OS2 World.Com Forum

Subject  :  Warp crashing need help!
Author  :  Jim jim_milano@yahoo.com
Date  :  24 Aug, 2004 on 21:43
I'll preface this by saying I'm not really an OS/2 guy. I'm having a problem with 2 IBM e-server xSeries 200's (Type 8478 ) running Warp 4.0. Systems crash and reboot very often.
Seems to be network related. Today I tried to map a drive from one box to the other. First try, crashed when requester service started. Second and subsequent tries, mapped successfully, but crashed after copying several files. I've also had problems working in MPT program(where you configure nic card and protocols) After making changes, system will frequently crash while exiting the utility. I've also had system crash by simply plugging in the RJ45 in to the nic. I'm running TCP/IP, Netbui, and 802.? (Can't remember exact name, bit I believe this is to connect to AS400). Running 3COM 3c905 nic which I flashed to run 100MB Full Duplex. Are there any logs I might look at to try and resolve? Any suggestions would be helpful. Running a 911 center off of these boxes.

Subject  :  Re:Warp crashing need help!
Author  :  dljone9 dljone9@os2world.com
Date  :  25 Aug, 2004 on 02:14
This sounds a bit unusual to me - but to start off, let's get some facts
here if we can.

Are you running Warp 4 client? What fixpack level and tcp/ip version (you
can get this info by typing ver /r and inetver at the comman prompt)??.

Also - did these boxes previously work fine, then suddenly quit? If so, what was changed on the boxes to make this happen??

If you have the original install CD, and you are at the base level of tcp/ip,
then perhaps simply re-installing the networking subsytem will suffice.
Then bring it up to a more recent level w/ tcp/ip and MPTS fixes. This
is fairly simple to do - you will need some basic info about the systems
(like IP address/DHCP/Router/Subnet info) and a current/useabe driver
for your network card. We can give you more detailed info on how to do
the networking reinstall if need be...


Subject  :  Re:Warp crashing need help!
Author  :  Kim
Date  :  25 Aug, 2004 on 13:22
Why not run:

syslevel >system.txt

from command line so we get the entire info about what is installed on the system. Guess that this would help out as well.


Subject  :  Re:Warp crashing need help!
Author  :  Jim jim_milano@yahoo.com
Date  :  25 Aug, 2004 on 16:56
This may be a duplicate reply. Thanks for your responses. These PC's are at a remote location across town, so I can't answer your questions immediately. Here's some more info:
PC's are in a class B subnet with about 100 other devices.
I have entered a gateway address under "Routes" in OS/2.
Things were fairly stable until we switched from Token ring to Ethernet in Jan. of 2000. Has been going downhill ever since.
PC's are plugged directly into a Cisco 100Mb switch, which is connected to a highly subnetted network. (Over 30 subnets and 1000's of devices).
IP 10.2.4.21 + 22 (2 PC's)
Gateway 10.2.1.1
Mask 255.255.0.0
I'm heading over there this morning to try some of the tuning tips I found at:
http://www.os2world.com/os2files/os2/tuning/network.html

Particularly Tip 1.1 Entering the mac address and Tip 2.3 Route table. Is it possible that this machine is trying to build a routing table for the entire network? I'll reply later when I have versions etc..


Subject  :  Re:Warp crashing need help!
Author  :  dljone9 dljone9@os2world.com
Date  :  25 Aug, 2004 on 19:43
Based on what I am reading here, I would think that re-installing
the network components would at least refresh the key control
files for networking services. Perhaps there are still Token Ring
references in the protocol.ini or elsewhere - and doing a fresh
re-install may be all you need....

Also - the router is on a diff. subnet than the PC's??


