On Mon, 11 Oct 1999, Magic wrote:
> Richard Malcolm-Smith wrote:
> > Magic wrote:
> >
> > > > does anyone have an idea what could be going wrong with this set up?
> > >
> > > Yes. Your expert knows sod-all about the PCI bus and video cards. This
> > > is a common problem with PCI sound cards, and is actually caused by
> > > video card drivers.
> >
> > It also aflicts ISA cards.
>
> It does? How very annoying... I thought it was just the PCI bus that was
> effected. I nthat case, could a similar problem be caused by an AGP card?
The ISA bus is typically chained to the end of the PCI bus with a PCI->ISA
bridge. Basically the ISA bus appears as just another device to the PCI bus.
Anything that consumes all of the PCI buses bandwidth for a long period of
time, or anything device that stays in its IRQ handler for too long will
disrupt communication on the bus.
The AGP bus is typically runs parallel to the PCI bus, so they don't affect
each other.
> > And software modems, which will usually disconnect. After all they are
> > only a fancy soundcard that connects to a phone line.
>
> How do you tell the difference between a hardware and software modem? Will
> they both suffer?
Anything that is labelled as a "Winmodem" or compatible with only MS
Windows.
Only the winmodem will suffer from bus disruptions. The modem now relies on
the system's cpu to generate the carrier signal that keeps the modems
connected. If a bus disruption occurs, thay carrier gets disrupted and the
modems disconnect.
With a normal modem, all of the signal processing and carrier generation is
done on the modem itself and all the system cpu has to do is send the modem
the data to transfer. If a bus disruption occurs, the modems stay connected,
but stop transmitting or receiving data.
--
Jason K. Fritcher
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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