[James E]

Hello,

I recently bought a belkin firewire 3-port PCI card but after slotting it in and turning my PC back on nothing happened (although there is possibly one very very quiet click). I took it back out and booted fine. I tried it in a different slot and again nothing happened.

I have another PC and so tried it in there and it was fine so there is no problem with the card itself.

I am running XP SP2

My specs are

AMD Duron 800mhz
256MB RAM
SB live sound
On board gfx
Don't really know much about modem but is dial up and is in the small slot (smaller than PCI)
I'm not at all clued up about motherboards but I've read a few of the chips as follows:

686 AMIBIOS AZ41 2773 (this is on a sticker, there's something written underneath)
ITE IT8705F 0138-BXA M8R410
(LOGO) 0135 LF-H50X

There's also a tiny chip which has realtex written on it and some tiny writing. If you need this info I'll get out my magnifying glass.

The card I'm trying to install is an IEEE1394 one.

Please can someone help but try to keep it relatively step-by step as, although I'm a competent user, I'm by no means a guru. If there's any more info you need let me know.

Many thanks

James.

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gonna need a motherboard model...

That is a fairly old motherboard and may not have 2.1 version PCI slots

You can download Everest Home (google it), or you should look between the PCI SLOTS for the motehrboard model....most motherboards put the model there now, typically between the bottom two or the top two slots.

[gerryf]

gonna need a motherboard model...

That is a fairly old motherboard and may not have 2.1 version PCI slots

You can download Everest Home (google it), or you should look between the PCI SLOTS for the motehrboard model....most motherboards put the model there now, typically between the bottom two or the top two slots.

[James E]

OK I've downloaded the softwareand have attached the motherboard results as a jpeg, let me know if you need anything else.

What next then?

Cheers

James

Attached Thumbnails

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[gerryf]

OK...well...that motherboard is not listed anywhere on the pcchips website....,interesting it says EliteGroup made it...looks like a rebadge with Pcchips as the ODM and Elitegroup as the OEM,,,,

grumble...

Anyway, all SIMILAR motherboards had pci slots compliant with the 2.2 spec, so I think, we are ok.

So, let's back up. I may be getting way ahead of myself here.

First, what is the model number on the card?

You installed the card, booted, and nothing happened...let's take a lookin the device manager.

Right click MY COMPUTER, choose PROPERTIES, choose HARDWARE tab, choose DEVICE MANAGER. Scroll down...see any devices with a YELLOW EXCLAMATION mark?

If yes, stop, if no

Start > control panel > add hardware (run the wizard)...see if it asks for a disc.

Report back

[James E]

I'll take your word for it on the motherboard front.

The model number on the card is F5U503. It also has Rev.S-1 and 0402A-5X written on it. It says on box that it needs a PCI 2.1 slot. The make is Belkin.

I've checked device manager (this is an area I'm relatively competant in). No issues in there.

Also ran the add hardware wizard, didn't ask for anything. Basically said it hadn't found anything new. Obviously at this point the card isn't in the machine (just so we don't get confused).

Cheers

James.

[gerryf]

OK....

How many PCI slots do you have? Moving from TOP DOWN, what do you have in each PCI slot?

Also, (man, I wish I could find that motherboard manual), looking through the BIOS, do you have anything that says PLUG N PLAY OS?

Do you have any specific settings for allocating resources/IRQs to PCI slots?

I see the Soundblaster, and by the sound of it, you have an AMR slot for the modem....anything else?

You were reading off chips earlier...Other than your CPU, is there another chip hiding beneathe a fan or big heatsink? (this is a bit of a stretch--I think it's more likely you have a non-PnP aware motherboard and may need to manually adjust/reserve IRQs).

[James E]

I only have 2 PCI slots and the SB live is in the top one, you're right about AMR slot for modem, there's also an AGP slot but it is unused.

There was a Hercules gfx card taking up a PCI slot but I removed it to make way for this new card (do you need the specs for the Hercules?).

In the bios there is a plug and play aware OS option which is currently set to yes. I have done the odd bit of PnPing on this machine before and have never had any probs with it.

There are no other slots (total is 2xPCI, AGP, AMR) although there are on board USB, serial etc.