Jim (25 Aug, 2004 16:56):
This may be a duplicate reply. Thanks for your responses. These PC's are at a remote location across town, so I can't answer your questions immediately. Here's some more info:
PC's are in a class B subnet with about 100 other devices.
I have entered a gateway address under "Routes" in OS/2.
Things were fairly stable until we switched from Token ring to Ethernet in Jan. of 2000. Has been going downhill ever since.
PC's are plugged directly into a Cisco 100Mb switch, which is connected to a highly subnetted network. (Over 30 subnets and 1000's of devices).
IP 10.2.4.21 + 22 (2 PC's)
Gateway 10.2.1.1
Mask 255.255.0.0
I'm heading over there this morning to try some of the tuning tips I found at:
http://www.os2world.com/os2files/os2/tuning/network.html

Particularly Tip 1.1 Entering the mac address and Tip 2.3 Route table. Is it possible that this machine is trying to build a routing table for the entire network? I'll reply later when I have versions etc..



Subject  :  Re:Warp crashing need help!
Author  :  Jim jim_milano@yahoo.com
Date  :  25 Aug, 2004 on 20:53
I went over and tried some of the tuning tips with no success. I added the mac address to nic and netbios configs in MPTS. I created a B4TCP.cmd file, and added line to reduce keepalive to 60. I modified T1, T2, and netbiosretries in protocol.ini (all per instructions from previous link) with no success. I'm using the file copy through a mapped drive as the test as this seems to cause a crash every time. I've run some of the commands you asked for previously.
ver /r 4.0 Rev 9.035
inetver Sockets.sys 6.1002
AFOS2.sys 6.1000
AFINET.sys 6.1001
I've also run syslevel, and have that txt file as well as my protocol.ini and config.sys files. I'll email them if your willing to have a look.
P.S. Router is on same network. Address is class B so PC sees all 10.2.0.0 devices without router (subnet 255.255.0.0)
Thanks again

Subject  :  Re:Warp crashing need help!
Author  :  RobertM
Date  :  25 Aug, 2004 on 20:59
Jim, you may just be using the wrong release of the 3COM Driver. I had the exact same problem with the exact same chipset in an IBM Intellistation (as well as with an Adaptec controller in a duplicate machine). Remove all traces of the driver and try newer ones provided by IBM or 3COM. One such IBM one didnt work for me either, but the rest did. I no longer have the server set up or I'd tell you which worked and send the drivers to you... sorry.

HTH
-Rob


Subject  :  Re:Warp crashing need help!
Author  :  dljone9 dljone9@os2world.com
Date  :  25 Aug, 2004 on 23:24
If you want to make sure you have a good driver for your 3Com
Ethernet card, look here:

http://www.os2warp.be/index2.php?name=nicpak


Subject  :  Re:Warp crashing need help!
Author  :  abwillis abwillis@comcast.net
Date  :  26 Aug, 2004 on 02:20
Is it possible that when you switched from token ring to ethernet that the ethernet is using the same irq as something else on the box?
Andy

Subject  :  Re:Warp crashing need help!
Author  :  BigWarpGuy
Date  :  26 Aug, 2004 on 16:26
Would using the pci sniffer program from Hobbes show the conflict of irq's?

---
BigWarpGuy
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
OS/2 Warp-ed/eComStation-ed to the very end.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Subject  :  Re:Warp crashing need help!
Author  :  Jim jim_milano@yahoo.com
Date  :  26 Aug, 2004 on 17:49

dljone9 (25 Aug, 2004 23:24):
If you want to make sure you have a good driver for your 3Com
Ethernet card, look here:

http://www.os2warp.be/index2.php?name=nicpak[/quote]

Thanks for the link. I'm currently using an older 3Com driver than the one listed. I'll try to update that today.


Subject  :  Re:Warp crashing need help!
Author  :  Jim jim_milano@yahoo.com
Date  :  26 Aug, 2004 on 18:11
Something else that came up yesterday that may be important.
I ran the OS2SNIFF.EXE program to see what info OS2 had about my NIC. It came back with the following:

NCD defined constant - Card Type 8019
IRQ Level 10
Bus Type PCI Bus/Card
LS Supported Yes
Card Title 3Com Etherlink XL Ethernet Card
NIF File EL59XIO2.NIF
Adapter Type Ethernet

I'm using a 3C905C Nic card with the EL90XIO2.NIF file. MPTS identifies it as "3Com Fast EtherLink/EtherLink XL Family OS/2" I removed the protocols and NIC using MPTS, reinstalled the NIC driver from floppy, and reinstalled the NIC and protocols. OS2sniff came back with the same thing. I finally ended up replacing the EL59X driver and NIF with the EL90X versions on the chance that OS2 was loading the wrong driver, but no improvement in performance.


