PSeries Driver CD release notes
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UK Patent No: 2345992
US Patent No: 6,397,284
PSeries Driver version 5.07.08 release notes
IMPORTANT CONFIGURATION INFORMATION
PLEASE READ CAREFULLY
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It is recommended that you install these drivers BEFORE installation of the PCMCIA adapter in your PC.
******************* WARNING *******************
In the unlikely event of problems with the installation of the PSeries drivers and hardware, BEFORE you do anything, you should make sure you have backed up any important information on your PC.
The notes below may recommend alterations to the operating system registry or files on your hard disk. You should make sure you have backed up the contents of your hard disk before making any changes.
It is advised that any changes to the registry should be performed by experienced personnel only.
We cannot take any responsibility for loss of data etc., should this occur.
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Contents
========
1 Minimum Hardware Requirements
2 Operating System Support List
3 General Troubleshooting Section
4 Windows 95/98/Me information
5 Windows NT/2000/XP information
6 Uninstalling the PSeries drivers
7 Customer Technical Support
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1 Minimum Hardware Requirements
===============================
Any uni-processor, Intel/AMD Pentium class motherboard with PCI Bus and PCI BIOS version 2.1 or greater.
2 Current Device and Operating System Support List
==================================================
The following operating systems are supported by this version
of the PSeries drivers and hardware:
16 bit PC-Card controllers (CL6729)
-----------------------------------
Windows 95 (retail release) first release of Win 95
Windows 95 with update pack installed (Version A) Windows 95 OSR2 OEM version (Version B & C)
Windows 98 first release
Windows 98+SP1 (Service pack installed)
Windows 98SE (Second Edition)
Windows Me
Windows NT 4.0+SP6
32 bit CardBus controllers (TI & Ene 1211/1410/1420)
----------------------------------------------------
Windows 95 OSR2 OEM version (Version B & C)
Windows 98 first release
Windows 98+SP1 (Service pack installed)
Windows 98SE (Second Edition)
Windows Me
Windows NT 4.0+SP6 (16 bit PC-Cards only)
Windows 2000
Windows XP
Windows Server 2003
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3 General Troubleshooting Section
=================================
3.1 Laptop Computers and the PSeries drivers
============================================
The PSeries drivers are designed to operate with specially designed PCI based PC-Card adapters on add-in boards for desktop PC's.
You should NOT install these drivers on any other
hardware platform, THEY WILL NOT WORK!
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3.2 Dirty Interrupt Service Routines (ISR's)
============================================
The PSeries hardware relies on interrupts that are level sensitive and can be shared. This means that the PC-Card's ISR should be written correctly for this environment. For most efficient operation, the ISR should fully handle the IRQ in processor "Ring 0" (DIRQL), by immediately removing the source of the interrupt. In most cases this is true, and is recommended by Microsoft as the way to handle hardware interrupts. Some poorly written PC-Card
drivers do not handle the interrupt in this way which
is ok for ISA based edge triggered interrupts, but cause problems in the PCI environment.
The PSeries driver contains special detection logic for badly behaved ISR's that ensures the IRQ is handled safely (without crashing the PC), but slowly (at approx 25% of possible performance). If the PC-Card appears to be operating in this way, access to the card will be sluggish and the ISR could receive multiple unexpected interrupts. For improved performance, you should contact your PC-Card vendor for an updated driver that correctly handles the IRQ
according to Microsoft recommendations for
interrupt service routines.
The following cards have been detected with this problem, if you are using one of these cards
you should contact the manufacturer of your card for an updated driver:
* PROXIM RangeLAN2 wireless LAN card.
* WEB Gear Aviator 2.4 wireless LAN card.
* Raytheon Raylink wireless LAN card.
* NoWiresNeeded 11MBPS wireless LAN card.
* Breezecom PRO.11 SA-PCR wireless LAN card.
* All ATA cards in standard Windows NT4(+any Service Pack)
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4 Windows 95/98/Me information
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4.1 PCI IRQ routing in Windows 9x
=================================
For best operation, it is recommended that PCI IRQ routing be enabled. On some motherboards, Windows fails to enable PCI IRQ routing correctly. In this situation, it may be necessary to
force the Windows PCI Bus driver to use BIOS calls in order to route PCI interrupts correctly. This is can be done via Control Panel-System-Device Manager-System devices-PCI bus.
