HUGHESB%AC%CSC@CSC.ISU.EDU (01/09/90)
Michal, You mentioned that the workstations in question were HP Vectra's "not quite At compatible". I have also found the Vectra to be "not quite AT compatible", have you tried another type of workstation and if so does it do the same thing? Brian Hughes Tech Support Mgr Idaho State University
MICHAL@UKANVAX.BITNET (Michal Chmielewski) (01/10/90)
This is my second posting regarding a problem with the 3c503 card and the
3c503 packet driver I obtained from the net, courtesy of Bob Clements.
In short, the packet driver we have obtained has been modified to work
with NCSA Telnet (2.2D) and Novell NetWare 2.11a. All is good and well, and
both beasts coexists in a friendly manner. However, there is a problem when
a WorkStatn boots from a power-down state. What follows is a 10-15 sec lockup
of the keyboard in the case of a thin e-net T-connection and an indefinite
keyboard lockup when we hook on a thick ethernet cable. A similair scenario
takes place with the unmodified packet drivers, versions 4.2 and 5.0.
Thus, we do not believe that our modifications are screwing things up.
We are running the 4.2 version with modifications that allow NCSA Telnet
and Novell to share the card.
Furthermore, the above only happens when the installation of the packet
driver is carried out in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. When I load the driver after
the machine is booted, directly from the DOS prompt or from another
batch file, nothing of a lock-up takes place.
Now onto our set up. The 3C503 cards have i/o base address at 0x300
and the mem buffer is at 0xD8000. We use the thin ethernet connection.
The machines are HP-Vectra, AT Compatible (but not quite), have a 40
Mb hard disk partitioned into 33Mb and 7Mb, and a high density floppy
drive. The display card is a VGA and there is a serial/paralell port.
The config.sys file is simple. Here is it's content.
FILES=20
BUFFERS=20
DEVICE=C:\DOS\ANSI.SYS
SHELL=C:\COMMAND.COM /P /E:256
The autoexec.bat is equally straightforward, that is
@echo off
c:\ncsa\3c503 0x7e 0x3 0x300 0x1
path=c:\dos;c:\images3d (1)
prompt = $P$G (2)
echo Type LOGIN [name]
echo to sign on to the Novell File server.
and we are running DOS 3.3 and have 640kb of memory (not quite AT).
I think I have isolated the problem to a keyboard lock-up (all else does
not lock up). For if the above autoexec.bat file is executed from a
power-down state, the last 2 echo lines get executed also. Then there is
the ever-haunting 10-15 sec pause during which nothing comes in from the
keyboard. If during, or after, the lock-up I re-boot (ctrl-alt-del)
the lock-up does not appear again.
Now if between lines (1) and (2) I place the statement
pause
then when autoexec.bat is executed, I am propted with
Hit any key to continue . . .
but in the case of a boot from power-down my pressing is ignored for
10-15 sec. In the case of ctrl-alt-del boot, all is fine.
Pointers, suggestions are very welcome.
-michal chmielewski, Univ. of Kansas, ACS