TurboKitty

I am attempting to build a new PC. It currently has no O/S. The software I am installing on it does not require a base O/S but it does need me to specify io and irq settings for the two PCI network cards.

My question is, how in hecks name am I meant to find out what io and irq settings the cards are using?! The BIOS is no help at all and the cards don't have any sort of command line utilities, so I'm a bit stuck. Have I missed something fundamental?

Figment

I'd have thought you could specify which resources you wanted the card in a particular slot to use?

TurboKitty

Apparently not. I know the cards are NE2000 compatible and I know the software supports NE2000 compliant PCI cards, but can I get it to accept them and load the fecking driver? Can I stuff.

There is a PC due to be going out of a window in Berkshire in the very near future.

stevencotton

install any old copy of windows to find out? Shame the BIOS doesn't report it. You may be able to get hold of a linux boot disk on a floppy with 'lspci' on it?

TurboKitty

I was hoping to avoid having to install windows just to get NIC settings. I'll look into the linux disk suggestion. Ta

Buckrogers

u could install dos 6.22

then install dos drivers for nic, 3com I believe used to provide some s/w to diagnose nic cards.

TurboKitty

Thanks for the suggestion, but the cards are relatively new(ish) and don't have DOS drivers.

I could just change the cards, but I am too damned stubborn to do that...

stevencotton

If they're NE2000 compat then the DOS6.22 NE2000 drivers should work, no?

TurboKitty

Doh! Yep, they do.

Excuse me, I was having a very blonde day yesterday!

I looked at the site of the card manufacturer and found the range of drivers for download to be very limited. I *totally* forgot about the generic ones...

philjohno

the only real way is to boot to a o/s and check there unless you have the software that comes with the NICs.
We have been spoiled over the years with the more advanced OS's.
I have probably got few old dos boot disks with pc check lying round i used to use for stuff like that from the hardware field days, that brings back memories

GC8

I might be missing the point, but aren't the rescources for a PCI card dynamically assigned?