Agilent 1680 Series Logic Analyzer System Software Restoration - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: gslick
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 26, 2017, 12:14:57 am
content: I recently acquired an Agilent 1680AD logic analyzer with a corrupted hard drive which bugchecked trying to load a driver during the Windows 2000 boot process. Rather than try to see if the problem in that hard drive image could be corrected I wanted to reload a Windows XP version of the system software from scratch on blank hard drive.As far as I can tell there were 4 or 5 motherboard versions used in the 1680 series during their lifetime:Tyan motherboard with AMD Duron processor, Windows 2000Radisys SC815E motherboard with Celeron processor, Windows 2000Radisys SC815E motherboard with 1GHz Pentium III processor, Windows XPMotorola VP22 motherboard with 1GHz Pentium III processor, Windows XPADLINK M-815G motherboard with 1GHz Pentium III processor, Windows XPThe 1680AD I acquired was a Windows 2000 unit although it had a Radisys SC815E motherboard with a 1GHz Pentium III processor. There was an Agilent repair sticker on the unit so I'm not sure if that was the original motherboard or if it had been replaced with a newer motherboard.I had some success in restoring my 1680AD to a working condition. Here are some of my notes for others that might also need to do this:For the Windows XP units there were sets of 2 or 3 CDs available for system software restoration. The installation scripts in the CD recovery sets are keyed to identification signatures in the different motherboard BIOS versions. They will normally refuse to install if the motherboard BIOS does not have the expected signature.It is possible to bypass the standard installation scripts if the system is booted from an MS-DOS floppy disk with CD drivers installed instead of booting from the CD.Then instead of the script automatically executing "f:\recovery\recovery.exe f:\recovery\ag169xx.xml" (where f: is the drive letter assigned to the CD drive, the ghost.exe ghswitch.txt file assumes the CD is drive f:) manually execute "f:\recovery\recovery.exe a:\ag169xx.xml" where a:\ag169xx.xml is a copy on the floppy disk of the f:\recovery\ag169xx.xml file from the CD which has had the <FrameDescription> section edited to match the BIOS signature of the motherboard in use.I was able to use this method to install the 01680-14101 and 01680-14104 Motorola VP22 motherboard versions and the 01680-14106 ADLINK M-815G motherboard version on my Radisys SC815E motherboard 1680AD. The different motherboard versions appear to be similar enough that all of the motherboard drivers get installed correctly.The 01680-14100 CD recovery set includes the version 02.00.0002 logic analyzer application in the restored hard drive image. The subsequent CD recovery sets do not include the logic analyzer application which must be installed separately.Version 03.67.1008 of the logic analyzer application requires at least XP SP2. If the 01680-14100 or 01680-14101 recovery sets are used then the system must be upgraded to XP SP2, so it is best to start with either 01680-14104 or 01680-14106 which already have XP SP2 installed.If the system is upgraded to XP SP3 I observed that the version 03.67.1008 analyzer application appears to have some compatibility issues where the analyzer service is never able to complete the initialization of the analyzer hardware. I had the best results starting with the 01680-14106 recovery set and not installing any updates past XP SP2 on my 1680AD with the version 03.67.1008 analyzer application.01680-14100 CD set: Radisys SC815E motherboardVersion: 02.00.0002OS: Windows XP Pro w/SP1aRelease Date: 23 March 2004<FrameDescription><Device VendorID="0x8086" DeviceID="0x244B"/><FrameString Segment="F000" Offset="E588" Value="168x-0"/></FrameDescription>01680-14101 CD set: Motorola VP22 motherboardVersion: 02.50.0000OS: Windows XP Pro w/SP1aRelease Date: 07 June 2004<FrameDescription><Device VendorID="0x8086" DeviceID="0x244B"/><FrameString Segment="F000" Offset="0896" Value="1680"/></FrameDescription>01680-14104 CD set: Motorola VP22 motherboardVersion: 03.00.0000OS: Windows XP Pro w/SP2Release Date: 15 September 2004<FrameDescription><Device VendorID="0x8086" DeviceID="0x244B"/><FrameString Segment="F000" Offset="0896" Value="1680"/></FrameDescription>01680-14106 CD set: ADLINK M-815G motherboardVersion: 03.50.0000OS: Windows XP Pro w/SP2bRelease Date: 15 May 2006<FrameDescription><Device VendorID="0x8086" DeviceID="0x244B"/><FrameString Segment="F000" Offset="0892" Value="1680"/></FrameDescription>Images of these 1680 CD sets used to be available here for download from the Agilent / Keysight website:ftp://ftp.keysight.com/cos/outbound/16xxx%20recovery%20images/Their current policy now is that files are swept away from the FTP site after a week of being made available there. If you need one of these CD image sets you can ask someone from Keysight support to make it available for download. There are also people here in the forum that have copies that might be able to make them available. When I asked Keysight for images of the 01680-14100 CD set I was told that they can no longer locate any inside the company.I have no idea what you might need to do if you have a unit with the Tyan motherboard (the motherboard which has a yellow 15-pin joystick port in the back).Hope this is useful information for someone out there someday.search keywords: 1680A 1681A 1682A 1683A 1680AD 1681AD 1682AD 1683AD

