infotech@thorin.misemi (Mike Sullivan) (02/03/90)
I am trying to use a Western Digital WD8003E Ethernet adapter on a Compaq 386/20 machine, and am having very little success. Here's some of the details: Computer: Compaq 386/20 Compaq VGA board 2 serial, 1 parallel port 2 meg memory using Compaq EMM WD8003e Ethernet Card: IRQ selectable 2-7 I/O Address selectable h200-h3E0 RAM buffer selectable hA0000-hEFFFF I have installed several cards in other machines (286/386) and have been able to get them running with little problem. WD dox explain all the settings and their possible conflicts with system components, so here's my questions: + has anyone used this card in this particular machine, or similar ethernet cards? + there two switches on the VGA card marked VRAM and BIOS that have both 8 and 16 settings... What do they do? WD C-support suggested running the VGA card in 8 bit mode but I can't find any detailed explaination in the Compaq dox. + other 386 machines here would not use the Ethernet card unless "shadow-RAM" was disabled... Does the 386/20 have this feature, and if so how is it disabled? Other salient points: The diagnostic program runs okay for the card at various RAM buffer areas thruout the range, and the interrupt test works A-OK when using IRQ5. All TSR stuff has been disabled to test the E-card, so I don't think that is a problem. I can get the card working fine in the diag. test, but it still won't communicate with a "live" ethernet (yes that was tested as well...) Any help would be greatly appreciated, E-mail or post yer choice.... ====================================================================== Ross Bannerman | uunet!mitel!infotech | Mitel Corp. +-------------------------------------------+ KANATA, Ont. | Insert standard legalize here... | ======================================================================
pipkins@qmsseq.imagen.com (Jeff Pipkins) (02/06/90)
In article <2111@thorin.misemi> infotech@mitel (Ross Bannerman) writes: > > I am trying to use a Western Digital WD8003E Ethernet adapter >on a Compaq 386/20 machine, and am having very little success. Here's >some of the details: > > Computer: Compaq 386/20 > Compaq VGA board > 2 serial, 1 parallel port > 2 meg memory using Compaq EMM > WD8003e Ethernet Card: > IRQ selectable 2-7 > I/O Address selectable h200-h3E0 > RAM buffer selectable hA0000-hEFFFF May I suggest setting the WD8003E to IRQ5, I/O addr x280, mem addr xCE00:0000 ? The trick is mostly to pick a memory address that does not conflict with the EMS page and VGA memory. Also, the WD will not map just anywhere, there are some limitations on where you can set it. After much experimentation with many PCs, the IRQ5/x280/xCE00 seems to be a very good combination and works with VGA and EMS. Hope this helps. -Jeff Pipkins pipkins@imagen.com