[eepro100] Twin laptops - one good NIC configuration - one bad

[John Sved]

Hi,

I have two Dell Inspiron 4000 connected to a home/office network. 
Several other PCs work OK with apparent 100/half.

Dell no. 1 is more used.  Dell no. 2 is on loan and used with a LAN for 
the first time.

Dell no. 1 has a fancy intel windoze driver
Dell no. 2 has a more basic intel windoze driver.

Dell no. 2 works fine in 100/full with linux or the Win ME.

Dell no. 1 works very poorly with windoze and linux.  The Longshine 
LCS-883R-SW800M= switching Hub indicates that the Dell no. 1 is in full 
duplex but the link/Act LED is continuously flashing at about 1 Hz.

This appears to be a problem with auto negotiation.  I suspect that the 
Dell no. 1 windoze driver for the NIC has changed a register and it has 
not or cannot be changed by the eepro100.  I can get it to change to 
100/half in windoze but then the connection is poor.

I have tried various options 0x10, 0x20, 0x100 and 0x200   and  ether=0, 
0, 0x200 eth0   etc. via the SuSE 8.0 YAST network card configuration 
tool.  No change was observed.  The ACT LED still flashes continuously 
and file transfers are flakey, network printing from Dell no. 1 fails. 
(The problem was also present with SuSE 7.2).

The use of a different hub (Fibreline) "cures" the problem.  But there 
are fewer indicator lamps to know the mode.

(Side story:  After exchanging a no-name hub that died three time in 10 
weeks (3 hubs), I obtained an exchange for a Longshine Hub.  This had a 
defective power supply unit which produced severe spikes that 
interferred with all NICs including Dell no. 2.  The Distributor kindly 
exchanged the hub set.  Talk about overlapping troubleshooting problems 
......!)


Is there something else to try ?  (ie to make Dell no. 1 work as well as 
Dell no. 2.)

Note: I have downloaded eepro100-diag, compiled it with gcc and tried to 
start it.  Nothing happens.
What is the correct procedure or command to invoke this tool, if it is 
needed ?
Then what do I do to poke about in the registers and perhaps compare the 
Dell NICs ?
Is there a "master reset" that would force the Dell no. 1 NIC chip to an 
"original" parameter set as with the Dell no. 2 ?

- JS