I don't really understand your question about allocating IRQs to PCI slots but can't see anything in the BIOS which follows that and I've not done anything like that either.

It looks like there is another chip below quite a big heatsink, do you need me to try and get to it?

One more thing, when I was looking through the BIOS I stumbled across an option that is "Allocate IRQ to PCI VGA". It is set to yes. Is this right as I'm using on board gfx not a PCI gfx card?

The only other option I think worth mentioning is "Primary gfx adapter" which is currently set to "Onboard AGP", the other possible option is PCI. I actually changed it from PCI to try and fix it (my uninformed and pathetic attempt!)

Cheers

James

[gerryf]

I would definitely change Allocate IRQ to PCI video to no...this will free up an IRQ.

Now, you tookout the PCI video, and the AGP is open...onboard video?

Man, I wish I could find that motherboard manual....

No, don't pry the heatsink off....I think you will find a SiS chipset under there.

Sounds like you've had it open....look between the slots...you can typically find a model number printed on the pcb board...

I am not convinced that Everest has correctly idenitfied it.

[James E]

OK I've changed that to no but it's not fixed it.

Yep, no gfx card at all it simply runs off the monitor connection that is on the edge of the motherboard and sticks straight out of the back (the same way the serial port keyboard slot etc do).

Still can't find a model number on the board, I've looked everywhere (apart from on the back!)

I have found a disk that is definately for a motherboard (I think it's worth mentioning that this isn't actually my PC, despite what my first post said, that's why I'm a bit unsure at times). It says series Matsonic on it. The models listed on this CD (actually printed on the disc) are MS9017C, MS9007C, MS9107C, MS8137C, MS8308EP(266), MS7308ET, MS7177CT, MS7057CT.

I've explored the disc and attached another jpeg of the results, I've made it so you can see what's in the utils folder, no idea if this is any use.

Cheers

James

Attached Thumbnails

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[James E]

Bit more info, I've run the matsonic disk and under driver details there was an option "MS8308E (SIS730S chipset)". As this is the only option which uses the chipset returned from everest is MS8308E the model? I've been to the matsonic website and have downloaded 2 files. The link is below:

http://www.matsonic....#ms8308e_series

Both files are near the bottom and are 010912.exe and the Amiflash util aminf339.zip.

I don't want to do any more until someone with more knowledge than me gives me the green light. Is there any chance you could look at this website and see if you agree with what I've done?

Cheers

James

[gerryf]

Don't flash your bios unless you are absolutely, 100 percent certain, the bios is for your motherboard or you will completely hose your system, sometimes irrevocably (short of soddering on a new cmos chip).


You know, this is going to sound dumb, but I never asked -- second time I noticed I did it today....is there are brand and model number associated with this computer?

Dell and Gateway used a lot of Pcchips motherboards, and I think HP did too.

Sorry, I must be slipping.

[James E]

OK I'll leave that for now.

There's no model for this PC, it's just made up from various parts.

On another note, is this likely to be a problem with all similar firewire cards or just this one (ie if I take it back and get another brand might it work)?

Cheers

James.

[gerryf]

I don't know if another will work, since I cannot see what the problem is.

It could be a control chip incompatibility, and multiple firewire cards from multiple vendors could have the same chipset.

Have we tried doing this the old fashioned way?

Right click MY COMPUTER, choose PROPERTIES, choose Harware tab, click ADD HARDWARE, click NEXT, click YES radio dial (to you have added the hardware, and the card is in place), then NEXT, then scroll to bottom of list, select ADD NEW HARDWARE DEVICE, select INSTALL HARDWARE THAT I MANUALLY SELECT FROM A LIST, then NEXt, select IEEE 1394 BUS HOST CONTROLLER, select HAVE DISK, browse to C:\WINDOWS\INF, select 1394.inf and OK

[James E]

OK I've tried that, but get as far as the select manufacturer / model window, there's no models listed though.

There is a have disk option but there was no disk with the card(when I tried it on other PC it worked out the model and didn't need a disk). Choosing the 1394.inf again doesn't work.

Do I need to copy something from XP disk?

Cheers

James.

[gerryf]

No....it was a long shot....but DID YOU NOTICE THAT MS released a firewire patch today????

That would seem to me something worth downloading in this case.