3Com (R) Corporation EtherDisk (R) Diskette for the 3C980 Fast EtherLink Server NIC Release Notes and Frequently Asked Questions The Fast EtherLink Server NIC Features: - Parallel Tasking (R) architecture for highest performance - Bus mastering for low CPU utilization and optimal overall system performance - Ease of installation and Auto Select Media Type and Link Speed - Driver support for NetWare 4.x, Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 - Lifetime warranty - Full duplex enabled for switched 10/100 Mbps environments Frequently Asked Questions and Release Notes -------------------------------------------- This file contains the release notes and answers to some frequently asked questions about the PCI environment to help you obtain maximum performance from your 3Com Fast EtherLink Server Bus Master NICs. This information is updated regularly on 3Com BBS (bulletin board service), and 3Com's World Wide Web site (http://www.3Com.com). Release Notes ------------- Windows NT 4.0 Incompatibility with Miniport Drivers ---------------------------------------------------- 3Com has observed occasional system shutdowns on some multiprocessor servers (servers with more than one CPU) that use Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 running miniport drivers, including the 3Com 3C980.SYS miniport driver. This situation is not unique to the 3C980.SYS miniport driver and may occur with other miniport architecture drivers used with Windows NT 4.0. A new SRV.SYS driver from Microsoft fixes this problem. This driver is included in the Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack #1, and can be downloaded from the Microsoft web site. Spurious Hardware Interrupts on the Compaq Proliant 5000 -------------------------------------------------------- When running a server on the Compaq Proliant 5000 lot of Spurious interrupts warning messages may appear. 3Com has found that these warnings should not be worried about and have no effect on normal operation. 3Com has noticed that these warnings also happen with NICs from other manufacturing companies. Tyan 16 Dual Pro with Matrox Video Card, PVR, and Windows NT 4.0 ----------------------------------------------------------------- NIC not detected by 3Com DOS Diagnostic Program Neither the 3Com DOS diagnostic program nor Windows NT 4.0 server/workstation recognizes the NIC in the following configuration: * Tyan motherboard 16 with 200 MHz dual Pentium processors and 5 PCI slots * Award BIOS 4.5 * Windows NT 4.0 * Matrox Video 2 Mb RAM (PCI) * Digital Perception video recorder (PCI) used for video editing Action: Move the 3C980-TX Server NIC to slot 2, the Digital Perception video card to slot 3, and the Matrox video card to slot 4. Micron Millennia M55HI ---------------------- Unable to run DOS diagnostic program When attempting to run the DOS diagnostic program for the 3C980-TX Server NIC on a Micron Millennia M55HI with Stealth 3D video, the following error appears: !!! Error!!! Incorrect configuration is set by the BIOS. Get an updated BIOS from the PC manufacturer or try to install the adapter in another slot. The user cannot proceed any further with diagnostics. The error appears when the NIC is installed in slots 1, 2, and 3, but not 4. Action: Install the NIC in slot 4. If slot 4 is not available, disable the plug and play option in the Advanced area of the BIOS. This eliminates the error in all four slots. Cisco Catalyst 5000 ------------------- CRC and alignment errors when connecting to a Cisco Catalyst 5000 Alignment, CRC, and runt errors may occur when the 3C980-TX Server NIC is connected to the Cisco Catalyst 5000 switch. Action: Do one of the following: * Force the port speed of the switch to AUTO and set the NIC for NWay auto-negotiation (IEEE 802.3u). * Force the ports on the switch and the attached NICs to the same settings (SPEED = 100 and DUPLEX= Full duplex). Once the speed setting is forced on an NWay device, NWay auto-negotiation is disabled. When an NWay device is connected to a link partner that does not support or is not set for NWay, it uses a feature called Parallel Detection to determine the appropriate media type (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX) but defaults to half-duplex transfer mode. When the NIC is in Nway mode and the switch is forced to 100 Mbps with full-duplex operation, the NIC will negotiate to 100 Mbps but fall back to half-duplex because of the limitation explained above. Consequently, network errors result from the mismatch in the transfer mode settings. Stopping the driver in a Windows NT System ------------------------------------------- 3Com has found that if you stop the driver while there are no protocols installed in your system it will crash with a blue screen error. When this error occurs the system is dead and must be rebooted. Microsoft has admitted that there is a problem in Windows NT and will be fixed in Service Pack 2.0. To avoid this problem simply keep at least one protocol loaded and Windows NT will not let you stop the driver. Performance Hint for the Fast EtherLink Server NICs on