98SE unstable when I disable internal LAN

[graham01]

I have a new Athlon computer. All seems to be running well, but the internal LAN was DOA due to a hardware problem. To get my network up I added a PCI Ethernet adapter.

So far OK with Win98, but the PCI LAN wasn't working. So then I removed the internal LAN device in device manager and went on to disable it in the BIOS.

98SE then went unstable. Mouse and keyboard generally freezes within a couple of minutes and I get spontaneous restarts. If I re-enable the internal LAN in the BIOS then everything is OK.

Anyone have ideas on what is going on and what I could do about it?

Graham

[Jim9999]

Broken hardware, most likely.

You could troubleshoot Windows until you disable enough devices to rid yourself of the symptom (locking up), but if you have known bad hardware on the motherboard, chances are you have other problems with the hardware that you don't know about.