Installation of network card slows boot process to a crawl

Has anybody experienced a problem where the bootup process
slows to an absolute crawl when a network card is
installed? I've tried installing 3 different network
cards in a variety of slots, but the problem persists.
During the first bootup after installation of the card, an
IRQ conflict between the SoundBlaster card and the PCI
network card is reported (the BIOS assigns IRQ 10 to the
sound card & IRQ 5 to the network card). A check of the
device manager (after bootup) confirms that both are
sharing IRQ, but no conflicts are reported. The conflict
error message that appears during the initial bootup
disappears during all subsequent boots. Despite how
slowly it boots up, I can see & access other computers on
the network. Upon removal of the network card, the system
boots up at it's normal speed. Anybody got any ideas?

I would start playing with the PnP settings in the BIOS.


"Dave Heggblom" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:00b501c37227$b3dd1f50$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Has anybody experienced a problem where the bootup process
> slows to an absolute crawl when a network card is
> installed? I've tried installing 3 different network
> cards in a variety of slots, but the problem persists.
> During the first bootup after installation of the card, an
> IRQ conflict between the SoundBlaster card and the PCI
> network card is reported (the BIOS assigns IRQ 10 to the
> sound card & IRQ 5 to the network card). A check of the
> device manager (after bootup) confirms that both are
> sharing IRQ, but no conflicts are reported. The conflict
> error message that appears during the initial bootup
> disappears during all subsequent boots. Despite how
> slowly it boots up, I can see & access other computers on
> the network. Upon removal of the network card, the system
> boots up at it's normal speed. Anybody got any ideas?

Thanks for your response. I looked in the BIOS and can't
find anything particular to networking under the PnP
settings (or any other settings, for that matter). Can
you be any more specific?

Thanks...Dave
>-----Original Message-----
>I would start playing with the PnP settings in the BIOS.
>
>
>"Dave Heggblom" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>news:00b501c37227$b3dd1f50$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Has anybody experienced a problem where the bootup
process
>> slows to an absolute crawl when a network card is
>> installed? I've tried installing 3 different network
>> cards in a variety of slots, but the problem persists.
>> During the first bootup after installation of the card,
an
>> IRQ conflict between the SoundBlaster card and the PCI
>> network card is reported (the BIOS assigns IRQ 10 to the
>> sound card & IRQ 5 to the network card). A check of the
>> device manager (after bootup) confirms that both are
>> sharing IRQ, but no conflicts are reported. The
conflict
>> error message that appears during the initial bootup
>> disappears during all subsequent boots. Despite how
>> slowly it boots up, I can see & access other computers
on
>> the network. Upon removal of the network card, the
system
>> boots up at it's normal speed. Anybody got any ideas?
>
>
>.
>

The PnP panel in the BIOS allows you to play
with the interrupts for the various adapters. You
can set them to automatic or manual. If you have
a conflict that Win98 cannot resolve then maybe
a manual setting will resolve it.


"Dave Heggblom" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:04e001c3724f$031beb10$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Thanks for your response. I looked in the BIOS and can't
> find anything particular to networking under the PnP
> settings (or any other settings, for that matter). Can
> you be any more specific?
>
> Thanks...Dave
> >-----Original Message-----
> >I would start playing with the PnP settings in the BIOS.
> >
> >
> >"Dave Heggblom" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> >news:00b501c37227$b3dd1f50$(E-Mail Removed)...
> >> Has anybody experienced a problem where the bootup
> process
> >> slows to an absolute crawl when a network card is
> >> installed? I've tried installing 3 different network
> >> cards in a variety of slots, but the problem persists.
> >> During the first bootup after installation of the card,
> an
> >> IRQ conflict between the SoundBlaster card and the PCI
> >> network card is reported (the BIOS assigns IRQ 10 to the
> >> sound card & IRQ 5 to the network card). A check of the
> >> device manager (after bootup) confirms that both are
> >> sharing IRQ, but no conflicts are reported. The
> conflict
> >> error message that appears during the initial bootup
> >> disappears during all subsequent boots. Despite how
> >> slowly it boots up, I can see & access other computers
> on
> >> the network. Upon removal of the network card, the
> system
> >> boots up at it's normal speed. Anybody got any ideas?
> >
> >
> >.
> >

Give the card a static IP, even if it's going to get a DHCP
address later.

W98 jacks around way too much during bootup
if it finds a card with a blank IP address.

"Dave Heggblom" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:00b501c37227$b3dd1f50$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Has anybody experienced a problem where the bootup process
> slows to an absolute crawl when a network card is
> installed? I've tried installing 3 different network
> cards in a variety of slots, but the problem persists.
> During the first bootup after installation of the card, an
> IRQ conflict between the SoundBlaster card and the PCI
> network card is reported (the BIOS assigns IRQ 10 to the
> sound card & IRQ 5 to the network card). A check of the
> device manager (after bootup) confirms that both are
> sharing IRQ, but no conflicts are reported. The conflict
> error message that appears during the initial bootup
> disappears during all subsequent boots. Despite how
> slowly it boots up, I can see & access other computers on
> the network. Upon removal of the network card, the system
> boots up at it's normal speed. Anybody got any ideas?