Subject  :  Re:Warp crashing need help!
Author  :  dljone9 dljone9@os2world.com
Date  :  26 Aug, 2004 on 18:20
OK, let's see here - can you see if the network card shares this
IRQ with another device, as mentioned above?? "rmview /irq"
will tell you what IRQ's the other devices are using.

Also - is this the onboad NIC you are using? I thought this IBM
server shipped with an Intel based onboard NIC - which I have
seen much better results with (than the 3Com cards). I would
suspect others may disagree, that is simply my opinion.



Jim (26 Aug, 2004 18:11):
Something else that came up yesterday that may be important.
I ran the OS2SNIFF.EXE program to see what info OS2 had about my NIC. It came back with the following:

NCD defined constant - Card Type 8019
IRQ Level 10
Bus Type PCI Bus/Card
LS Supported Yes
Card Title 3Com Etherlink XL Ethernet Card
NIF File EL59XIO2.NIF
Adapter Type Ethernet

I'm using a 3C905C Nic card with the EL90XIO2.NIF file. MPTS identifies it as "3Com Fast EtherLink/EtherLink XL Family OS/2" I removed the protocols and NIC using MPTS, reinstalled the NIC driver from floppy, and reinstalled the NIC and protocols. OS2sniff came back with the same thing. I finally ended up replacing the EL59X driver and NIF with the EL90X versions on the chance that OS2 was loading the wrong driver, but no improvement in performance.



Subject  :  Re:Warp crashing need help!
Author  :  Jim jim_milano@yahoo.com
Date  :  26 Aug, 2004 on 20:31
These machines were initially configured by our software vendor who installed the 3com cards. There are Intel nic's on the motherboard, but they have been disabled in the bios. I'm not sure why. I tried to configure the Intel nic's about a year ago, but I was getting all sorts of errors on start up most likely due to all of the refrences to 3com in the config.sys as well as startup.cmd file. Seemed like too much work at the time to try and resolve. I'm going to try upgrading the 3com driver today, and I'll check for IRQ conflicts as well. Thanks for the tip. Plug and Play has made me lazy.

Subject  :  Re:Warp crashing need help!
Author  :  Jim jim_milano@yahoo.com
Date  :  27 Aug, 2004 on 03:03
May have had some success today! I tried loading the updated 3Com driver, but it gave me nothing but grief. Constant crashing, even opening and closing MPTS. I ran the "rmview /irq" command, but IRQ 10 didn't even show up. I ran the command with a different switch (tree view I believe) and it appeared that IRQ 10 was shared. I finally decided to tuff it out and switch to the Intel nic on the motherboard. I pulled the 3Com just in case it was a IRQ conflict. I was able to resolve the errors I had had when I tried this previously by moving the driver load higher up in the config.sys (MPTS puts it at the end). I was able to map a drive and copy files from the other OS2 box without a hitch! It even seems to boot faster. I've started all of our applications, and we'll watch it for a couple of days to see how it holds up. If this works. I'll go live with this one, and change out the nic on the other box.
Thanks for everyone's help, I'll keep you posted on any new developements.


dljone9 (26 Aug, 2004 18:20):
OK, let's see here - can you see if the network card shares this
IRQ with another device, as mentioned above?? "rmview /irq"
will tell you what IRQ's the other devices are using.

Also - is this the onboad NIC you are using? I thought this IBM
server shipped with an Intel based onboard NIC - which I have
seen much better results with (than the 3Com cards). I would
suspect others may disagree, that is simply my opinion.



