infocenter@urz.unibas.ch (03/07/91)
In article <17320@crdgw1.crd.ge.com>, news@crdgw1.crd.ge.com (USENET News System) writes: > Compaq deskpro. The software behaves as if the transceiver is not attached > to the (card) which it is, and all the hardware works on other systems. I > called Sitka (or whatever they call themselves) and was told that this > was a known problem and the only solution is to by another card which is > under development. I can construct a number of scenerios underwhich > a really fast CPU would cause problems, but the Flashtalk card is the > first device that has failed to work in this system. Has anyone else > experienced this problem? Better yet has anyone found a solution. I > quickly scanned a dissasembly of atalk.sys looking for problem areas. I > noticed a couple of things that looked suspicious, but I thought that I would > inquire of the network before I tried patching someone else's device > driver. I'm not even sure that the problem lies in the driver. Sitka > tech support was neither very technical nor very helpful. > From: dixon@sagittarius.crd.ge.com (walt dixon) > > Walt Dixon {internet: dixon@crd.ge.com } I am fighting with a similar problem. We have original LocalTalk PC Cards running in different machines (286/6 ..25, 386SX/16, 386/25, etc.). But those suckers won't do it in my 386/33 machines ( all 386/33 have the same board, we tried changing BIOS, this didn't help). We tried all permutations of possible interrupts and addresses (220h & 240h) ... they won't do it! So I tried DaynaStar LT200 PC LocalTalk Interface board, running with the original Apple AppleShare PC Software (vers. 2.0.1). This works just fine! LT200 has a nice feature: with jumpers you can choose a lot of different addresses. Well, I guessed that this was the problem with Apple's LT-Card. So I set the Dayna on 220h and on 240h. Both worked with no problems !?!?! Bus speed? My 33s run on 8 Mhz, exactly the same as my 25s etc. (I do not believe data sheets, I MEASURED it !!!). The only difference: the 33s' bus signal show more overshooting and undershooting than those of the other machines. It really oscillates. Well, this could explain that the card gets triggered twice, but since all the other stuff on the bus works fine ... I do not believe this is the problem. So, W H E R E is the problem ? ............................................................... Didi
infocenter@urz.unibas.ch (03/07/91)
In article <1991Mar7.130114.1427@urz.unibas.ch>, infocenter@urz.unibas.ch writes: > > So I tried DaynaStar LT200 PC LocalTalk Interface board, running with the ^^^^^^^^^ The correct Name is DayStar ... from DayStar Digital, Inc. 5556 Atlanta Highway Flowery Branch, GA 30542 (404) 967-2077 PS: As much as I know, Farallon will distribute Apple's LocalTalk stuff in the near future. What do they think about all these problems and how about loading the drivers into high RAM (No chance at this time!) .............................................................. Didi
alee@elaine27.Stanford.EDU (Andrew Lee) (03/09/91)
I've tried both Apple LocalTalk cards and TOPS Flashcards in my 25 MHz 386, and neither was entirely satisfactory. My machine is a AT-bus clone with 64K SRAM cache and Phoenix BIOS, and the software I'm using is Wollongong's WIN/TCP TCP/IP software, with board drivers from the manufacturers, and a packet driver written here at Stanford. The Apple card doesn't work when my machine is at 25 MHz, or if I have QEMM-386 loaded, so I have to run my machine at 8 MHz without QEMM. I have version 2.00 of Apple's drivers, and LTALKP.EXE fails if my machine is at 25 MHz or QEMM is loaded. LTALK.EXE, the interrupt-driven version of LTALKP, doesn't work under any circumstances. I suspect it's a DMA problem, but LTALKP won't work without DMA. I called Farallon, and they can't get me Apple's version 2.10 drivers, and won't have their own version 2.20 drivers out for a while. Now when I tried the TOPS Flashcard, to get TOPS' drivers ALAP and PSTACK to load under any of the following conditions, I had to have DMA disabled: running at 25 MHz, or having either HIMEM.SYS (from Windows 3.0) or QEMM-386 loaded. Then, no matter what I did, when I tried, when I attempted to load the packet driver, it reported that it couldn't find the gateway. The people at Networking and Communication Systems here at Stanford, who wrote the packet driver (same for both TOPS and Apple cards) told me that it means that it can't talk the the Kinetics box which is the only other thing on this line (about 1300' of twisted pair, plus another 50' of my flat wire), and that they have found that TOPS boards seem to have trouble with cable lengths in their own building. They said that the LocalTalk networks here at Stanford have been checked and found to be within LocalTalk specs. I've tried sending email to TOPS, but they never sent an intellible reply. Andrew Lee alee@leland.stanford.edu, alee@slacvm.bitnet