author: simmconn
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 27, 2017, 04:18:27 am
content: 10 years ago we had a 1680A (or AD) at work with the Tyan motherboard. The 1680 is probably an 'integrated' version of the 1690 series. Unlike the 16900 series, there is nothing special in the PC part. Even the 1394 interface card is off-the-shelf.Since it had become so slow, after a phone call with Agilent support, we decided to take the issue on our own hands. We bought a P4 motherboard that had the same form factor and modified the ATX bezel a little bit in order to fit the chassis. We loaded Windows XP on it and it was much faster than before.

author: gslick
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 27, 2017, 06:44:27 pm
content: Yes, the 1680 series is a standalone integrated version of the 1690 series. The part numbers for the acquisition boards are the same for both in the service manual.The 1680 series front panel must also be controlled through the acquisition board as there are no connections between it and the motherboard other than the 1394 cable and then the backplane between the acquisition board and the front panel. Sometime when I'm curious enough I'll try swapping acquisition boards between a 1680 and a 1690 and see how the system identifies them. Maybe there are firmware differences between the two.One advantage of the 1690 series is that you can just any fast standard Windows 7 PC with a 1394 card. You can run version 5.90 of the logic analyzer application instead of 3.67 and use a large display and end up with a much quicker and nicer system to use.I thought about trying to use a different motherboard with maybe a 1.4 GHz PIII in the 1680 except I wasn't sure what it might take to get a standard I/O shield panel to fit. Motherboards newer than PIII boards have different & additional power supply connectors. Maybe that could be solved with some connector adapter cables. Not interested enough to try anything along those lines.The 1680 can be remotely controlled through a network connection by a fast PC and that's probably the best solution if you don't need something completely self contained and portable. It's really somewhat academic though unless you already have a 1680 series or get a great deal on one. For the price people seem to think they are worth on eBay there are better options.

author: t0rxe
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: December 21, 2017, 05:04:57 pm
content: Hi. I've got a 1683A, and I'm curious to know why can't Windows XP (SP3) be installed on the Tyan based motherboard with the AMD Duron processor? Is it that the machine becomes too slow to acquire data from the frame board or something?? Reason I'm asking is that Version 03.67.1010 under Windows 2000 doesn't support native SPI decoding. You have to buy a license for it, and getting the license is pretty tricky nowadays since it's so old.Also, as another idea, what's stopping me from actually just unplugging the firewire cable from the frame in my 1683A and running one to a firewire port in my Windows 7 PC running the latest Keysight software???

author: alm
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 23, 2017, 10:30:32 am
content: If the acquisition boards are the same between the 1680 and 1690 series, then I would expect connecting the IEEE-1394 port directly to a Windows 7 PC to just work. The 1690 is nothing more than an acquisition board and a power supply.

author: t0rxe
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: December 23, 2017, 12:56:12 pm
content: Yeah, that's all it looks like. There is the frame with the firewire ports, and then the backplane which is for controlling the buttons and dials on the front plus power to the board. So in theory, I could just run a long firewire cable out the back and plug it into my Windows 7 machine. I'll have to try that and see if it works

author: Tony_G
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 23, 2017, 03:39:41 pm
content: Quote from: t0rxe on December 23, 2017, 12:56:12 pmPlease keep us updated with how that goes.TonyG