Jim (26 Aug, 2004 18:11):
Something else that came up yesterday that may be important.
I ran the OS2SNIFF.EXE program to see what info OS2 had about my NIC. It came back with the following:

NCD defined constant - Card Type 8019
IRQ Level 10
Bus Type PCI Bus/Card
LS Supported Yes
Card Title 3Com Etherlink XL Ethernet Card
NIF File EL59XIO2.NIF
Adapter Type Ethernet

I'm using a 3C905C Nic card with the EL90XIO2.NIF file. MPTS identifies it as "3Com Fast EtherLink/EtherLink XL Family OS/2" I removed the protocols and NIC using MPTS, reinstalled the NIC driver from floppy, and reinstalled the NIC and protocols. OS2sniff came back with the same thing. I finally ended up replacing the EL59X driver and NIF with the EL90X versions on the chance that OS2 was loading the wrong driver, but no improvement in performance.




Subject  :  Re:Warp crashing need help!
Author  :  dljone9 dljone9@os2world.com
Date  :  27 Aug, 2004 on 03:09
Please do report back - trust me, once you see OS/2 in all it's glory...you
will be deeply impressed.

The network cards never show up in RMVIEW /IRQ - I was just hoping to
see if there was contention...as the other poster suggested there may be.

Those Intel NIC's - I swear by 'em. Won't use anything else. I know some
folks are happy with 3Com, and the last one I tried worked better than they
used to. But the Intel is a great performer at a great price, with world-class
OS/2 driver support.


Jim (27 Aug, 2004 03:03):
May have had some success today! I tried loading the updated 3Com driver, but it gave me nothing but grief. Constant crashing, even opening and closing MPTS. I ran the "rmview /irq" command, but IRQ 10 didn't even show up. I ran the command with a different switch (tree view I believe) and it appeared that IRQ 10 was shared. I finally decided to tuff it out and switch to the Intel nic on the motherboard. I pulled the 3Com just in case it was a IRQ conflict. I was able to resolve the errors I had had when I tried this previously by moving the driver load higher up in the config.sys (MPTS puts it at the end). I was able to map a drive and copy files from the other OS2 box without a hitch! It even seems to boot faster. I've started all of our applications, and we'll watch it for a couple of days to see how it holds up. If this works. I'll go live with this one, and change out the nic on the other box.
Thanks for everyone's help, I'll keep you posted on any new developements.


dljone9 (26 Aug, 2004 18:20):
OK, let's see here - can you see if the network card shares this
IRQ with another device, as mentioned above?? "rmview /irq"
will tell you what IRQ's the other devices are using.

Also - is this the onboad NIC you are using? I thought this IBM
server shipped with an Intel based onboard NIC - which I have
seen much better results with (than the 3Com cards). I would
suspect others may disagree, that is simply my opinion.



Jim (26 Aug, 2004 18:11):
Something else that came up yesterday that may be important.
I ran the OS2SNIFF.EXE program to see what info OS2 had about my NIC. It came back with the following:

NCD defined constant - Card Type 8019
IRQ Level 10
Bus Type PCI Bus/Card
LS Supported Yes
Card Title 3Com Etherlink XL Ethernet Card
NIF File EL59XIO2.NIF
Adapter Type Ethernet

I'm using a 3C905C Nic card with the EL90XIO2.NIF file. MPTS identifies it as "3Com Fast EtherLink/EtherLink XL Family OS/2" I removed the protocols and NIC using MPTS, reinstalled the NIC driver from floppy, and reinstalled the NIC and protocols. OS2sniff came back with the same thing. I finally ended up replacing the EL59X driver and NIF with the EL90X versions on the chance that OS2 was loading the wrong driver, but no improvement in performance.





Subject  :  Re:Warp crashing need help!
Author  :  Fahrvenugen
Date  :  01 Sep, 2004 on 08:31
Reading this thread, one area which I have not seen mentioned is that the problem may be related to the TCP/IP stack files Sockets.sys, AFOS2.SYS, and AFINET.SYS. When I was running these on the older 6.100x versions of the files I'd have random lockups and such.

