SG Broadband Community

I have cable from AT&T and whenever i DL a bigl file over 50mb,
my pc would freeze! Mouse wont move and i have to shtdown manually. I know there is nothin wrong with my memory (ram)
because when i had 56k i would DL like 150mb files no probs,just take a LOT longer... Its probably my network card, its a generic piece of shjt that costed $8. Since i'm too cheap to get another network card, I was thinking to connect my cable modem (sb4100motorola) to my pc via usb. So if I DO go through USB, will i have to remove my Network card??? Or just install my Cable modem to the usb and there i go? I'm so new to this shjt, Help me out pleeeeeeeeeeease

Whatever you do, don't install through usb. You could try using a new network card. The top two recomended ones here at sg seem to be the Linksys and intel nics. Try it and see if it helps. USB can only make things worse. Good luck.

How about some info if you want help?
What is your OS?
Browser? IE 5.0 6.0 or what?
What have you done for tweaking?
I do not think your card has a thing to do with it.
Upgrade to IE 6.0 if you have not.
Undo any tweaks. Go back to square one.

try the usb adapter and see what happens. u can leave network card in

I have explorer 5.5 and win98.I performed no tweaks other than the tcp/ip analyzer. I'm gonna install it through usb and see what happneds. If USB really is crap like most of you guys say it is, then i'll just have to get another NIC. Thanks Guys for your help i appreciate it.

Well I tried the usb way, and guess what, same problem!!!!!!
So I upgraded to windows ME. Still same problem. As my last resort i'm gonna reformat c:\ and then install win98, think that'll work??

But if i do reformat then install win98 will my cable modem still connect to the internet? Like will the MAC address be the same on my card?

yes, and I believe it is your card

Have you tried another PCI slot?

well it seems nic is not bad if the usb adapter has the same prob. reformat should fix
ur mac address will stay the same
ip could change

I did change my PCI slot. Tried several ones. Its now on irq 5. Nothing else is on irq 5.
So i know 100% its not my NIC because when i tried it without the NIC (through USB) it also freezes during big downloads. I'm gonna reformat and install all the drivers and programs again
and setup a buunch of stuff again . Hopefully my windows is messed up or something.
Thanks guys, thank you very much

I reformatted my HDD reinstalled WIndows and when i started downloading a 133mb file(Its connected to my NIC) it went all the way to 80mb then it happend again!!! OMFG!!!!!!! God damnitzz!

What kind of modem do you have? It isn't by chance a Toshiba, is it?

Upgrade to IE 6.0. I had a problem with 5.5 not loading pages right. You can always go back to 5.5 if you want.
Also, are you running a virus program? If it has a section like web trap, web protect, disable it.
Then try your download.
If none of that works, then try another card. If that does not work,then PRAY........

I have a Motorola sb4100 surfboard cable modem, and i am running no virus protection software. I am using ie6 and problems still occur. Its the most likely the NIC.

I wouldn't think it would be the NIC card if the same thing were happening with the USB port on your system as well. Did you try the USB on your system after you formatted? What about your ISP, do they monitor your bandwidth usage at all, or are you unlimited?

Oh yea, are you using any type of software firewall that monitors downloads?

after reformatting...I removed my NIC card outta there and tried thru USB. And....It still freezes!! I have ATTBi 1.5mbp down and 128kbp up. I am running ZOnealarm. I tried without zonealarm and still. I also know nothing is wrong with ram or cpu. I can play Counter-Strike for a long period and no problems. all points to cable modem.....????

If you are shutting down zone alarm, how are you turning it off?? are you just closing the program once your computer has started up, or are you taking it out of your startup menu or uninstalling it? If you didn't take it out of the startup menu or uninstall the program, then it won't actually close zone alarm, it will keep the true vector services still running. I'm not sure if that really has anything to do with it, I don't think it will affect large downloads any differently than smaller ones. If you recently formatted your hard drive I would guess something with your ISP limiting usage, I could be wrong, does the same thing happen if you download a large number of smaller files that are over 50MB, or does that work ok??

I uninstalled Zonealarm, tried downloading a 133mb game demo from http://www.download.cnet.com then it froze I can download a lot of mp3s (around 5mb each) and no probs. I downloaded about 30 mp3s yesterday and no probs. Thanks for replying though

If the only thing that is different about your system is the ISP other than using USB, and the NIC card for large transfers, then it would seem to me that it ties into your ISP somehow, but as for it freezing while downloading that is odd.

I poossibly have bad ram! I reformatted then installed win98 and it was freezing a lot. Signs of bad ram. And my modem/nic wasnt even installed! Any program to tesst ram??

It sounds like to me you dont have enough memory or hard disk space in your computer to receive the transfer. Try that out.

RAM sounds like it would be worth a shot to try some different memory.

I would check your irqs, part of my problem was that the modem kept loading on irq 10 with the usb port and my geforce 3, which obviously is a problem. Most large bandwidth modems need an irq of their own so their requests can go straight through - for hight transfers at high speed, if they cannot get the interrupt handled right away, there could be trouble. Do the same with your nic, a nic really should be on an irq alone, if it is not then that could be a problem

i fixed the problem. I removed one stick of ram, and installed 4 in 1 via drivers. I also installed my promise ultra 100 ide controller.
Doing one of those fixed the problems. Thanks for your time