EAPOL - what is it and how can I kick it's ass?

[Brad]

EAPOL, who are you, you dirty little bastard?

This seems to be the one last bugger that is throwing a wrench into my system.

The event viewer in XP tells me (after a crash) that EAPOL is to blame.

Luckily, since pulling the Radeon card out of my system, the crashes are down to about one a day (instead of one every 15 minutes) but the EAPOL thing has me stumped.

From what I know (which is not much) EAP has to do with networking. The only devices I have in my system that I think are related are a modem and a IEEE 1394 PCI adapter.

These two devices are sharing an IRQ. Could that be my problem?

And if it is, how the fork do I make these two things use different IRQ's?


Lemme know if I am way off on this - I am just guessing.

Thanks,
Brad

 

[Barometer]

ATI drivers are notorious for wormholing into your system and never letting go. If they were the original culprit you might have an ongoing issue

First thing I would check would be the IRQ conflict. In your hardware device manager you can view the components according to IRQ. But I would assume your individual component properties would tell you that there is a conflict if one existed. I don't know about changing IRQs (especially in XP) but if I run across anything I'll let you know

 

[elevate]

If I'm not mistaken, EAPOL is some sort of product activation mechanism for Windows for networked computers. Perhaps Windows isn't liking some hardware changes you've made.

 

[Brad]

Well, I am not on a network, so it would be great if I could turn this thing off...

I am sure it is not that simple though.

After I get a DVD burner (end of the month) that will be my last hardware change for awhile - after that, I am going to reinstall the OS and start from scratch. Hopefully, all problems will be solved. Until then though, I'd like to take mr. EAPOL out behind the bar and beat him with a pool cue.

 

[WATYF]

Extensible Authentication Protocol over LAN.

Are you on a wireless LAN? Do you use firewire? Is this on a laptop?

WATYF

 

[Brad]

Extensible Authentication Protocol over LAN.

Are you on a wireless LAN? Do you use firewire? Is this on a laptop?

WATYF

Nope, yep, nope.

I have a firewire PCI card that I use to capture video from two sources: a DV camcorder and an analog to digital video converter. The A/D converter is always hooked up, but not always in use. I have a cable plugged into the other port, but don't always have my camera hooked up to the other end.

No network though.

 

[WATYF]

The firewire might be doing it... (it seems really odd that it would.. but EAPoL is often used in conjunction with IEEE 802.11 standard wireless LANs.. so who knows.)

See if you have a service running named EAPoL.. (or anything similar "Extensible Protocol" or whatever..) you should be able to disable that.. I don't know if you mess with your services at all.. but you have to be signed on as an Administrator in XP and then Click on Start > Programs > Administrative Tools > Services.

Do you have DSL? If so, have you ever tried to use a wireless router...? or a wireless anything?? That may affect it too.. I dunno... these are mostly just shots in the dark, but you might stumble on something that fixes it.

WATYF

 

[Brad]

Thanks WAYTF, I appreciate the shots in the dark - even if that is all they turn out to be.

I will check to see if that service is running. No DSL, no wireless anything.


My computer is soon to be wireless however, when I reach my stinking hand into the strinking case and rip all of the stinking wires out of the stinking thing. Then it will be one wireless mother!