On Hobbes there is a NEWSTACK.ZIP package. It brings the stack up to the following levels:

inetver:
Version numbers of TCP/IP protocol drivers:
SOCKETS.SYS: 6.3100
AFOS2.SYS: 6.3100
AFINET.SYS: 6.3100

You can find the update here:

http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-search?key=newstack&pushbutton=Search

I can't guarantee it will help, but since I installed it the random lockups I used to receive when there was network traffic has been eliminated.


Subject  :  Re:Warp crashing need help!
Author  :  Jim jim_milano@yahoo.com
Date  :  25 Sep, 2004 on 12:25
I just wanted to follow up with you folks. I finally tracked the problem down. It turns out that I have a motherboard with defective capacitors. It seems that there are quite a few of these out there. This site outlines the problem pretty well, and it isn't limited to IBM hardware. My software vendor put me on to this.
http://www.stalphonsos.com/~chad/exploding_caps.html
Unfortunately, my warranty on these boxes expired in April of this year. Thanks for everyones help on this.

Subject  :  Re:Warp crashing need help!
Author  :  dljone9 dljone9@os2world.com
Date  :  25 Sep, 2004 on 14:41

Jim (25 Sep, 2004 12:25):
I just wanted to follow up with you folks. I finally tracked the problem down. It turns out that I have a motherboard with defective capacitors. It seems that there are quite a few of these out there. This site outlines the problem pretty well, and it isn't limited to IBM hardware. My software vendor put me on to this.
http://www.stalphonsos.com/~chad/exploding_caps.html
Unfortunately, my warranty on these boxes expired in April of this year. Thanks for everyones help on this.


Thanks for posting this - I too saw *lots* of IBM server maniboards fail, for a very similar reason, while working for them. I do hope for your sake something can be done, maybe new mainboards can be aquired somehow...


Subject  :  Re:Warp crashing need help!
Author  :  Kim
Date  :  25 Sep, 2004 on 20:51
Well, had the same with the ABit BP6 board that we earlier ran the OS2 World server on. Problem is that one tend to spend a great deal of time before one looks closer to the capacitors... check following thread.


Subject  :  Re:Warp crashing need help!
Author  :  Jim jim_milano@yahoo.com
Date  :  25 Sep, 2004 on 23:04
Here's a thread I found with hundreds of posts about this problem.
http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2003Feb/bch20030207018535.htm
One poster said IBM came out and replaced the board on a system that was 4 years out of warranty! I ended up picking up some caps at Radio Shack, and replaced them myself. Maybe I should have called IBM first. My warranty expired in April.

Subject  :  Re:Warp crashing need help!
Author  :  dljone9 dljone9@os2world.com
Date  :  26 Sep, 2004 on 01:40
To be sure - in all fairness, I should have said "...an IBM branded MB,
manufactured by Dell...", as I believe Dell has been making the IBM
MB's for several years now. Even the BIOS programming that IBM used
to do (and may still do, for older models of CP's/servers) is being done
by Phoenix Technologies (like on the IBM ThinkCentre business PC's)

Subject  :  Re:Warp crashing need help!
Author  :  Fahrvenugen
Date  :  28 Sep, 2004 on 01:23

Jim (25 Sep, 2004 12:25):
I just wanted to follow up with you folks. I finally tracked the problem down. It turns out that I have a motherboard with defective capacitors. It seems that there are quite a few of these out there. This site outlines the problem pretty well, and it isn't limited to IBM hardware. My software vendor put me on to this.
http://www.stalphonsos.com/~chad/exploding_caps.html
Unfortunately, my warranty on these boxes expired in April of this year. Thanks for everyones help on this.

Thanks for pointing this out. I have an Elitegroup mainboard which had been crashing with random lockups and such. Its been sitting in the closet as I'd given up trying to figure out its problem. I just checked it - sure enough there are 2 caps which show similar symptoms.

Fahrvenugen


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