author: gslick
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 26, 2017, 01:11:42 am
content: I tried that experiment two months ago when I was working on getting my 1680 running again. I unplugged the 1394 cable that is internal to the 1680 and connected an external 1394 cable to a controller in a Windows 7 PC. That worked fine and I was able to use the version 5.90.1104 analyzer software on the Windows 7 PC to control the 1680 analyzer board. One note that has been mentioned in a few places is that on Windows 7 you need to change the 1394 host controller driver from the standard Windows 7 driver to the legacy driver, otherwise the 1680/1690 analyzer will not be detected correctly.Another experiment I recently tried was swapping the analyzer boards both directions between a 1680 and a 1690. That worked fine. The 1680 with a 1690 board installed still reported itself as a 1680 in the analyzer application and the front panel controls all worked, and the 1690 with a 1680 board installed still reported itself as a 1690.Another thing I noted with some of the recent discussions of upgrading analyzer module memory depth by changing module ID resistors, unfortunately that is not possible with the 1680 / 1690 boards. The 2M sample AD boards are populated with 4x density SRAM parts compared to the 512K sample A boards.(8x) MT58L64L32F-8.5A + (1X) MT58L64L18F-8.5A per 32 channel / 2 clock on the A.(8x) MT58L256L32F-8.5A + (1X) MT58L256L18F-8.5A per 32 channel / 2 clock on the AD.MT58L64L32F: 2Mb, 64K x 32 FLOW-THROUGH SYNCBURST SRAMMT58L64L18F: 1Mb, 64K x 18 FLOW-THROUGH SYNCBURST SRAMMT58L256L32F: 8Mb, 256K x 32 FLOW-THROUGH SYNCBURST SRAMMT58L256L18F: 4Mb, 256K x 18 FLOW-THROUGH SYNCBURST SRAM

author: t0rxe
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: December 26, 2017, 01:30:16 am
content: Thanks 'gslick'! I will do just thatOh, I also have a broken 1683A, and the problem is the frame is dead (yes, I've confirmed this because swapping it with my other working frame solves the issue). Anyway, the issue is, when I power it up, 3/4 of the status LED's come on. The second last LED (Q3) just sits there blinking which is a communications failure to the host over firewire. I've tried reflowing the major components that looked to me like the communications controllers, but yet, no luck. Would you have any suggestions as per what may have caused the board to stop working? It should mention when I got it, it was working perfectly. Then I left it on for about 2 hours, and when I came back to use it, the dials and buttons on the front stopped responding and Windows 2000 failed to detect a frame board.

author: Hamster
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 23, 2021, 06:28:30 pm
content: I really didn't want to necropost this, but my post is pretty much 100% identical to this threadSo i opted not too...Anywho, I just picked up a 1680A that was "cough" dead? .. apparently, they didn't actually test it.. as well, its working 100% fine, its been running a self test for 1.5hrs now and 82 successful tests.It did have an Agilent Service document with it saying the acquisition board was replaced and fully tested.. i am guessing the seller didn't notice it hidden under the cable bag.It appears to be a Tyan motherboard with AMD Duron processor, Windows 2000 ( or maybe the other Radisys SC815E motherboard with Celeron processor, Windows 2000 ) -- does have Windows 2000 for sure. - i have yet to open it, i want to hit 200 Test Loops before saying it is 100% working..So, Question boils back to , has anybody successfully upgrade the motherboard to a modern motherboard and run new OS?The second question is, @GSlick you mentioned you could control this remotely.. is that via the VLC? or using Agilent Control software? if so what version?And does anybody have a copy of the iso images? Sucks Keysight doesn't keep a copy up anymore.

author: Hamster
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 23, 2021, 09:17:19 pm
content: So, I am running the Tyan Motherboard with AMD Duron CPU, 40Gb HDD, and 128MB of Ram, Agilent Technologies 2.50 Analyzer Software, I was able to complete 250 Repetitive Tests without issue. I think im going to image the HDD for backup, and maybe move to Industrial Flash and put the spiny drive away for backup.. I have several 16702B units.. but honestly i like the fact this runs some form of windows .

