TITLE: PNW Hardware Troubleshooting Guide DOCUMENT ID: TID1200860 DOCUMENT REVISION: 0 DATE: 16JUN95 ALERT STATUS: Yellow README FOR: NA NOVELL PRODUCT and VERSION: PERSONAL NETWARE V1.0 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: PNW HARDWARE TROUBLE SHOOTING GUIDE Quite often, apparent problems with Personal NetWare 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. TESTING SERVER AND CLIENT CONNECTIONS The Personal NetWare diagnostic utility can be used to test connections between two specific computers or test the connections between all computers on the network. To test connections, the user must be logged into the network and network diagnostics enabled. By default, network diagnostics are enabled when you install Personal NetWare. The command VLM=NMR.VLM is added to the NET.CFG. If the network diagnostics is not enabled, refer to page 10-2 in the Personal NetWare User Guide. At the system prompt type PNWDIAGS or NET DIAGS . From the main menu select Test Connections. The Test Connections menu appears listing the following available tests: Point to Point. All Points NOTE: Again, all users must be logged in and the network diagnostics enabled. If one or more of the workstations on your network does not show up in the node listing, you have a bad connection somewhere. Follow the steps outlined in Connection Trouble Shooting section to identify and correct the connection problem. Point to Point test: This is used to test communication between two specific computers on the network by sending 10,000 512-byte packets from one node to another. When the test is completed the number of received packets will be displayed. If 10,000 packets are not received there may be a possible communication problem somewhere. Follow the steps outlined in the Connection Trouble Shooting section to identify and correct the communication / connection problem. All points test: This is used to test communication between all computers on the network by sending 54 512-byte packets to and from each node. When the test is completed the numbers of received and sent packets by each node will be displayed. If each node has not sent and received 100% of the test packets there may be a possible communication problem somewhere. Follow the steps outlined in Connection Trouble Shooting Section to identify and correct the communication / connection problem. COMCHECK: COMCHECK is a diagnostic utility used to troubleshoot possible hardware or NIC card driver problems. This simple utility can be run on each machine and will send bits of information back and forth between the machines, exercising the hardware and seeing if the hardware itself is communicating. This utility is available as COMCHK.EXE on the Desktop BBS (801-221-5197), CompuServe NOVLIB 10, WEB Site WWW.NOVELL.COM, and FTP server FTP.NOVELL.COM pub\netwire\novlib\10). CONNECTION TROUBLE SHOOTING 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 \NWCLIENT 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 \NWCLIENT directory, use an ASCII editor (Novell DOS 7.0's EDIT 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 5 and BASE I/O Address 340 settings: LINK DRIVER NE2000 INT 5 PORT 300 MEM D0000 (NOTE: NE2000 does not use this line.) 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. 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 edit the NET.CFG file so that Personal NetWare recognizes the new board settings. The Personal NetWare README.TXT 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:\NWCLIENT LASTDRIVE=Z 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 Novell DOS 6.0's EMM386.EXE) to exclude the range of memory that the board uses. This will prevent another program from using that memory address. (Please refer to document 1200851 from Novell's FaxBack Service or TID1200851 from the NSE Pro or Compuserve for information about Novell DOS 7.0 and MS-DOS 6.xx 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------