[9fans] 3c509b troubles

["michael block" <michaelmuffin@gmail.com>]

hello,

i have 3com etherlink iii 509b isa card that refuses to let me change
its port or irq.  also the only way i can get the card to talk on the
network is to put my usb mouse on the same irq and wiggle it around
really fast when i'm trying to receive or transmit.  initially i could
change neither the irq of the usb mouse nor of the ethernet card.  i
have turned off pnp in my bios and i can now move the irq of the usb
mouse.  however, without the wiggling mouse sharing its irq, the
ethernet card with not work.

from what i can tell by gleaning the 9fans archives, the 3c509b is
quite a troublesome card.  i found rumors of a dos utility that would
convince the card to change its port and irq.  i think this leaves me
with two questions.  first, where do i find this fabled configuration
program?  googling has proved fruitless.  second, is fiddling with the
port or irq even going to fix the problem?  as far as i understand, if
the card has its own irq staked out, it should just go on its way

here is what is printed on startup:
#l0; elnk3: 10Mbps port 0x300 irq 10: <ethaddr>
#U/usb0: uhci: port 0xEF80 irq 12

#U/usb0 was initially at irq 10, but after disabling pnp in bios, i
was able to move it to 12

-- m

ps, i have a very limited understanding of what an isa card's port and
irq even do.  if i said anything that doesn't quite add up, that's
probably why