Hardware Inventory Hangs at 30% When Detecting the Game Port (152469)
The information in this article applies to:
- Microsoft Systems Management Server 1.0
- Microsoft Systems Management Server 1.1
- Microsoft Systems Management Server 1.2
This article was previously published under Q152469 SYMPTOMS
If the network card's I/O address is set to 200h, hardware inventory will
hang and ultimately fail when trying to detect the game port.
CAUSE
When inventory verifies whether the game port adapter is in the computer
(using Getother.exe), it makes a call to port 201h (this is the industry
standard setting for game ports). This call impinges on the network card
address range, causing the network connection to hang.
The issue is discussed in QUE's "Upgrading and Repairing PCs" (4th
edition):
The game adapter does not use much in the way of system resources. The
card does not use an IRQ, DMA channel, or memory, and requires only a
single I/O address (port) 201h. The adapter is controlled by reading and
writing data to and from port 201h.
WORKAROUND
There are three possible workarounds to this problem:
- Set the net card I/O address to another value (recommended).
- Create an Smssafe.tmp file and add "GamePorts=CRASHED" to prevent it
from being inventoried.
- Remove Getother.exe from your SMS site, so that the it is never called
during the inventory process. (Not Recommended)
| Modification Type: | Minor | Last Reviewed: | 6/14/2005 |
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| Keywords: | kbDatabase kbnetwork KB152469 |
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