HP NetServers ---------------------------------------------------------------- During testing of HP NetServers and the Fast EtherLink Server NIC, 3Com has observed that the performance can be maximized by customizing the NetServer's BIOS. Within the BIOS of the NetServer, access the Advanced Chipset Setup and set the DRAM Buffer Write to 0 and the Snoop Ahead to 1. NOTE: This was tested on an HP NetServer 466 LF and a 466 LC, but could apply to other models of the NetServer family. Compaq Prolinea 575 Computer Notification ----------------------------------------- 3Com has observed issues with a particular system BIOS revision for the Compaq Prolinea 575 computer. If the system BIOS version is dated 7/26/95, it should be updated to a later revision. The Compaq Prolinea 575 Configuration and Diagnostics utility should be used to verify the revision date of the system BIOS (system ROM). Consult the manual for the Compaq Prolinea for instructions on verifying and updating the system ROM version and on obtaining updated system ROM software, or contact Compaq for assistance. Windows NT and S3 Video Driver ------------------------------- Windows NT 4.0 may freeze during start-up when S3 video drivers, PCI memory-mapped I/O devices, and the 3C980-TX Server NIC are installed on the secondary PCI bus. The problem was observed on the Dell OptiPlex GXPro 6/180 using the 3C980-TX Server NIC under Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 3 installed. Action: Try any or all of the following: * Update the video driver for the S3 Trio64V+ (765DRV - version 2.00.18). * Install the 3C980-TX Server NIC on the primary PCI bus. * Uninstall Service Pack 3. The S3 driver included with Service Pack 3 for Windows NT makes severalwrites to unclaimed memory space in the PCI bridge chip, causing Windows NT to become unstable and freeze. NetServer LS2 5/166 and 3C980 NICs running Windows NT4.0 with -------------------------------------------------------------- Service Pack 3 -------------- When the 3C980-TX Server NIC is installed in the secondary PCI bus, the machine may hang intermittently. Symptoms include a locked-up mouse pointer, steady hourglass, or the inability to launch a program. This problem has not been observed on other models of the NetServer line. 3Com is currently working with HP to resolve this issue. Action: Install the 3C980-TX Server NIC on the primary PCI bus. Using a SNI machine with the 82440LX chip set running Netware 4.1, ------------------------------------------------------------------ causes the server to abbend with a stack overflow error. -------------------------------------------------------- If the SNI machine, with the 440LX chip set, is running Netware with an Adaptec SCSI card and the 3C980 NIC installed and a stack overflow occurs, please contact Adaptec or SNI for an updated SCSI driver for the machine. DOS diagnostics incompatibility with 3C980 and Gateway E-3000 -------------------------------------------------------------- During testing 3Com encountered incompatibilities with our 3C980 NIC and the Gateway E-3000 series PC when loading our DOS diagnostics program. 3Com suggests using our Windows based diagnostics if you encounter this problem. The Windows diagnostics have been shown to work without error. Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Considerations ======================================= Services Failing To Start ------------------------- Some services may fail to start in a server configured with a large number of VLANs. The services that fail to start can be started manually from the Control Panel/Services application. Delay in System Start Up With Multiple VLANs Configured -------------------------------------------------------- In general, start up time increases with each NIC and VLAN added to the system Node Address Override For VLAN ------------------------------ When overriding the Node address (MAC address) in the registry, note that only the most significant 11 Hex digits can be user assigned since the last (least significant) digit is assigned by the driver. Node address override is only valid for the first VNIC to load. Table 0-1 shows the relationship between VLANs and the node address of the VNIC. ___________________________________________________ Factory assigned node address 000012345670 Virtual NIC1 (1st VLAN configured) 000012345670 Virtual NIC2 (2nd VLAN configured) 000012345671 Virtual NIC3 (3rd VLAN configured) 000012345672 ... ... Virtual NIC16 (16th VLAN configured)00001234567f Full Duplex and VLANs ----------------------------- When using VLANs, 3Com recommends that the switch be set at full-duplex or the maximum running speed to ensure optimal LAN performance. Windows 95 support ------------------- The 3C980-TX Server NIC is not supported on Windows 95 systems. The Windows NT driver runs on a Windows 95 machine, but VLAN and RSL features are disabled. ___________________________________________________ Troubleshooting Installation Problems ------------------------------------- 3Com has found that some PCI computers require additional configuration