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4.2 Memory window allocation in Windows 9x
==========================================
On some PC's, PC-cards fail to be recognised by the
operating system when they are inserted, or even cause
the operating system to crash. This is usually due to a memory clash where the operating system fails to recognise that an upper memory range is not available
for use by the Microsoft PCMCIA drivers. If this occurs, you should try forcing Card Services to use a different memory range. Go to the Control Panel and click on the PC-CARD icon, then override the memory window setting to a different starting value (like 0x000d0000).
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4.3 ATA Flash disk fails in Windows 9x
======================================
* Check the System Properties for the ATA card and make sure an IO address range and an IRQ has been allocated to the ATA card. If a memory address range has been allocated to the card, this is usually caused by lack of an IRQ, check PCI IRQ routing has been enabled.
* If no IRQ has been allocated, Check PCI IRQ routing has been enabled and/or free up an IRQ for use by the ATA card.
* Check that the ATA card has been formatted correctly.
* If everything above is OK but no drive letter is being assigned, add the line LASTDRIVE=Z to your config.sys file. Be careful to make sure this does not conflict with any network setup.
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4.4 Vector CANcardX in Windows 95
=================================
On the Cirrus 6729 based controller (PCI/PCIC compatible) when the CANcardX card is inserted at boot time, it is recognised as normal. However if the card is ejected and re-inserted, it fails to be recognised.
If the card is not inserted at boot time, it operates without any problem.
We believe this problem is related to Microsoft Knowledge Base Article ID: Q159492.
SOLUTION 1
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**** 16-bit PC-Card adapters ONLY ****
**** DO NOT APPLY THIS FIX IF YOU ARE USING A ****
**** CardBus ADAPTER!!!!! ****
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If this occurs and you are using a 16-bit PC-Card adapter
then copy pccard.vxd from the PSeries driver disk
to the "C:\Windows\System" directory and re-boot.
SOLUTION 2
----------
For CardBus adapters, either insert the CANcardX PC-Card AFTER booting or do not eject the CANcardX PC-Card
SOLUTION 3
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Upgrade to another operating system.
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4.5 Linear FLASH card crashes the PC on insertion
=================================================
In Windows 95 OSR2, when a linear FLASH card without
"Attribute" memory is inserted AS THE FIRST CARD after boot, or inserted before booting the PC, it may crash the PC.
This is a known bug in the PCCARD.VxD supplied with
Windows 95 OSR2.
SOLUTION 1
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**** 16-bit PC-Card adapters ONLY ****
**** DO NOT APPLY THIS FIX IF YOU ARE USING A ****
**** CardBus ADAPTER!!!!! ****
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If this occurs and you are using a 16-bit PC-Card adapter
then copy pccard.vxd from the PSeries driver disk
to the "C:\Windows\System" directory and re-boot.
SOLUTION 2
----------
For CardBus adapters, insert another PC-Card BEFORE inserting the FLASH card.
SOLUTION 3
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Upgrade to another operating system.
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4.6 Inserting PC-Card causes PC to crash
========================================
Some PC-Cards requiring a hardware IRQ may cause the PC to stop responding as the IRQ is not properly handled by the device driver for the card. (See "3.2 Dirty Interrupt Service Routines" above.)
If this occurs, then assign a DWORD value named "UltraSafeIRQHandlingMode" to the registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet
\Services\Class\PSeries
Assign it a value of "1" to enable this mode of operation.
A value of "0" disables this mode of operation.
The following cards have been detected with this problem:
* PROXIM RangeLAN2 wireless LAN card.
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5 Windows NT/2000/XP information
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5.1 IRQ Conflicts in Windows
============================
On some systems the PCI management IRQ is not allocated correctly to the hardware by the system BIOS. In this situation, the IRQ is automatically assigned and requested from the system BIOS by the PSeries driver. You can force the PSeries driver to use an alternative IRQ by appropriately assigning a DWORD value named "ManagmentIRQ" to the registry key:
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet
\Services\PSeries\Parameters"
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5.2 Two sockets reported in Windows NT4
=======================================
On a PC-Card drive with a single slot TI 1410 or TI1211 CardBus controller in Windows NT4, two PC-Card slots are reported (in the PC-Card information applet in the Control Panel) when there is physically only one socket. This is a problem with Windows NT's slot detection algorithm and may be safely ignored.
