From: dseeman@novell.com (Daniel Seeman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.novell
Subject: Re: How come these NE3200s do not work?
Keywords: NW v3.11, ATPS, AMI EZ-Flex
Date: 25 Jan 93 18:41:42 GMT
Organization: Novell Inc., San Jose, Califonia

In article <timothy.12.727721410@gab.unt.edu> timothy@gab.unt.edu (Timothy Christian (CAS, x4175)) writes:
>Hello,
>
>        I just brought up an AMI EZ-FLEX 486DX/50 (not DX2) server with
>        two ne3200 cards installed. We run IPX, TCP and EtherTalk on
>        this server, but we ran into some problems, and I am hoping you
>        can help.
>
>        For some reason, when I load ATPS, the ne3200 card decides to
>        stop receiving packets - and believes that it is still
>        broadcasting (though it isn't). This information I learned from
>        monitor.nlm and "track on." After a while, I'll get the "LAN
>        receive buffer limit reached" message which eventually makes the
>        server nose-dive. I don't think it is the ATPS that is causing
>        the problem, though. I have heard *rumors* that some EISA
>        adapters cannot handle multiple protocols, but surely the
>        strongly supported NE3200 is not in this class.
>
>        I have tried several different options including:
>
>                set auto register memory above 16 megabytes = off
>                Increasing the maximum physical packet size to
>                        1530 (which fixes the no ECB avail count)
>                Increasing minimum and maximum packet receive buffers
>                Original ATPS without patches
>                Original ATPS with patches
>                New ATPS (no patches exist beyond this version, that
>                        I know of)
>                NE3200s in enhanced mode
>                NE3200s in interrupts only mode
>
>        I really feel that memory is being corrupted somehow, or I am
>        having some other problem and this is a side-effect. I installed 2 
>	Western Digital Elite/16 ISA cards in the same server and haven't 
>	had this problem.
>
>        Here is the pertinent hardware information:
>
>                AMI 486DX/50 EZ-Flex
>                Novell NetWare v3.11
>                32 MB of RAM
>                DL2000
>                2 NE3200 (Rev H)
>                Adaptec 1742 controller with an HP 2.4 GB disk
>                        (running in enhanced mode)
>
>        Here is the pertinent software information:
>                Novell Netware 386 v3.11, 250 users
>                atps.nlm        73724   3-27-92  13:48
>                ne3200.lan      16041   8-09-91   8:21
>
>        Can you think of anything I am missing?
>
>	If you have a similar configuration running (Motherboard,
>	protocols, software), I would be interested in hearing
>	that this works *some* place.
>
>I really appreciate any help you can provide,

Hi,

A couple of things come to mind:

1.  Be sure to SET MINIMUIM PACKET RECIEVE BUFFERS = 150 in your STARTUP.NCF.

If you are already at 150, try 200 just to be sure the allocation is not the
problem.

2.  Make sure the NE3200's driver version is 3.18 (I see you listed the driver's
date, but I cannot remember what date 3.18 is).  

Earlier NE3200 driver versions (previous to 3.18) had ECB "leakage" problems.

Finally if neither of these yields a solution, please verify where the "leak" is
by using MONITOR.NLM.  In MONITOR.NLM, select RESOURCE UTILIZATION/LSL PACKET
RECIEVE BUFFERS.  In this area, you will see ECB usage statistics for a few
"devices (LAN drivers, protocol stacks, etc.)."  You will know where the leak
is when you look here.  These statistics should all be fairly steady.  If you
should find the ECB usage for any one of these devices is continually increasing
and never goes down, you have found your leak.  Let me know what happens...

Think Peace...

Dan Seeman
Novell
Walnut Creek, Ca.

These are my suggestions, not necessarily Novell's.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.novell