steps in order to install a PCI NIC. 3Com recommends these steps: 1. Determine whether you have the latest BIOS version for your computer. Contact your computer's manufacturer to make sure you are using the latest BIOS. Here are the phone numbers for some PCI system manufacturers: Company Phone Notes/Web site ALR* (800) 257-1230 www.alr.com/service/support /support.hml Ambra* (800) 465-2227 Not available AST* (800) 727-1278 www.ast.com/americas/files.html AT&T* (800) 543-9935 www.ncr.com/support/pc/pcdesc (800) 531-2222 /machines.html Compaq* (800) 652-6672 www.compaq.com/support/files (800) 345-1518 /compaq.html NOTE: Compaq DeskPRO XL should have a BIOS dated Oct. 1994 or later for best performance. Dell* (800) 626-4308 www.dell.com/ (800) 624-9896 Digital (800) 354-9000 www.dec.com/ Equipment* Gateway* (800) 846-2070 www.gateway2000.com/ (800) 846-2301 Hewlett- (800) 322-HPPC www.hp.com/cposupport Packard* (800) 752-0900 /cpoindex.html IBM* (800) IBM-3333 www.pcco.ibm.com/ Micron* (800) 438-3343 www.mei.micron.com/services/bbs /techbbs.htm Packard (800) 733-4411 www.packardbell.com/gfx/support Bell* /support.html Unisys* (800) 328-0440 www.pc.unisys.com/ Zenith* (800) 227-3360 www.zds.com/htdocs/zds/htm /files.htm ZEOS* (800) 554-7172 www.mei.micron.com/Services (800) 228-5390 /zeosbbs.htm In addition, here are the phone numbers and on-line addresses of several popular OEM motherboard manufacturers: Company Phone On-line address Intel* (503) 264-7999 ftp://ftp.intel.com\pub\bios Micronics (510) 651-6837 www.micronics.com/support/ ASUS (408) 956-9084 http://asustek.asus.com.tw * Third-party trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. 2. Make sure the BIOS is set up correctly. In some PCI computers, you may need to enable the PCI slot using the BIOS Setup program. This is especially common in PCI computers with a Phoenix BIOS. After installing the NIC, turn on the computer and enter the Setup program during system initialization (usually by pressing [F1], [F2], or [Ctrl]-[Alt]-[S]). The correct key to press is usually shown on the screen. Once in the Setup program, find the entry for PCI slots (it may be in the main menu, or sometimes in advanced system configuration) and set these parameters to: BIOS System Setting Parameter PCI Slot Number Slot where the 3Com PCI NIC is installed (1-3) Master ENABLED Slave ENABLED Latency Timer 40 Interrupt Choose any one of several available interrupts that Setup provides. Edge or Level Level Triggered Interrupt NOTE: The exact wording of each of the parameters will vary from computer to computer. Save the changes, exit the Setup program, and continue with the installation. 3Com Diagnostic and Configuration Program Runs in DOS Mode Only -------------------------------------------------------------- If you are running Windows NT, please use 3NICDIAG.exe, which is installed in your SYSTEM directory from the EtherDisk 2 diskette when you install the NIC. Echo Exchange Test Does Not Support Crossover Cable --------------------------------------------------- Because the Echo Exchange test verifies the NIC's ability to transmit and receive data while on the network, both the echo server and the echo client must be connected to a network. A Fast EtherLink XL Server NIC uses link beats to determine whether it is connected to a network when the 10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, or 100BASE-T4 Media Type is selected. A constant link beat is needed for the Echo Exchange test when the 10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, or 100BASE-T4 Media Type is selected. Before starting the Echo Exchange test, connect the echo server and the echo client together through a hub or a switch that generates a constant link beat. Using crossover cable to connect the echo server and the echo client directly does not work. Performance on Some Early Pentium Pro Models -------------------------------------------- During testing, 3Com has observed that some early Pentium Pro models using Intel's (54x?) PCI chip sets do not fully support the full bandwidth throughput of the PCI bus. Symptoms can include an abnormal number of dropped packets or performance below what the wire can support. This problem can sometimes be fixed by getting a more recent BIOS from your system vendor. Contact your vendor to see if such an upgrade is available. General Support Questions -------------------------- Q: How do I stop the 3Com tray icon from appearing in my system tray? A: You can stop the 3Com tray icon from appearing by double clicking on the icon to start the diagnostic program. On the main page of the 3Com NIC Diagnostics program there is a check box titled "Enable Tray Control". Click on the check box to remove the check mark and stop the 3Com tray icon from appearing upon reboot. If for some reason this does not stop the 3Com tray icon from appearing on reboot you can right click on the icon choose Disable 3Com TaskBar Icon and then delete the file COMSMD.EXE from your system directory. Your NIC will not be harmed in any way by deleting that file. Q: Do I have to configure my 3Com PCI NIC for my computer? A: PCI is a self-configuring bus architecture. Most of the time you will only need to install the board in your system; PCI then does the rest. However, on some PCI computers (mostly with combination PCI/ISA or PCI/EISA buses in the same machine), you may be required to configure the computer's BIOS manually after installing your PCI NIC. If you need to configure your system manually, refer to the owner's guide for your computer. 