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5.3 ATA Flash disk fails in Windows NT4
=======================================
If you are using an ATA flash (or rotating) PCMCIA disk in the PC-Card slot, and your PC hangs at the first blue screen (no dots appear) during boot up, or your PC boots OK (but slowly) and the ATA disk is not accessible, or the atdisk driver shows an IRQ as being shared by another device (in "Windows NT Diagnostics").
The Atdisk driver requires an IRQ (usually IRQ9) that is NOT SHARED by any other device. You should set the IRQ it uses as "In use by ISA" (or similar) under "ISA/PNP configuration" in your BIOS configuration (usually accessed by pressing "Del" or "F2" during boot.
This will stop the BIOS from allocating this IRQ to a PCI
board in the PC.
This may also apply to other card types, if your card fails to work properly, check "Windows NT Diagnostics" for a possible IRQ conflict, ISA and PCI interrupts cannot be shared.
If NT boots correctly and atdisk has started and all the above seems ok, but your ATA disk is not assigned a drive letter, go to the "Disk Administrator" and you should be able to assign one there.
NOTE1... The standard Windows NT4 ATA disk driver (atdisk.sys) only supports ONE PCMCIA ATA disk.
NOTE2...If a drive letter is not assigned to your IBM-microdrive, go to...
http://www.storage.ibm.com/techsup/hddtech/mdfalist.htm
NOTE3...Do not apply the IRQ9 "In Use by ISA" (above) fix in Windows 2000 your PC may fail to boot.
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5.4 CardBus Adapters in Windows NT4.0
=====================================
The native Windows NT4.0 PCMCIA drivers do not support CardBus controllers and CardBus cards. In order to support Windows NT 4.0, the PSeries drivers set CardBus controllers to Legacy Intel 82365SL mode, this allows only 16 bit PC-Cards to be used with CardBus adapters in Windows NT4. Install SystemSoft CardWizard
if you require CardBus card support.
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5.5 IRQ 7 & 15
==============
The PSeries driver does not support IRQ channels 7 & 15 when they are allocated to a PC-card inserted in a PC-card socket.
However, there is no problem with these IRQ's being used as the PCI management interrupt allocated to the PCI PCMCIA/CardBus controller.
3rd party PC-Card software in Windows NT 4.0 may allocate IRQ channels 7 or 15 to your PCMCIA card, leading to problems on configuration or during operation. You should set this software up so that these IRQ's are not allocated to the PCMCIA card.
You should also set this software into "polled mode" for card status change (CSC) events as the CSC IRQ is not supported.
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5.6 CardBus Adapter with the Multiprocessor kernel
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Windows NT4/2000/XP relies on the BIOS to setup IRQ's for PCI cards. The operating system uses this information to set up the IOAPIC. Some BIOS's fail to assign an IRQ to a CardBus adapter during boot as they consider they are bridge devices not requiring an interrupt.
If this happens, the PSeries driver will fail to load and
PC-Cards requiring an IRQ will not work correctly. Contact your BIOS manufacturer for a BIOS upgrade supporting assignment of an IRQ to CardBus controllers.
CL6729 based PC-Card adapters are not supported on multiprocessor Microsoft Windows platforms.
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5.7 Low Voltage PC-Cards in Windows NT4.0
=========================================
The information in this section only applies to
Windows NT4.0 all other supported operating systems support low voltage cards correctly.
We have tested SystemSoft CardWizard 5.2 and found that it correctly supports low voltage PC-Cards on CL6729 and TI CardBus controllers.
The standard Microsoft supplied PCMCIA driver in Windows NT4.0 does not correctly support low voltage 3.3Volt-only PCMCIA cards.
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On CL6729 based adapters and CardBus controller chips that are not made by TI, there is no over voltage protection so if you are using Windows NT4 with Microsoft's PCMCIA driver, DON'T PLUG IN 3Volt only PC-Cards or they WILL BE PHYSICALLY DAMAGED!
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On TI1410/1211/1420 based CardBus adapters, there
is an over-voltage protection circuit built into
the controller chip that protects PC-Cards from
being supplied with 5Volts when the PC-Card is signalling (via the VS#lines on the PCMCIA socket) that it requires 3.3Volts.
