Got it fixed! The card is actually a 3c905C, not 3c905B as originally
posted.
I learned from Dell support that the video card needs IRQ 11 to start
up. Then, releases it. The 3c905C was grabbing IRQ 11, too. If the
NIC was initialized first, the video card could not get its IRQ 11
and would not start. The solution is to force the NIC to take another
IRQ. Since it is a pci card, this must be done in the BIOS. Thus, I
reserved IRQ 11. At boot up time the NIC grabs IRQ 10 and the video
starts up just fine. Also, I had to get the driver available at 3Com,
http://support.3com.com/infodeli/tools/nic/linuxdownload.htm
and recompile for the Mandrake-6.1 kernel. How to do this is in the
instructions shipped in the tarfile from 3com.
Things seem to work fine now. Thanks to those who responed.
-sen
Singer XJ Wang writes:
> I've delt a lot with Dells, are teh XPS600T using the Small NIC? the card
> looks between 1 1/2 to 2" square and fits into a wierd slot or is it
> intergrated? If it is the above two, no luck cuase its somewhat wierd in
> design.
>
> On Wed, 3 Nov 1999, S. Newhouse wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> > I noticed some problems with X-windows and the 3Com905C card. I am using
> > KDE and a Dell XPS600T, with the stock Mandrake 6.1.
> >
> > 1. The card is not recognized at installation.
> > 2. I loaded the shipped 3c90x.o module after installation, but it
> > would not stay alive. It come up and then go down.
> >
> > 3. I downloaded the 3c90x.c and 3c90x.h from 3Com's web site, compiled
> > it, and things seem to work only if X is started first and then
> > modprobe and ifconfig. If I load 3c90x.o and fire up eth0 "before"
> > starting X, then X will sometimes not start. Other times it will take
> > several minutes to start. In particular, KDM will not start or takes
> > a long time to start if the
> > ethernet module is loaded and ifconfig has been run. I'm inclined to
> > replace the 3Com905C.
> >
> > Anyone else using the 3c905C successfully?
> >
> > TIA,
> > -sen
> >
>
