NOVELL TECHNICAL INFORMATION DOCUMENT TITLE: GENERAL TROUBLESHOOTING DOCUMENT ID: TID014936 DOCUMENT REVISION: A DATE: 09JUN94 ALERT STATUS: Yellow INFORMATION TYPE: Issue README FOR: NA NOVELL PRODUCT and VERSION: PERSONAL NetWare 1.0 ABSTRACT: This document is to aid in troubleshooting simple or common problems you may see with PERSONAL NetWare. ------------------------------------------------------------------ DISCLAIMER THE ORIGIN OF THIS INFORMATION MAY BE INTERNAL OR EXTERNAL TO NOVELL. NOVELL MAKES EVERY EFFORT WITHIN ITS MEANS 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 This document is not all inclusive but is designed to help isolate and eliminate "basic" problems. Carefully read the following list of questions. If it applies to your problem, then follow the corresponding answer. By following the suggestions you may be able to clear up the problem entirely or be able to inform Technical Support personnel what you have tried to help them expedite a solution. Questions may occur in compatibility with software applications or types of hardware and configurations used. Question: My installation of PERSONAL NetWare works fine through Windows but locks at various times if installing from DOS. What could be happening? Answer: You may have an original DOSINST.OVL file that did have occasion to lock up when installing under DOS on some machines. Contact your Technical Support Representative to get the latest update file P10Uxx.EXE, which will contain the newest DOSINST.OVL. Question: I have an existing NetWare Lite system. Can I add workstations with PERSONAL NetWare and have them communicate with each other? Answer: No. You will need to upgrade all NetWare Lite machines to PERSONAL NetWare for them to work together and share each other's resources. Do not mix PERSONAL NetWare with NetWare Lite. Question: After installing PERSONAL NetWare on at least two machines I cannot get them to communicate. Answer: This in one of the more difficult problems to resolve. You may have a defective Network Interface Card (NIC) or another hardware failure. First, make sure the interrupt and port address do not conflict with any other hardware in the machine. If it appears there are no conflicts, try another interrupt anyway. Be sure the NIC is seated in the expansion slot correctly. Also, try a completely different NIC. Check for all proper cabling. You must have the correct cable type depending on the network topology. (Ethernet uses RG58, Arcnet uses RG62 and so forth) Be sure to use T-connectors at each Ethernet connection and 50 ohm terminators at each end. If using Arcnet, be sure to have proper connections to either an active or passive hub with each unused passive hub connection terminated with a 90 ohm terminator. Sometimes the wrong NIC driver file is inadvertently selected in the install process, so ensure the driver is the proper one to use for your NIC. If in doubt as what to use, contact the vendor of the NIC. You may also use a simple utility called COMCHECK that can be run on each machine and will send bits of information back and forth between the machines exercising the hardware and seeing if just the hardware itself is communicating. This is available on CompuServe as COMCHK.EXE or from a Technical Support Representative. Along with the above suggestions you may also need to check the NIC you are using and be sure you are loading the latest available drivers for it. Question: My machines initially communicate fine but suddenly with no apparent explanation I lose the connection to one of them. I then have to reboot and reload the PERSONAL NetWare files and they are fine again but it may recur later and at unpredictable moments. Answer: This may be indicating a possible hardware failure especially if the frequency of the problem increases. Check all hardware first. Next, if you seem to lose connections between two machines but other machines still see them, you may need the latest AUTO.VLM from the update file P10Uxx.EXE. This allows for better auto reconnect should you lose connections. Question: In my workgroup list I sometimes see the name of a workgroup all scrambled and unrecognizable. Answer: Some NICs may not be able to handle the motherboard BUSS speed, and, therefore, they be somewhat incompatible as far as the hardware is concerned and cause corrupt information. If your motherboard BUSS speed is faster than 8 MHZ, try slowing it down (this is done in the machines SETUP). In some cases you cannot change it, but the machine clock cycles, or speed, may be too fast. For example, a speed of 66 MHZ versus a speed of 33 MHZ. Try slowing the machine speed; turbo versus non-turbo, and so forth Sometimes you may have a NIC that has timing conflicts. Some NICs like the NE2000 have a jumper that may help. You can try removing the W16 jumper on an NE2000. Contact individual NIC vendors for an equal solution. Question: I keep getting DEVICE FULL errors. Answer: This may indicate your installation options may have been