So, today one of my network bits decided it had enough and died. Old 8-port Netgear 10/100/1000 switch must have overheated and shorted out something. In the process, it fried two of my network cards, one was the onboard NIC in an older Dell Optiplex 780 desktop, and the other was the old reliable 3com NIC on my A1 XE's motherboard.

The Dell's NIC just can't see the cable being plugged in. Cable is good as my old Toshiba laptop can get an IP when it's plugged in. So that's an easy fix, just need to find a low-profile PCI NIC card to plug in to it, and it's back up and running again.

The A1's 3com chip must have really fried, as it no longer shows up for PCI scans on it!

So that won't be so easy to replace, but at least I have some possible cards on Newegg that I can try. I just hope it will work, as I already have most of my PCI slots filled up and they were kind of problematic the last time I tried shuffling around the cards in it.

So, on Newegg I found two cards that might work:
One is this TRENDnet card: TRENDnet TEG-PCITXR
The other is this TP-Link card: TP-Link TG-3269

It looks like both cards use the Realtek 8169 chip that should work with OS4.1 Final (with updates).

Has anyone here used either of these PCI NICs in an A1 XE before? And how well did they work for you?

_________________
This posting, in it's entirety, is the opinion and/or statement of the author and does not reflect the views and/or position of this site.

@DWolfman

check out intuitionbase.com

I would steer away from gigabit cards as they may use 'too' modern chips.

_________________
Cross-developer on Windows, OS3, OS4, Linux; Current Projects:-
Nephele Cloud App OS4
UserProfile System OS4
AmigaOneXE OS4.1.6

TaoSoftwareBlog Youtube

@TheAMIgaOne

Quote:

check out intuitionbase.com

I did, that's how I figured out what chipset to look for. Just isn't much info there to look through.

Quote:

I would steer away from gigabit cards as they may use 'too' modern chips.

So does this mean you've tried one in an A1 XE?

I was really hoping someone had experience with one of these cards in an A1. There is a driver for the Realtek 8169 chip in OS4.1 Final (I know cause I checked if it was there on my install) so these cards should work. Just would like to know what experiences people have had with it.

_________________
This posting, in it's entirety, is the opinion and/or statement of the author and does not reflect the views and/or position of this site.

@DWolfman

There is a lack of response here. Surely people have had broken hardware before. Maybe they gave up and left?

I can imagine it won't be easy. It wouldn't be easy fitting a new card in if all slots were taken. I'd be stuffed!

Not exactly what the information you wanted, but I plugged an Ethernet card with a Realtek 8169 into my X1000. Think I found it in some PC. I selected the driver and it worked fine. Don't recall if auto mode picked it up.

Another option is a USB to Ethernet adaptor. There is some driver for one in OS4. Might have to go digging to see what. PCI card may be more available.

Never give up..

Had an ethernet card from the beginning installed.

Then serviced the machine from professionals.

Don't very much use it. Some recommended card+ide card+gfxcard too inside.

For what to use is the question?

Hi There all The EA Deluxepaint Programmers,Net and Printer programmes- again.

We have a non-virus blazing fast machine.

@DWolfman

I put a 3.3V compatible Intel Gigabit Ethernet card in the 3.3V only PCI slot near the AGP slot of my A1SE, which works fine under Linux. You could try the same with a 3.3V compatible Realtek 8169 Ethernet card, but I'm not sure if the PCI resources are correctly assigned for PCI slot 1 under AmigaOS4. It may also have an impact on 3D graphics hardware acceleration.

As Hypex suggested a USB to Ethernet adapter may really be the better option, if all your 33MHz PCI slots are already occupied.

_________________
A1SE: G3@600MHz, 2GB, 1GBit network card
A1XE: G4@933MHz, 2GB, refitted AC'97 codec
microA1: G3@800MHz, 1GB

- A1 Linux support -

@DWolfman

The USB option might be too slow on the XE.

I've only tried an rtl8029 based card on the XE and that worked fine.

If you can handle a soldering iron and have steady hands, another option would be to replace the chip. For that matter, it might be worth checking its pins it case it just got too hot and the solder came off the pads on some pins. Long shot, I know.

_________________
AlexC's free OS4 software collection

AmigaOne XE/X1000/X5000/UAE-PPC OS4 laptop/X-10 Home Automation

@AlexC

Quote:

AlexC wrote: If you can handle a soldering iron and have steady hands, another option would be to replace the chip. For that matter, it might be worth checking its pins it case it just got too hot and the solder came off the pads on some pins. Long shot, I know.

IIRC, the Ethernet chip comes in a BGA package for which one needs proper hot-air equipment to desolder it.

Last edited by Geri on 06-Jul-2017 at 11:40 AM.

_________________
A1SE: G3@600MHz, 2GB, 1GBit network card
A1XE: G4@933MHz, 2GB, refitted AC'97 codec
microA1: G3@800MHz, 1GB

- A1 Linux support -

@Geri

he he, never mind

Last edited by NutsAboutAmiga on 06-Jul-2017 at 05:35 PM.
Last edited by NutsAboutAmiga on 06-Jul-2017 at 05:33 PM.
Last edited by NutsAboutAmiga on 06-Jul-2017 at 05:32 PM.
Last edited by NutsAboutAmiga on 06-Jul-2017 at 05:30 PM.

_________________
http://lifeofliveforit.blogspot.no/
Facebook::LiveForIt Software for AmigaOS

@Geri

You are right, a look at this picture confirms it.

PCI card it is then.

_________________
AlexC's free OS4 software collection

AmigaOne XE/X1000/X5000/UAE-PPC OS4 laptop/X-10 Home Automation

@AlexC

Quote:

The USB option might be too slow on the XE.

Depends what the networks demands are and overhead of driver I suppose. An A1 can transfer about 900KB/s on standard 1.1 ports. That's about a 9Mb throughput. Less the CPU time for the driver.

USB2 is better if the adaptor supports USB2 as then it can do on average 10MB/s and match a 100Mb connection. Which it likely would and keep up with using DMA transfers.

Of course, I've never tested one on my A1, so I don't know how good or bad it can be.

Wow, guess I need to check in here more often.

Glad to hear that one works in an X1000. I'm not too worried about the speed or throughput, so long as it can get close to what the onboard chip used to do. Looking at the 8169 chip cards since they are easier to get than any of the others.

Now just need to get one of those cards and see how it does.

_________________
This posting, in it's entirety, is the opinion and/or statement of the author and does not reflect the views and/or position of this site.

Oh, and I never even thought of trying to replace the onboard chip anyway. My soldering skills have gone downhill since I worked in that TV repair shop 20 years ago, as the last time I tried to fix something I ruined it.

_________________
This posting, in it's entirety, is the opinion and/or statement of the author and does not reflect the views and/or position of this site.