Why is the switch machine not working properly after installing the network card

Q: I have installed a new 3com Fast EtherLink XL 10/100MB TX Ethernet NIC (3c905B-TX) NIC. It takes three or four minutes to enter when starting Windows 98. When the shutdown screen appears after shutdown, it stops and cannot be shut down normally.

Answer: When you start Windows 98, you have to pause for three or four minutes to enter. This is because the network protocol used by the Windows system default network card is
TCP/IP after the network card is installed. The IP address is automatically obtained. . Windows needs to search the DHCP server at startup to assign an IP address to your computer.

If you install a network card only to exchange files with computers on the LAN, and do not need to share the Internet and other functions, then it is recommended that you delete the TCP/IP protocol, and only keep NetBEUI to meet your requirements. However, if you need to use it or want to keep it, you can solve the problem of slow system startup by configuring a fixed IP address for the NIC. Open the "Network" item in the "Control Panel", select the TCP/IP associated with your network adapter name in the "Network Components" list, then click "Properties", select "Specify IP Address", in "IP" Enter 192.168.0.1 at the address" (your colleague's computer can use 192.168.0.2 in turn), enter 255.255.255.0 in the "subnet mask", and then restart after confirming.

As for the shutdown screen after shutdown, it stops and cannot be shut down normally. It is not clear whether this phenomenon already exists before you install the network card, and Windows 98 itself has defects that cannot be shut down properly. The device is not properly shut down or incompatible, and the device driver is damaged. Even if the sound file exiting Windows is damaged, Windows may not be able to shut down properly. So the problem is more complicated.

If this happens after the NIC is installed, here are a few suggestions. The first is to visit the NIC manufacturer's website and reinstall the NIC driver to ensure that the driver used is the latest and compatible with the Windows 98 operating system. The second is to prohibit the "IRQ Steering" feature of the PCI bus. It does not allow several PCI devices to share the same interrupt request to test whether the problem is caused by multiple devices sharing an interrupt. Open the System icon in Control Panel, select the Device Manager tab in the System Management window, double-click to expand System Devices, double-click PCI BUS, and cancel on the IRQ Guidance page. Use the IRQ Guide to select the status, confirm and restart. The third is to disable the "Resume on Ring and LAN" option in the BIOS settings to test whether it is unable to shut down properly due to incompatible BIOS settings.

It is important to note that on very few computers it may cause other devices to be unusable, generally only as a means of testing.

If the phenomenon of unable to shut down properly has already appeared before installing the network card, it is recommended that you install the shutdown patch of Windows 98 before the above test to correct the defects of Windows 98 itself.