asus A7N8X, Lan and IRQs

[PCguy74]

Hello all, im new here and my specs are this:
AMD 1800+
a7n8x deluxe
win ME
768 RAM
Gforce ti4600

well i just tried to email asus and failed it was returned, obviously they have the wrong tech support email in the manual.
overall i am happey with this board. i will be updating processor soon though.
i have a couple questions if anyone out there knows the answers it will be appreciated.

The onboard lan? which port do i need to use and if im not using either the Nforce lan or the 3com can the other be disabled to free up recources?

also i have 2 USB ports on the front of my case and thats all i
use, can i disable the power to the USBPWR01 and USBPWR23 to save on power from my PSupply?

next i have somthin called " Standard enhanced PCI to USB controller" in my device manager and it has a GREEN ? on it.
it saia if some features are not working for this device you ,may need to update the drivers. its not being usb by FF feedback wheel because it still works when i remove it but windows redetects it but wont update the driver.

Next i have my ti4600 sharing an irq with "Nvidia nforce PCI system managment" can somone please tell me how to move one of the above so i can be sure my AGP card is not sharing. i tried disabling ACPI and do it manually but it will not let me. im getting a slight stutter in my nascar games and ive isolated it to this prob.
i cant move the AGP card, so im looking for advice on the above topics..

THANKS VERY MUCH

[borntosoul]

i wish i could help ,im buying an asus nforce 2 board with an xp2200 hopefully next week ,how long have you had your board and have you had any other problems with it

[RoJo]

Same here, I'm hoping to have the money for this board in the next couple of weeks.

But one thing I can tell you is that the Nvidia lan is the better of the two to use. It uses less system resources from what I've read and is a bit faster to I think.

[PCguy74]

Hi guys, thanks for the replys, Um well i havent got far with this board yet, i just did another format becauise i learned a better way to install the drivers, there is some issues out the with this board but it seems intermitten.


http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/

here is a website where there is a ton of info maybe this well help you decide.

[SnakeEyes]

Everything I've read says that the nForce built-in LAN is more efficient than the 3COM chip, the port for the nV LAN is the upper one (closest to the PS2 keyboard / mouse ports), and yes, if one's not in use, definitely disable it in the bios to free up some system resources.

As far as the USB goes, I think you should be fine to disable the power to those ports, so long as they aren't supplying power to your cable to the front ports. (I haven't done this part yet- since I like all my USB / Firewire options left wide open. On the other hand, I DO disable my COM2 port, because I only use COM1, and that's just for my UPS).

Do you have Windows XP Service Pack 1 installed (or alternatively, the standalone Windows XP USB2 update)? That may be why you see the green ? in Device Manager. (I installed SP1 as one of the first things I did after putting the new motherboard in). USB2 isn't properly recognized and used by pre-SP1 / USB2 WinXP.

I'm also not sure about that "Nvidia nforce PCI system managment" , though it's very likely just like the standard Windows Placeholder for PCI blah blah blah that Windows uses for most devices. If so, it's practically unavoidable, and even more importantly, you don't really WANT it to be removed. (Wish I could back up that last statement, but I only vaguely recall someone somewhere on the net mentioning BAD things happening when they managed to make a change that successfully made the Placeholder for PCI Steering go away).

If you've discovered anything about this stuff since your first post, feel free to reply back with what you've found. This is a constant learning experience, and sometimes the settings used for two different brands of the same type of hardware are opposite to what you might expect. I think we all benefit when we share what we learn. :)