author: gslick
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 23, 2021, 10:57:21 pm
content: Quote from: Hamster on March 23, 2021, 06:28:30 pmI posted an update about that later on a different thread:https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/hpagilent-ftp-site/msg2651364/#msg2651364Quote

author: gslick
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 23, 2021, 11:16:18 pm
content: Quote from: Hamster on March 23, 2021, 06:28:30 pmOne of the issues with the 1680 series, and also the 16902A and 16903A, is that they use a Chips and Technologies (C&T) 65550 (PCI\VEN_102C&DEV_00E0) video controller for the built-in LCD.If you upgrade the motherboard to something more modern but still run Windows XP on it you should still be fine with the original driver for the 65550 video controller for the built-in LCD. If you upgrade to Windows 7 there might be issues trying to use the original driver for the 65550. As far as I know there are no 64-bit versions of drivers for the 65550 video controller.Some people with a 16902A or 16903A have gone as far as to replace the built-in LCD with one with a more modern LVDS interface, and a motherboard with an onboard LVDS display connector, to get rid of the 65550 video controller. That seems like more hassle that it is worth to me, but some people might enjoy such a project.

author: gslick
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 23, 2021, 11:35:27 pm
content: Quote from: Hamster on March 23, 2021, 06:28:30 pmYou can use the main logic analyzer application running on one system to connect remotely to a logic analyzer over the network. In addition to installing the logic analyzer software on the logic analyzer, you install the same software on the system that will be remotely connecting to the analyzer.They might have to be the exact same versions of the software for this to work. For example I'm pretty sure that if the logic analyzer is running version 3.67 then you cannot connect to it remotely from another system running version 5.90. Versions 05.90.1104 and 05.90.1110 might not even be able to connect to each other. It's been a while since I've tried that. I'm not sure how strict the version check is.To connect to the analyzer from the remote system, start up the main logic analyzer application, which will start in offline mode since there is no local logic analyzer hardware. Then under the File menu you can select Go Online To... and chose the remote logic analyzer system. If it is not automatically discovered, you should be able to manually enter the IP address of the remote logic analyzer.After the logic analyzer application connects to the remote logic analyzer, the application operates exactly the same way as if it were running locally on the logic analyzer. There might be a few things that don't work remotely, for example you might not be able to run the self-tests remotely.The remote logic analyzer does not need to be running the logic analyzer application. It does need to be running the logic analyzer service, which is normally set to start automatically when the logic analyzer boots up.

author: Hamster
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 23, 2021, 11:48:23 pm
content: well, mine has win2K pro on it, i upgraded the ram from 128MB to 512MB and it runs way better, i did try 768 but then it started to act wierd/random windows crashing, i also made a backup image of the 40GB hdd, and copied to a 160gb drive and now running from that.it's running 2.5 of the software, which im pretty sure is the latest version for windows 2000? i am not sure it will run on a newer modern pc.

author: Hamster
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 24, 2021, 12:07:39 am
content: looks like archive.org has migrated the whole ftp site into one tar file, so retrieving now..

author: gslick
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 24, 2021, 12:34:57 am
content: Quote from: Hamster on March 23, 2021, 11:48:23 pmThe Intel 815 chipset used in the Radisys SC815E, Motorola VP22, and ADLINK M-815G motherboards is limited to a maximum of 512MB.I have never had one of these systems with the Tyan motherboard. I don't know what chipset is used in those, and what limitations it might have on the maximum RAM. What is the speed of the Duron processor in your system? I wonder what the maximum speed Duron or Athlon processor is supported by the hardware and BIOS on that motherboard.The README file for version 03.67.1008 says it does support Windows 2000:QuoteIf you have time to try some experiments, you could try restoring the 01680-14106 image which contains XP SP2 on your system and see if that runs OK and with acceptable performance. That image is based on the Intel 815 chipset motherboards. No idea if there might be any combability issues running that image on the Tyan motherboard.

author: Hamster
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 24, 2021, 02:26:52 am
content: Tyan S2390 MotherboardSocket A motherboard with 1 ISA slot, 6 PCI and 1 AGP.VIA 694X/686A (Apollo Pro 133A) chipset basedi think i may have had a bad stick of ram, according the manual , it does support up to 1.5GB of ram.https://www.tyan.com/Motherboards_S2390_Trinity%20KTLooks like the max CPU is a A1400AMS3B ( 1.4Ghz Athlon )I was able to upgrade to v3.67 .. im spinning up a XPSp2 VM and going to see how "remote" works in 3.67..i am not sure the speed, i can't get into the Bios.. must be some magical key combo.. i will see if i can find an old copy of CPUID i can run on it.as for video, its easy to grab a HDMI->LVDS Adapter for the display.. and use a smaller more energy effecent mb.. and then just use an ATX power adapter.. ( im sure the power usage on the duran is way more then a modern cpu )

author: Hamster
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 24, 2021, 03:48:02 am
content: so i setup a XPSp2 VM , installed 3.67, connected to the 1680a over the network, and nice and speedyif i get froggy and find a nice win10 mb that i can fit it the cab, maybe i will upgrade, but this works pretty good. i don't really need the Front panel controls anyways.sucks its not a 1680AD , but i dont need as really on use on arcade motherboards.

