Plugging a CAT5 cable into PCI Ethernet card equals bad AGP stutter

[PhaytalError]

Greetings,

I've recently built a Pentium III 700Mhz PC for classic gaming, it's very simular to the system I had back in the day, same modle of motherboard, etc. I fresh installed Windows 98SE, so this problem im about to explain is not any "garbage" on the system such as viruses, trojans, malware, or spyware.

Anyways, i've got a real stinker of a problem, everytime I plug-in a CAT5 cable into my NIC [aka everytime that PC has internet access], the AGP port suffers with random stuttering, online games such as Quake 3, online mutiplayer Deus Ex, etc absolutly are impossible to play online, it stutters about every second and the random stutter is pretty bad in the offline story mode too [random pauses for 3-5seconds at a time, or sometimes "jitters" it's NOT framerate drop, other wise perfect framerates]. The sound also will start to stutter severly anytime the AGP port stutters, if and ONLY when the PC is connected to the internet... like the very second the CAT5 is inserted into the NIC. As soon as I unplug to remove that PC from the internet, everything goes to normal and the AGP card flies through most games.

I've tried different brands of NICs and the same issue. I even tried WiFi, inserting a WiFi adapter solved half the issue... the sound no longer stutters when the AGP stutters. However it did NOT remedy the AGP stutter when the PC has internet access. I also tried a 500watt PSU to see if maybe the 350watt PSU it normally has was running out of juice, but it's not the 350watt is is perfectly fine.

The full system specs of that PC are; Windows 98SE, 700Mhz Pentium III Coppermine, ASUS P3B-F v1.04 Motherboard, 512 MB RAM, 17" CRT monitor, GeForce FX 5500 256MB AGP, D-Link DFE530-TX+ PCI ethernet card, SB16 SCSI + NEC XR385 [DB60XG clone], 13GB Hard Drive, 3.5" Floppy Drive, Internal 100MB ZIP Drive.

Once again, the AGP stutters everytime the CAT5 is plugged in and the PC is connected to the internet. Any and all help to get this resolved is much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[submix8c]

Better check the BIOS for IRQ conflicts! Bad JuJu to share Video and NIC IRQ's! See if you can swap them around so that the NIC maybe uses the same IRQ as USB - chances of using USB same time as NIC is slimmer than Vid! Edited July 19, 2012 by submix8c

[PhaytalError]

Better check the BIOS for IRQ conflicts! Bad JuJu to share Video and NIC IRQ's! See if you can swap them around so that the NIC maybe uses the same IRQ as USB - chances of using USB same time as NIC is slimmer than Vid!

Oops, I forgot to mention i've done that, no IRQ conflicts to speak of.

[submix8c]

Mmmm. better check "System Information" -> "Shared Resources" (or anything else suspicious). The OS may be overriding what you set in the BIOS ("PnP OS Installed").

Edited July 19, 2012 by submix8c

[PhaytalError]

Mmmm. better check "System Information" -> "Shared Resources" (or anything else suspicious). The OS may be overriding what you set in the BIOS ("PnP OS Installed").

I found the culprit! It's SOMETHING installed from the Unofficial Windows 98 SE SP3 by PROBLEMCHYLD, that is causing the issue.

I re-re-re-REinstalled [yes, i've reinstalled multiple times trying to track down this bug and now I finally have!], this time just plain jane vanilla Windows 98 SE, installed the latest Intel 440BX chipset drivers, the latest Nvidia drivers, and DirectX 9.0c... the issue was not occuring. I then installed the Service Pack and blamo, the issue resurrected itself! So it seems that I am gonna have to track down the "evil doer", and report to bug to PROBLEMCHYLD.

In the morning i'm gonna have to reformat and install the SP one package at a time, test a game, install another package until I find it, and then report the bug.

Edited July 19, 2012 by PhaytalError

[osRe]

Nothing like an authentic P3/Win98 machine for old 3D games. Still looking for a 1GHz Pentium 3...

Edited July 19, 2012 by shae

[PhaytalError]

Nothing like an authentic P3/Win98 machine for old 3D games. Still looking for a 1GHz Pentium 3...

Definately, the Pentium III was a very underestimated processor thats for sure! The 440BX line was THE best chipset Intel produced, sure the other chipsets for the Pentium III touted 133Mhz FSB, and 4x AGP... but it sorely lacked in performance. I'd love to have a Pentium III 1.4Ghz Tualatin and fortunately the 440BX motherboard I have supports unofficially 133Mhz FSB, and with a small mod to a slotket it will run a 1.4Ghz!

[tomw]

I had a similar occurrence with a Celeron 400Mhz trying to use a Airlink101 PCI ethernet WiFi card. It would pause, as if it were trying to initialize communications, and then run, then pause again. I even disabled the card to be able to do anything beyond wiggle the mouse every few seconds as whatever it was stopped hogging the cpu cycles.

Did you ever find out what was causing the pausing?

tom

p.s. I have dfe530tx drivers somewhere if you need them.

Edited July 22, 2012 by tomw

[buyerninety]

??

My googling skills are surely not more developed than other Members... nevertheless, may I put forth this information:

Upon any problem , especially hardware related, I GOOGLE (item), "model fault" or

"model problem" (without quotation marks). ...so "P3B-F fault", ¾ down page 2;

I initially thought this fellow;

http://discussions.virtualdr.com/showthread.php?214954-XP-PIII-upgrade-freezes-system-P3B-F

had started to get to the root cause, but no, merely more symptons of the problem.

OK, onwards, google, "P3B-F fault", (without quotation marks), bottom page 2;

http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~portnoi/asusreworkguide.html

About half way down THAT webpage... it looks promising. (& not previously ruled out by PhaytalError.) It's known informally as the 'Photoshop Problem'.

Cheers

[Edit; I am inputting into http://www.google.com.au/webhp?complete=0 , other google country zones may conceivably return differing google page results/differing google page result ordering.]

Edited September 7, 2012 by buyerninety