m7ncg400 + lan = craptastic

[Menardsguy]

I have two motherboards, one is a bistar m7ncg micro atx which i have been running in a htpc case for about 6 months now. The other which I just purchased is the biostar m7ncg400 micro atx. The weird thing is that I can't get any network device to work on the m7ncg400. Even if I format the drive and install xp on my m7ncg htpc and get the onboard lan and the pci wireless lan working on that board, then swap the drive over to the 400, it will not recieve any packets. Very strange. I even shipped the board back and they sent me a new one. Same problem. What I do to test is unplug the ethernet from my htpc (which is working) and plug it into the 400 and it just won't work. It keeps sending out packets slowly but won't recieve any. This is all on a windows install that worked on the m7ncg htpc. The only thing I can think of that's different is the power supply which I will try tomorrow if I get a chance.

Also if this matters, the -5v shows up as +61.8v for some reason in the bios off of a brand new power supply. This is why i shipped the first board in for replacement. But the new one does the same thing. I don't see why this would make any network device not work properly though.

Any ideas?

[KaHNZa]

The onboard LAN is probably different between the 2 boards. Its generally not a good idea to switch a HD between 2 different computers. Unless they are identical.

[Menardsguy]

I didn't do a switch until after it wouldn't work when I installed windows on the 400 directly.

[Menardsguy]

I just tried the power supply off of my m7ncg htps and it does the same thing, except the -5v is -5v. So I now know that the power supply is not the problem. The question is what is going on here? In all my experience with building computers I have never come up with anything like this. I've reformatted my m7ncg htpc many times and it works flawlessly. I know what I'm doing, so it has to be something with the 400 model.

Another thing that is weird is when I install windows on this board, when it installs the networking it never asks me anything. Normally it would ask if you want the typical network settings and what domain/workgroup name you want to use.

In windows if I do the networking wizard when I say that my internet connection is directly connected to the computer, it wont let me continue because it says something like: "Other computers cannot connect to this computer, this computer needs a connection to the internet and a connection to a network."

I'm going to try another network cable as a last resort. It shouldn't make a difference since it's the same cable that I'm using with my other machine which works fine off it.

Somebody has to have an idea what is going on here.

[KaHNZa]

So network doesn't work at all on that comp? What about drivers?

[Menardsguy]

The drivers work and install just fine. It just can't recieve any packets form either the wirless or the onboard ethernet. Actually when I unplug the cable modem and plug it back in, it recieves 8-10 packets and then won't recieve any more.

[Menardsguy]

Also, in case you were wondering, this is after a fresh install. There is no firewalls running, all I have installed is the nforce drivers and the wireless drivers. I'm going to give linux a try this week to see if I can have any luck with that. Mabye it's an issue with windows.

[cack01]

I'm intrested to see how this ends up for you. My M7NCG is really starting to give me problems. Especially in the networking area. My router is giving me problems, but even in P2P mode my M7ncg will transfer for about 5 minutes then nothing. And thats one of the minor problems.

[Menardsguy]

That's weird. I wonder what the deal is. Once I get linux up and running, I'll be able to find out if it's windows related or not. I will hopefully have time tonight to do it.

[cack01]

Please post if you do. I was going to do the same thing, but I would rather have you be the guine pig. :D

[Menardsguy]

I tried linux on the m7ncg400 and I could not get the internet to work. I used knoppix v3.3. I just booted it off the cd and messed around with some settings and had no luck. Right now I'm on my htpc (m7ncg regular) using the same knoppix cd, and the network is working fine. It booted up and the interent worked instantly. This is really getting to me. What is up with this board? It doesn't make any sense. What really bothers me is why the onboard and the pci card are acting the same (no packets recieved).

Someone has to have some idea of what I can do.

[Menardsguy]

I emailed biostar sales. I decided to email sales instead of tech-support because they don't have a tech-support email address. All they have is this stupid online form thing that really sucks. Plus sales will probably get to it faster anyway. I hope they can figure something out. Hey, do you think I should put this in the motherboard forum too? It doesn't seem to be getting a lot of attention here. Also I wonder if I went and tried an older bios, just for kicks since I'm beginning to run out of options besides putting gasoline on it and setting it on fire.

[cack01]

I would make a post at www.nforcershq.com. They have a biostar section there that gets a decent amount of attention.

[Menardsguy]

I was looking through the reviews on newegg (where i got it) and found this:

Matt,2/13/2004 1:35:28 PM

I've built about 7 or 8 computers this year using various Biostar boards. Overall they're great buys. This is the first one I rec'd DOA. The second board worked fine. They are stable and a very good buy for the money. I have noticed that a few Biostar boards have picky onboard LAN ports. I had major problems with an M7VIW model a few months back. Eventually I made the person use their USB port for their internet connection.

I bet that I managed to get two bad boards. Imagine that. I wonder if newegg will give me another new one. I bet they'll say that I am doing something wrong. Any ideas on what I should tell them? What's a problem that I could make up just so they would give me another one with no questions asked?

Should I just say that the ethernet port is not functional?