[vortex] 3c905CX-TX-NM

[Donald Becker]

On Fri, 14 Jun 2002, Christian Welzel wrote:

> Am Freitag, 14. Juni 2002 11:20 schrieb Bogdan Costescu:
> > On Fri, 14 Jun 2002, Christian Welzel wrote:
> > > 00:0d.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation: Unknown device ffff (rev
> > > 78)

OOoohhh, bad news.
Either
  - your card isn't plugged into the slot complete.
  - your machine's voltage or timing is bad (e.g. overclocking)
  - your NIC's EEPROM is hosed ("hosed" is a technical term meaning "broken")

Bogdan is guessing the latter.

> > The EEPROM on the card might not be readable. Please fetch vortex-diag from
> >
> > http://www.scyld.com/network/vortex.html
> >
> > and send us the output from "vortex-diag -aev". In case the EEPROM content
> > is all "ffff", you can't really use the card...
>
> a simple "vortex-diag -aev" does not find the card, so i have to
> give the io-address...

Note: You might need to provide the card type with '-t ...'  to correctly
report the chip status, but that shouldn't affect how the EEPROM is read.

Or, as Bogdan suspects, you EEPROM might just be erased.

> root@camlann:gawain# sudo ./vortex-diag -p 0xa000 -eav
> vortex-diag.c:v2.06 4/18/2002 Donald Becker (becker@scyld.com)
...
>  Transceiver/media interfaces available:  100baseT4 100baseTx 100baseFx
> 10baseT 10base2 AUI MII10baseFL.
> Transceiver type in use:  undefined-15.

Errrk, this doesn't look good.  The chip reads this configuration from
the EEPROM itself.

> Saved EEPROM settings of a 3Com Vortex/Boomerang:
>  3Com Node Address FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF (used as a unique ID only).
>  OEM Station address ff:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF (used as the ethernet address).
>   Device ID ffff,  Manufacturer ID ffff.
>   Manufacture date (MM/DD/YYYY) 15/31/2027, division ÿ, product ÿÿ.
>   A BIOS ROM of size 960Kx8 is expected.
>  Options: force full duplex, link beat check disabled.
>   Vortex format checksum is incorrect (0000 vs. ffff).
>   Cyclone format checksum is incorrect (00 vs. 0xff).
>   Hurricane format checksum is incorrect (00 vs. 0xff).
...
> are there any chances to get the cards working?

Yes, but you should try everything else before thinking about
reprogramming the EEPROM yourself.  Even then, consider the using the
excellent 3Com warranty before voiding it..

-- 
Donald Becker				becker@scyld.com
Scyld Computing Corporation		http://www.scyld.com
410 Severn Ave. Suite 210		Second Generation Beowulf Clusters
Annapolis MD 21403			410-990-9993