InterviewSolution
Saved Bookmarks
InterviewSolution
| 1. |
Solve : PLEASE HELP - Very strange problem with ISA 16 bit Interface card? |
|
Answer» Hello, that I'm trying to install in a new computer. What is the computer model? Quote When I try to operate this card in another PC ... What is this computer model? Please give computer models and if possible motherboard makers and model numbers... Listing the OS of the newer PC would be good as well...They haven't put ISA slots in computers for over 10 years. Is this "new" computer just new to you?Yah the last legacy ISA 16bit I saw was in an early 1999 era Pentium III 800Mhz motherboard, and it was a single slot paired up next to 3 PCI slots and early AGP slot. What I was aiming for was to find out whether any of the computers in which he has tried this card actually has got an ISA slot; in consumer level PCs they are deader than the dodo. However... Thanks everyone for replying. The "motherboard" is not your TYPICAL motherboard. It is a SBC (Single Board Computer) that is inserted in a backplane. It's an industrial rack-mounted PC with 6 ISA slots and 7 PCI slots. To Computer_Commando : They haven't put ISA slots in computers for over 10 years. Is this "new" computer just new to you? Answer: Both SBC and backplane are new. You can in fact still get ISA slots if you KNOW where to look and you opt for a SBC/backplane configuration. This is also known as a Blade system and is similar to how network server cards are used. The SBC and backplane specs are at the following links: http://www.portwell.com.tw/products/ROBO-8779VG2AR.html http://71.131.159.28/IPC_Manual/BackPlane/PBP-14A7-A.pdf I chose this setup because I have several legacy ISA and PCI cards that I want to use. The particular card that is GIVING me the problem is used to operate a spectrograph (Oriel MS125 with InstaSpec IV) under proprietary DOS software. When I installed the card, using default jumper settings (300H) and other defaults, the PC hung. I couldn't even get into BIOS ! So this setup is not your usual consumer PC. I'm getting no support from the manufacturers Oriel Instruments (now Newport Instruments which became Thermo Corp. a few years ago) since it is a very old card and they no longer support it. I've added a 300GB SATA hard drive and I have dual boot into DOS in one partition and WinXP in another. Any ideas or help is appreciated. Thanks Steve Quote When I try to operate this card in another PC the whole system hangs even before the OS iteslf has loaded and I cannot even enter the BIOS commands. This sounds like a basic I/O setting problem that should be resolvable by the appropriate configuration. Do you know what IRQ the ISA card is using that might conflict with other devices? Some ISA cards are configurable via jumpers to change IRQ settings, while others are hard-wired to always be a specific IRQ. I ran into issues a long time ago with IRQ conflicts like this. Once I was able to get these 2 cards on different IRQ's everything was fixed and I got it to boot without blackscreen on my 8088 XT I was able to track the problem down by leaving just the CGA video card in, and the card that wouldnt function. It booted with just the bare minimum 8088XT with CGA video card output and the 8-bit card. I then added cards 1 by one until I got to a failed boot. Then set the card off to the side that was the conflict. Did research and found out that they both wanted to use the same IRQ, and one of them, the sound card was configurable, while the other was not. So I changed the IRQ on the sound card and then all was well. I then ran into a similar issue between the 2400baud modem and the dual-serial card with IRQ conflict, but this did not cause a failed boot, just an issue where the serial mouse I have has an issue with Com1 and Com3. Learned then that Com1 and Com3 as well as Com2 and Com4 share interrupts so Modem at Com3 and serial mouse at Com1 had issues where only 1 could work at a time. Move the mouse and disconnect from BBS..LOL Fixed that by changing modem to IRQ of Com4, since I wasnt using Com 2. Btw... Got a laugh at the manual: Quote In order to keep good power filtering and avoid fire explosion, Electrolytic capacitor and Ceramic capacitor are used to replace traditional Tantalum capacitor.They make it sound like a huge fireball will consume the room and blow the windows out as well as killing occupants if Tantalum Caps were used in its design. Gotta love broken english! And the company logo was creative with the smiley as attached. Reminds me of the happy gummy star guy i gave my daughter when she was teething 7 years ago..LOL [year+ old attachment deleted by admin]Interrupts can be changed by jumper settings on the card. There is a choice of IRQ3 or IRQ5. The base address can also be set by jumpers from 300H to 700H. The default address is 700H. I got the card working with IRQ3 and 700H in my old 486DX PC but I need to use it in the backplane with the SBC. I've attached a photo of the interface card - it's a full length ISA card. Adressing of all the backplane slots (ISA and PCI) can be changed in the BIOS. The options are "Available" or "Reserved" I have tried both options with the problem card set at IRQ3, but the computer hangs in both cases. I then have to remove the card and reboot to get back into BIOS. I thought that reserving IRQ3 in BIOS could have solved the problem but it didn't. The user manual for the SBC is here: http://71.131.159.28/IPC_Manual/SBC/ROBO-8779/ROBO-8779_R10a.pdf [year+ old attachment deleted by admin]Hello I think it is an ISA bus timing (ie clock speed) from that new sbc. You could check the clock speed on A1 on the ISA bus connector it should be 8mhz or lower. That winbond chip on the new SBC will have an ISA clock of 10mhz which will be to high for your card. There is no bios setting on that sbc to set the ISA bus speed sorry. Lisa_maree >I think it is an ISA bus timing (ie clock speed) from that new sbc. You could check the clock speed on A1 on the ISA bus connector it >should be 8mhz or lower. That winbond chip on the new SBC will have an ISA clock of 10mhz which will be to high for your card. There is >no bios setting on that sbc to set the ISA bus speed sorry. Thanks Lisa_maree, I will try to check the clock speed but how do I do this with no settings to select in BIOS? I have a 20Mhz oscilloscope handy so I suppose I could measure the frequency directly on the pins of one of the slots, if I can identify the right pin. What I do not understand is that other legacy cards of about the same age work perfectly well with the backplane once the right IRQ setting has been set. And it cannot be the problem card itself because this same card works fine in my other old 486DX machine. Nevertheless, I'll try it today and let everyone know. Steve Hi The clock SIGNAL is on the A1 pin of the ISA slot. There isn't any setting in that cards bios for ISA bus speed so if the card doesn't work because of bus speed you will need a different CPU card. Lisa_maree But see my earlier post... why should my other old ISA cards, that presumably are clocked at a maximum of 8MHz, work perfectly well with this faster CPU card and the same Winbond chip that you say is clocking at 10MHz? I find that very strange. I have an older SBC that I can use but I will have to buy some memory for it. I will let you know the status in a few days. Thanks for your help. Steve Try another older card in the SBC board that's acting up...OP said: I chose this setup because I have several legacy ISA and PCI cards that I want to use. The particular card that is giving me the problem is used to operate a spectrograph (Oriel MS125 with InstaSpec IV) under proprietary DOS software. When I installed the card, using default jumper settings (300H) and other defaults, the PC hung. I couldn't even get into BIOS ! Remember these ISA cards were designed before this new SBC card was. I've seen this issue many times. Try this setting in BIOS: Memory Hole In order to improve performance, certain space in memory is reserved for ISA cards. This memory must be mapped into the memory space below 16MB. The choice: Disabled, 15MB-16MB. |
|