Some PC-Cards are dual voltage and are tolerant of 5Volts being supplied to them from the socket, though they may indicate that they require 3.3Volts. This means that in Windows NT4.0, with TI CardBus controllers, some PC-Cards may fail to be powered up so won't work! To get round this problem, (NOT TI1211 chip) the PSeries driver will detect low voltage PC-Cards and will set the TI CardBus controller such that only the most appropriate voltage is available for the card. The PCMCIA driver will then power the card to this VCC setting. This process will fail safe to 3.3Volts if PC-Cards of different VCC types are used concurrently. So, in this situation, the 5V PC-Card will fail to work correctly. To get round this problem, you can disable the over voltage protection circuit in TI chips, but if this setting is made, 3.3Volt-only PC-Cards WILL BE PHYSICALLY DAMAGED.
You can force the PSeries driver to disable over voltage protection circuit by adding a DWORD value (with value of 1) named "DisableOverVoltageProtection" to the registry key:
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet
\Services\PSeries\Parameters"
The file on this distribution disk named "DisableOverVoltageProtection.reg" will make the correct registry settings to disable the over voltage protection circuit on TI CardBus controllers.
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PLEASE BE WARNED THAT THIS SETTING MAY DAMAGE YOUR PC-CARD SO PLEASE CHECK WITH THE CARD MANUFACTURER THAT IT IS CAPABLE OF WORKING AT 5VOLTS FIRST!
WE CANNOT ACCEPT ANY LIABILITY FOR ANY DAMAGE TO LOW VOLTAGE PC-CARDS
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On Ene 1211,1410 & 1420 controllers, it is not possible to disable the over voltage protection circuit.
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5.8 Windows NT4 Service Packs
=============================
The PSeries driver has been tested with Windows NT Service Pack 6, older service packs are not supported. If a Service pack is installed after the installation of the PSeries drivers, you should re-install the PSeries drivers.
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5.9 Windows 2000 Service Pack
=============================
For best operation, it is recommended that SP3 (or newer if available) be installed. If a Service pack is installed after the installation of the PSeries drivers, you should re-install the PSeries drivers.
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5.10 Windows XP Service Pack
============================
For best operation, it is recommended that SP1 (or newer
if available) be installed. If a Service pack is installed after the installation of the PSeries drivers, you should re-install the PSeries drivers.
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6 Uninstalling the PSeries drivers
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The PSeries drivers are fully plug and play in that they will detect the PCMCIA hardware will no load if the PCMCIA hardware is not present in the PC. Usually it is not necessary and not recommended to completely uninstall the PSeries drivers. If the drivers are to be completely removed, the following sections explain how to
remove the drivers for the particular operating system.
DON'T FORGET!!! THE PCMCIA HARDWARE WILL FAIL TO OPERATE CORRECTLY WITHOUT THE PSERIES DRIVERS INSTALLED!
6.1 Uninstalling the PSeries drivers in Windows 9x/Me
==================================================
To uninstall the PSeries drivers, go to the "Control Panel",
run "Add/Remove Programs", select the PSeries Drivers
and click "Change/Remove".
Re-boot the computer into "Safe Mode" (by pressing "F8" during boot). Double click the "System" icon in the control panel,
select "Device Manager" and expand the "PCMCIA socket" entry
highlight each entry for the PCMCIA socket and click "Remove".
From Windows Explorer delete the files:
c:\windows\inf\pseries.inf
c:\windows\inf\pseries.pnf
c:\windows\system\pseries.vxd
From Windows Explorer, go to the c:\windows\system\oldpcmcia folder and move the "PCMCIA.INF" file to the c:\windows\inf folder.
Run the registry editor (regedit.exe) an delete the key:
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet
\Services\VxD\PSeries"
Shut down the PC and remove the PC-Card adapter hardware.
Re-boot the PC and the driver is no longer installed.
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6.2 Uninstalling the PSeries drivers in Windows NT
==================================================
To uninstall the PSeries drivers:
1) Shut down the PC and remove the PC-Card adapter hardware.
2) re-boot the PC and go to the "Control Panel", run "Add/Remove Programs", select the PSeries Drivers and click "Change/Remove".
3) Run the registry editor (regedit.exe) an delete the key:
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\PSeries"
4) From Windows Explorer delete the file:
c:\winnt\system32\drivers\pseries.sys
The PSeries driver is now no longer installed.
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6.3 Uninstalling the PSeries drivers in Windows 2000/XP & Server 2003
=====================================================================
Version 5.06 of the PSeries driver introduced more integrated
operation with the Windows 2000 driver model. So there are differences in the way previous and later releases
are uninstalled.
