VIA P4XB-SA and D-Link DFM-560i

[Albinus]

Hi Guys,

I am currently building a new system for my former German teacher, so she and her husband have something to learn in their retirement :)

First of all, here are the system specs so you know what I'm working with:

1.7GHz Intel Pentium 4 (Willamette)
VIA Technologies P4XB-SA Motherboard (P4X266A Chipset)
256MB Apacer CAS-2 PC-2100 DDR SDRAM
40GB 7200RPM Western Digital Hard Drive
64MB DDR SDRAM AOpen MX440 AGP Graphics Card
19" Hansol 900P Monitor
56x AOpen CD-ROM
24x10x40 AOpen CD-RW
D-Link DFM-560i Internal PCI Hardware Modem (Conexant HCF Chipset)
AOpen H600A Midi-Tower ATX Case w/ 300W PSU

When all the componentry is placed in and power applied, I get nothing except the video error beep code. But wait for this - take the modem out and the AGP card works fine! No matter which PCI slot the modem is in, the AGP card will fail to initialise when the modem is inside.

To troubleshoot this further, I swapped the D-Link modem for an AOpen FM56-PM one, which is based around the exact same Conexant HCF chipset. The machine boots. I placed the D-Link modem back in, and tried the Prolink GeForce3 Ti200 from my machine - boots without a problem. Switch to a crusty old S3 Savage3D - boots. Put the GF4 MX440 back in, no boot. By this stage I was rather :?: and :hammer:

So I decided to place the GeForce4 MX440 and the D-Link modem in my Shuttle AV40R motherboard, which uses the older VIA P4X266 chipset. No boot either. Tried the same video and modem combo in both an Intel i815E and VIA MVP3 based board - no problems at all. So from my conclusion it really seems like the P4X266 series, plus the MX440 and HCF cards have a 3-way brawl when placed together :(

Has anyone got any ideas? The video card and motherboard have the latest flash BIOS revisions.

Thanks guys :wave:

[Albinus]

I went into Compuworld this morning and picked up an AOpen FM56-PA Software modem (Lucent Mars Chipset). Works like a charm - and I think that on a 1.7GHz Pentium 4 CPU a software modem will be just fine for web browsing ;)

But this still leaves a very bizarre incompatibility... has anyone else experienced this? :?:

[Wiggo]

Sorry Albi but that is one of the things I've have against internal modems but then you already know my dislike of them. :smokin:
<center>:cheers:</center>

[Albinus]

Sorry Albi but that is one of the things I've have against internal modems but then you already know my dislike of them. :smokin:
<center>:cheers:</center>

I understand that Wiggo... but I have NEVER had a problem with the HCF modems until now. The client wanted an internal to avoid kids/cats knocking the external one off the table (like my little Tabby Terror did the other day)

If I had my way I would have used an external one... but if the client doesn't want one, then I won't supply one.

[fragman]

I've had probs using quite a few VIA based DDR chipsets with GF4MX440's before, resulting in the familiar video card post beeps. Never in combination with a modem though, looks like you stumbled across a wierd one there. Once I stumbled across a wierd issue between 5 components (Intel Tupelo server board, Adaptec 3200S RAID, IBM Ultrastar 80pin drives, Intel Hudson chassis, Intel hotswap backplane) so it just shows the freaky issues you can have between a number of components