3Com testing has shown, for example, that the AST Premmia GX P90 seems to require you to run the EISA configuration utility once you install the board to make sure that the I/O base address of the device does not conflict with other devices in the system. Q: Which PCI slot is best for my 3Com PCI NIC? A: 3Com PCI NICs are designed to work in any PCI slot, including "slave-only" slots. The NICs perform best in those slots that support bus mastering data transfers. Refer to your owner's manual for information on which slots support bus mastering data transfers. Q: Is your Fast EtherLink Server NIC compliant with PCI Spec 2.1? A: Yes. 3Com's Fast EtherLink Server comply with PCI Spec 2.1. For further details, please see the product data sheet. Q: Which PCI slot(s) are "bus mastering" in my PCI machine? A: Generally, if you have three PCI slots in a system, one slot will be designated as a "slave-only" slot (that is, it does not support bus mastering data transfers). Slots are not always marked clearly to distinguish between slave-only and bus mastering slots. It is best to refer to your owner's manual or contact your computer manufacturer for this information. Also, make sure that you have the latest version of your system's BIOS. Phone numbers for leading PCI system manufacturers are included earlier in this document. Q: Which interrupt should I use with my 3Com PCI NIC? A: Unless your system is a PCI-ISA/EISA combination computer that requires manual configuration, you should not have to worry about setting interrupts. However, if your computer is not self- configuring, you will need to set your PCI NIC's interrupts manually. To do this, you may need to set a jumper on your motherboard or set the interrupt in the system's BIOS. In either case, you will need to assign the PCI interrupt (INTA) to any available interrupt not being used by an ISA or EISA add-in board already in your computer. Keep in mind that the interrupt configuration on your computer's motherboard and in your BIOS must match. Since PCI supports shared interrupts, multiple 3Com PCI NICs can use the same PCI interrupt (except as noted below). Q. Does my PCI NIC support shared interrupts? A. The drivers for the Fast EtherLink Server Bus Master NICs support shared interrupts. However, because there is no industry-standard way to support shared interrupts, other NICs may support them differently, or not at all. If you have another PCI NIC that does not support shared interrupts (for example, a SCSI host NIC), either contact the manufacturer for a shared interrupt driver or try running the system setup program to assign it a different interrupt. Q: What interrupt should I avoid using with my 3Com PCI NIC? A: You should avoid using any interrupts used by ISA/EISA boards that do not properly support shared interrupts (level-triggered). If you do not know or are unsure whether your NIC supports shared interrupts, then avoid using them. In addition, try to avoid using the same interrupt as that of your local hard drive (normally IRQ 14 for IDE drives and IRQ 11 for most SCSI host NICs), since not all hard drives support shared interrupts at this time. For Novell NetWare servers, you should also avoid using IRQ 7 or 15. These IRQs only support nonshared devices and may cause problems if they are shared between two devices. Q: Is my 3Com PCI NIC a 3.3 V or 5 V NIC? A: The 3Com NIC currently being shipped is a 5 V NIC. It will not fit in a 3.3 V slot. Q: My ACERPOWER system indicates that I have a ROM installed, but one is not present. Why? A: The ACERPOWER BIOS (BIOS version V2.0 486/DX2 66 MHz) PCI system incorrectly indicates (through PCI information) that there is a ROM on the PCI NIC. Contact ACER to get an updated BIOS to correct this problem. Q: Are my Fast EtherLink XL Server NIC ODI drivers Novell certified? A: Yes. 3Com's Fast EtherLink XL Server NIC ODI drivers are Novell tested and approved. Q: I've purchased an HP Pavilion machine and I want to connect it to my network, are there any issues? A: The HP Pavilion PCs are designed for home use and as a standalone multimedia machine. HP doesn't recommend using this as a network PC. Issues including: no available resources, PCI bus errors, PCI device detection problems could arise when installing a PCI network NIC in these PCs. 3Com Technical Support ---------------------- Please refer to your PCI user guide for technical support information. In addition, this information is also available in the \HELP\SUPPORT.TXT file on the EtherDisk 1 diskette. 3Com, EtherLink, and EtherDisk are registered trademarks of 3Com Corporation. (%VER README.TXT - Release Notes v1.1a)