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To uninstall the PSeries 5.05 and earlier release drivers: ----------------------------------------------------------
1) Shut down the PC and remove the PC-Card adapter hardware.
2) re-boot the PC and go to the "Control Panel", run "Add/Remove Programs", select the PSeries Drivers and click "Change/Remove".
3) Run the registry editor (regedit.exe) an delete the key:
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\PSeries"
4) From Windows Explorer delete the file:
c:\winnt\system32\drivers\pseries.sys
The PSeries driver is now no longer installed.
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To uninstall the PSeries 5.06 to 5.07.02 drivers:
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1) go to the "Control Panel", run "Add/Remove Programs", select the PSeries Drivers and click "Change/Remove".
2) From Windows Explorer delete the file:
c:\winnt\inf\pcmcia.inf
then rename the c:\winnt\inf\pcmcia.old file to c:\winnt\inf\pcmcia.inf
To successfully remove all traces of the PSeries driver, you must NOT remove the PCMCIA adapter hardware from the PCI slot until you have performed the following step. IF you have moved the adapter from another PCI slot at any time, then
you will need to re-do this step with the hardware in
every slot that was previously used. (Windows 2000 preserves the setup independently for each PCI slot in the PC).
3) Open the "Device Manager" and expand the "PCMCIA socket" entry, highlight each entry for the PCMCIA socket, right-click and select "Uninstall...".
Finally, when you have completed the above step for each PCI
slot the PCMCIA adapter has been in, you can do the following steps...
4) Run the registry editor (regedit.exe) an delete the key:
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\PSeries"
5) From Windows Explorer delete the file:
c:\winnt\system32\drivers\pseries.sys
6) Shut down the PC and remove the PC-Card adapter hardware.
When you Re-boot the PC and the driver is no longer installed.
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To uninstall the PSeries 5.07.03 (and later) drivers:
-----------------------------------------------------
1) go to the "Control Panel", run "Add/Remove Programs", select the PSeries Drivers and click "Change/Remove".
2) From Windows Explorer delete the file:
c:\winnt\inf\pseries.inf
then rename the c:\winnt\inf\pcmcia.old file to c:\winnt\inf\pcmcia.inf
To successfully remove all traces of the PSeries driver, you must NOT remove the PCMCIA adapter hardware from the PCI slot until you have performed the following step. IF you have moved the adapter from another PCI slot at any time, then
you will need to re-do this step with the hardware in
every slot that was previously used. (Windows 2000/XP preserves the setup independently for each PCI slot in the PC).
3) Open the "Device Manager" and expand the "PCMCIA socket" entry, highlight each entry for the PCMCIA socket, right-click and select "Uninstall...".
4) Finally, when you have completed the above step for each PCI
slot the PCMCIA adapter has been in, you can shut down the PC and remove the PC-Card adapter hardware.
When you Re-boot the PC and the driver is no longer installed.
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7 Customer Technical Support
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If you are having problems you should contact your hardware vendor for support. Please assist them to support you by supplying ALL of the following information, the more detail
you supply, the quicker it is likely they are able to give you
a solution.....
1) Make and model number of your PCMCIA adapter
2) PCMCIA controller chip manufacturer and part number (the big chip on the PCMCIA adapter hardware)
3) Supplier of your PCMCIA adapter
4) The PSeries driver version you are using
5) Operating System and version (plus service pack etc)
6) PC/motherboard model and manufacturer
7) Motherboard chipset (i.e. 440BX etc)
8) BIOS manufacturer, version and serial number
9) Number of PCI slots on the motherboard
10) Number of ISA slots on the motherboard
11) Number of CPU's and type
12) CPU speed
13) Details of other PCI boards installed
14) Details of any ISA boards installed
15) Details of any motherboard peripherals
16) A complete list of ALL IRQ's allocation in the PC
17) Address and size of ALL memory resources allocated to the PCMCIA adapter
18) Address and size of ALL IO resources allocated to the PCMCIA adapter
19) IRQ number allocated to the PCMCIA adapter
20) Type, make and model number of any PCMCIA cards that are being used
21) Address and size of all memory/IO resources allocated to the PCMCIA card
22) IRQ number allocated to the PCMCIA card
23) A complete and exact description of the problem (please, please, please, not just "it doesn't work"!!)
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end.