author: Hamster
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 24, 2021, 07:23:18 pm
content: Update, its a AMD Duron 800 , Stock Bios from Tyan. Nothing special, Also an Asus Firewire Card.I am attempting to install Windows XP w/SP3 so i can install the 5.90 LA software .Note, If you ran the 3.67 in "Remote" mode, you have zero frontpanel control, so its just a box.. but since the 3.67 software ran really smooth over network connection, i am probably going to leave the Stock MB in the unit, the Tyan seems to actually be a better Motherboard out of the many options.. its also the most "off the shelf" .. i may attempt to update the CPU to an Athlon 1000 if i find one for cheap that doesn't look like it was burned up in a fire.Will post back, the CD rom drive appears to be a 1X .

author: Hamster
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 25, 2021, 01:31:17 am
content: So, was able to Install Windows XP SP3.. Found Video Card Drivers, Did the 5.90 install, wicked slow... but after a reboot i get "Frame not ready ( initializing )" and don't get anywhere..I did find the Windows XP Drivers for the Video Card .. I am thinking maybe the CPU is just toooo slow for 5.90...Im going to try on another Motherboard i have and just put the 1394 card in it.

author: gslick
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 25, 2021, 02:15:02 am
content: Quote from: Hamster on March 25, 2021, 01:31:17 amThe issue might be more with something that changed between Windows XP SP2 and SP3, instead of differences between versions 3.67 and 5.90 of the Agilent software.As I mentioned in my first post in this thread I had similar problems to what you mentioned with version 3.67 of the Agilent software after updating the Windows XP SP2 installation on my 1680AD to XP SP3. I don't remember if I ever bothered trying version 5.90 of the Agilent software on my 1680AD.QuoteWhen the same logic analyzer acquisition board is used in a 1690 series configuration connected through the 1394 interface to a faster PC running Windows 7 the version 5.90 Agilent software does work fine. I picked up a used Dell T3500 W3690 system which has a Windows 7 license in the BIOS to use as a 1394 host for the connection to the logic analyzer. That has worked well. I stuck with Windows 7 for this as I'm not sure if there is native support for 1394 in Windows past Windows 7.

author: Hamster
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 25, 2021, 03:30:38 am
content: 3.67 isn't supported in XP SP 3, only 5.90 , but the video card isn't supported in Win 7.. ( or that i can tell ) .. i may try loading up Win7 and stuff the video card in it and try it.. ( maybe that is why i can't find any video drivers ) ..

author: Hamster
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 25, 2021, 03:39:42 pm
content: Found a good donor board, ASUS m4a7blt-m , running an Athlon 250 cpu and 2gb of ram..I was able to install XP Sp2 , upgraded to Sp3 , but got same issue, it saw the 1680 Frame, but just stuck at "initializing" ( this is different when not using the legacy drivers, non-legacy drivers just don't see the frame )So i went ahead and installed Windows 7 SP 1 w/NO additional updates.. ( its not going to be use for surfing the internet anyways ) .. installed 5.9 and wouldn't see the Frame, Changed Driver to IEEE 1394 (Legacy ) and it was detected and initialized.. Self test works ok , all FP functions work.Things to note, I also am using the Stock Video Card without issue, and since the motherboard doesn't support a Floppy Drive, I had a USB Teac fd-05puw that i just decased , and put the existing bezel on and installed into the LA .I am not going to do the frame firmware update, as i am sure if i do, it wont' let me run the old 3.67 software on it.. as im going to save all the removed parts in case i ever decide to revert it back.

author: Hamster
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 26, 2021, 02:23:18 am
content: Here are some final pictures, unit loads up super fast, and nice to have the latest version loaded on the frame, kind of wish it was a 16x0AD model.. I wonder if you can attach a 1690A to the frame and use two both analyzers at onceanybody have a 1690A they want to get rid of :]I also had 2 bad pod cables, Channel 1 ( #6 ) , and Channel 3 ( #6 ) , luckily had a set off a 1670x frame i could use ( they were the exact same cables ) , i did have a set that set "Hewlett Packard" that looked the same , but did not work?