCI ethernet card work as a substitute (likely won't > netboot)?
I checked the machine's docs - there appears to be no jumper to disable the onboard ethernet. However, If I simply unplug the ethernet cable the instability seems to diappear. The machine just did a flawless install booting from Leigh's disk, Woody root on a floppy and base on cd-rom. I have a PCI ethernet card left over from an old PentiumPro. It says it is a 3Com "Fast EtherLink XL PCI" "3C905-TX". Would this card work in this machine? Would it be able to netboot (doubtfull). MikeMartin