TITLE: Hardware Trouble Shooting Guide DOCUMENT ID: TID1200451 DOCUMENT REVISION: 2 DATE: 05Apr95 ALERT STATUS: Yellow README FOR: NA NOVELL PRODUCT and VERSION: NETWARE LITE V1.1 ABSTRACT: NA --------------------------------------------------------------------- DISCLAIMER: THE ORIGIN OF THIS INFORMATION MAY BE INTERNAL OR EXTERNAL TO NOVELL. NOVELL MAKES EVERY EFFORT WITHIN ITS MEAN TO VERIFY THIS INFORMATION. HOWEVER, THE INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT IS FOR YOUR INFORMATION ONLY. NOVELL MAKES NO EXPLICIT OR IMPLIED CLAIMS TO THE VALIDITY OF THIS INFORMATION. --------------------------------------------------------------------- ISSUE: HARDWARE TROUBLE SHOOTING GUIDE Quite often, apparent problems with NetWare Lite can be traced to the network hardware or the drivers that have been installed. This document describes how to detect some of these problems. The following is an explanation on how to determine whether your network connections are solid. If you are already familiar with this procedure, skip to the next section. HOW TO RUN "VERIFY NETWORK CONNECTIONS" 1. Insert the original installation diskette (PROGRAM diskette) into the disk drive of one of your machines. 2. Type INSTALL. 3. Select "Verify network connections." 4. Type in the name for the machine. 5. Check to see if the connection appears on your screen, accompanied by the workstation address. 6. Repeat the procedure for all machines on your network. 7. Each time you bring up a new workstation, that workstation's name and node address should show on the following screens: (a) Its own screen (b) All other screens running "Verify network connections" 8. Remember, "Verify network connections" must be running on all machines on the network concurrently. 9. If one or more of the workstations on your network does not show up on every screen, you have a bad connection somewhere. 10. Allow "Verify network connections" to run for about five minutes to verify that the connections remain solid--in other words, check to see if any workstations blink on and off. If they do, then you have an intermittent connection problem. 11. Finally, ensure that none of your connections are using the same node address (especially when you are using ARCnet boards). PROCEDURE FOR "VERIFY NETWORK CONNECTIONS" FAILURES Note: Run Verify Connections between each of these steps to determine if the problem has been solved. 1. The first step is to determine which of the various programs is causing the connection problem. Reboot the machine without loading the network. Type out or print the STARTNET.BAT file to find out what your board driver's name is and replace the NE2000 driver in the example below with your board's driver. Then load the drivers in the following order to determine if each driver loads or if it gives an error message. (Do not forget to replace the NE2000 driver with your board driver.) LSL NE2000 IPXODI A SHARE SERVER CLIENT 2. If any beeps occur when running these programs, you know you have a problem. If any error message occurs, write down the exact message. 3. If you are using a DOS ODI driver, contact the board manufacturer to verify that it is up-to-date. 4. Next, type out the NET.CFG file that is located in the \NWLITE directory to ensure that the interrupt line (IRQ), PORT (I/O), and MEM (Memory Address) entries are the same as the ones that are physically selected on the network board. If they are not, change the settings on your board or the entries in the NET.CFG so that they match. 5. To edit the NET.CFG file, do the following: From the \NWLITE directory, use an ASCII editor (DR DOS 6.0's EDITOR for example) to bring up the NET.CFG file. If the file does not exist, then create one according to the following instructions. This example is based on interrupt line 3 and BASE I/O Address 300 settings: #Setup the NE2000 board LINK DRIVER NE2000 INT 3 MEM D0000 (NOTE: NE2000 does not use this line.) PORT 300 Notes: (a) INT, MEM, and PORT need to be exactly one TAB away from the left margin. (b) Not all boards use shared memory, so your NET.CFG may not contain a MEM setting. (c) Any line starting with a # sign is a comment line. 6. Try changing interrupt line (IRQ), PORT (I/O), and/or MEM (Memory Address) settings on the network board to ensure that there are no other hardware conflicts. Then reinstall NetWare Lite or edit the NET.CFG file so that NetWare Lite recognizes the new board settings. The NetWare Lite v1.1, the README.TXT document in Section 2: INSTALLING NetWare LITE AND LOGGING IN, and document 1200452 from Novell's FaxBack Service or TID1200452 from the NSE Pro or Compuserve contain more information on resolving I/O and IRQ conflicts. 7. Strip down the AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files. Afterwards your files should look similar to the following examples: AUTOEXEC.BAT CONFIG.SYS ------------- ---------------- @ECHO OFF FILES=30 PROMPT $p$g BUFFERS=30 C:\DOS;C:\NWLITE LASTDRIVE=M 8. If this solves the problem, add your original command lines back into the AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files one at a time starting with the CONFIG.SYS file, rebooting the machine, and running verify connections between each one until you find the command line causing the problem. 9. If your network board uses a Shared Memory Address (MEM), use a memory manager (such as DR DOS 6.0's EMM386.SYS) to exclude the range of memory that the board uses. This will prevent another program from using that memory address (Please refer to document 1200382 from Novell's FaxBack Service or TID1200382 from the NSE Pro or Compuserve for information about DR DOS 6.0 and MS-DOS 5.0 memory managers). 10. Remove any possible conflicting boards (such as modem, mouse, bus boards). Afterwards, your machine should only contain the network board, a drive controller board, and a video board. If the problem goes away, put the boards back in one at a time to see which board was causing the problem. 11. Try putting the network board in a different slot on the motherboard. 12. Check or change cables, T-connectors, and terminators. Remove anything that might be causing interference on the network cable (such as speakers or florescent lights). If you are using an ARCnet topology, check for a bad hub or a bad port on the hub. If you are using a Twisted-Pair topology, check for a bad concentrator or a bad port on your concentrator. 13. Try slowing down the bus speed on your machines. The bus speed should never be faster than 8 MHz. Note: Realize that bus speed and clock speed is not the same thing. Your bus speed can usually be slowed down through the CMOS setup. In some instances, however, the only way to slow down the bus speed is to slow down the clock speed (if your machine has a turbo switch, turn the turbo off). Refer to your user's manual for more details. 14. Try a different network board. The recommended network boards are listed on the back of the NetWare Lite box and the approved ODI driver for each recommended board is included on the NetWare Lite Driver diskette. 15. Scan for viruses. You can obtain software to perform this scan by calling the McAfee BBS at 408-988-4004 or dial 408-988-3832 for voice. You may also contact your local dealer for virus protection software. 16. Try using a different PC to reveal any possible conflicts between your machine and the network board. 17. Run CHKDSK /F or a third-party disk utility on each hard drive to recover any lost clusters and to fix any other problems. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Any trademarks referenced in this document are the property of their respective owners. Consult your product manuals for complete trademark information. ---------------------------------------------------------------------