incorrect. You may be trying to load specific information for other Novell networks, but you may only be using PERSONAL NetWare. In your NWCLIENT subdirectory, you have a text file called NET.CFG. Using any text editor, locate the NetWare DOS Requester section. It contains an indented line called NetWare Protocol. Change it to read "NETWARE PROTOCOL=PNW" (remove BIND and NDS). Question: I cannot get beyond loading the VLMs, the machine just locks up. Answer: Usually this means the NIC options are incorrect (interrupt or port address), or the wrong NIC driver is being used. Check in the NET.CFG to make sure the NIC options are what the actual NIC is set for and the name of the driver file is correct for the NIC you are using. Question: After installing, everything seems to load okay, but I get a message that SERVER is not available. Also other users cannot access this server, but the SERVER.EXE file is loaded on that machine. Answer: In the installation or SETUP of PERSONAL NetWare, it has an option to "share this computer's resources." If this machines is to be a SERVER shared by anyone, this option must be selected. You may need to go back through SETUP and select the check box for this option. Question: I have added more nodes to our existing network and some of the original nodes cannot get a connection or may lose connections. Answer: Be sure all hardware is functioning properly. Also, depending on how many nodes existed previously and how many are added, you may need to increase some of your Server Configuration options. To do this, go into the NET ADMIN utility, and select the server you want to make changes to by highlighting it and pressing enter. Then, select CONFIGURE, followed by the ADVANCED SETTINGS option. To make changes, modify the FUTURE column. Some of the settings that you may want to increase are Client Tasks (generally set it to a minimum of 5 per node or 10 per node for workstations running Windows), and Connections (select the number of nodes you will have on your network plus 2). These changes will not take effect until you reboot the machine and reload the PERSONAL NetWare files. Question: I try sending print jobs from a DOS command and they either never print or the machine locks up. Answer: If you have a NET CAPTURE statement loaded, DO NOT use the DOS "PRINT" command. Other commands, such as COPY, should print a file to the LPT port just fine. Question: I try using commands such as XCOPY to bring files from one machine to another and some files may make it and others may not. Answer: In the NET ADMIN utility, select the server that is having the problem. Then choose Configure, followed by the Loadable Modules option. If the Security module is not selected, do so in the FUTURE column and reboot. Question: My applications seem to run extremely slow when accessed across the network. Answer: First, check for any software caching conflicts with another cache, or you may need to change the caching parameters. Check your documentation for possible settings. Also your PERSONAL NetWare resources may need to be fine tuned. In the NET.CFG file add the following to the NetWare DOS Requester section (the details of these options may be found in the PERSONAL NetWare manual under appendix C): average name length = cache buffers = 0 connections = exclude vlm = NETX.VLM exclude vlm = SECURITY.VLM large internet packets = off local printers = network printers = pb buffers = 0 responder = off signature level = 0 Then, in the NET ADMIN utility, add the following server configuration options in to the advanced settings menu: Connections (2-50): number of stations + 2 Client tasks (4-200): number of stations x 5 Number of IO buffers (0-25): 0 (if NWCache is loaded) Service extensions (0-10):0 Also, load NWCACHE with the option /DELAY=ON. Question: Sometimes access to PERSONAL NetWare is just fine, but other times it is sporadic or certain files can be accessed one time and not another. Answer: This may be remedied by some of the previous suggestions. However, you may have a deeper problem. First, try loading the PERSONAL NetWare files individually to be sure they load without error. This may be done by saying NO to loading the network software on boot-up. Then, go into the NWCLIENT subdirectory ant type out the contents of the STARTNET.BAT file. Finally, load or type each line one at a time from your DOS prompt. If they all load okay, then try not loading any PERSONAL NetWare files at all and see if your machine is running okay strictly under DOS. You may need to run CHKDSK to see if there are any hard drive storage problems. Unfortunately, there may be computer virus related problems also. Run a virus scan utility to see whether your system is infected. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Any trademarks referenced in this document are the property of their respective owners. Consult your product manuals for complete trademark information. ----------------------------------------------------------------