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July 12, 1986
Number 140
ISOLATING NMI ERRORS IN THE NOVELL 286A AND 286B SERVERS
DISCLAIMER
Novell, Inc. makes no representation or warranties with respect to the
accuracy or completeness of the information contained in this technical
bulletin. The solutions to NMI errors that follow have been found to work
in controlled laboratory conditions and may or may not offer a valid
resolution to any question or problem dealing with NMI errors. Furthermore,
the hardware and software specifications and configurations that follow may
or may not be accurate or complete. Novell, Inc. reserves the right to make
changes to any or all NetWare software, at any time, without obligation to
notify any person or entity of such changes.
The NMI error is becoming one of the most commonly reported problems during
a 286 server installation. Novell has isolated 3 causes of this error, 1)
bent spring clip in the 80286 socket, 2) bad add-in-expansion memory, and 3)
conflicting I/O and memory addressing in the server. All 3 of these
problems can produce the error in an intermittent manner, although the first
two are the most likely to produce the error in a manner that allows the
machine to run for awhile and then fail.
The 80286 socket has a spring clip that is easily bent under the 80286
during installation of the 80286. An inspector can tell if this condition
has occurred by shinning a flashlight at the socket and examining the corner
of the socket where the clip is located to see if it is visible. If the top
of the clip is not visible with the visual inspection, the 80286
needs to be removed, the clip bent back out from underneath, and the 80286
correctly installed. The sockets functionality will not be harmed if the
clip breaks and the free pieces are removed. If the clip does break care
must be taken to insure proper seating of the 80286.
Most of the expansion memory boards on the market for the IBM AT and look-
alike's are not designed for operation at 8 megahertz. AST has stated their
piggy back card for the Advantage Card will not work reliably at 8 megahertz
(they have also said the RAM PAGE board has been fixed with the latest
revisions to allow 8 meg. operation). Any machine getting NMI errors should
have all its expansion memory boards removed to see if they are the source
of the error.
The most common source of regular NMI errors during the initial set-up of a
286 server appears to be conflicting I/O and memory addresses. The GENOS
program only knows about the memory configurations of the boards whose
respective device drivers are selected. It knows nothing about the memory
locations of other boards in the server, including the ones produced by
Novell such as the disk coprocessor board. There can be no physical
decoding overlaps of memory or I/O space in the server if it is to operate
properly. The following chart of board characteristics may be useful in
determining if there are memory conflicts during configuration of the
server. It would be wise to obtain this information and record it in the
following chart format for any board being installed in a server before
installing it.
The chart memory references are in the format (SEGMENT):(INSTRUCTION
POINTER)-(DECODE SPACE). A decode address given as D000:0000-07FF decodes
from D0000 through D07FF. All addresses in the chart are given in hex.
Common Devices and Their Configurations
DEVICE INT I/O DECODE (h) MEM DECODE DMA
Com1 4 3F8-3FF - -
Com2 3 2F8-2FF - -
LPT1 7 378-37F - -
LPT2 (The XTcontroller cannot be
used with LPT2) 5 278-27F - -
If LPT3 exists then
LPT1 7 3BC-3BE - -
LPT2 5 378-37A - -
LPT3 - 278-27A - -
XT Controller 5 320-32F C800:0000-3FFF 3
AT Controller 14 1F0-1F8 - -
170-177
Floppy controller 6 1F0-1F8 - 2
3F0-3F7
Tape Controller 5 280-28F - 3
Novell Disk
Coprocessor 11 #1 340-347 - -
#2 348-34F
Novell SCSI Adapter 2, 3 340-343 D000:0000-7FFF 1, 3
or 5 (enhanced only) or
none
E.G.A. 2 3C0-3CF A000:0000-1FFFE 0
or
B000:0000-7FFF
or
B800:0000-7FFF
Mono Adapter - 3B0-3BF B000:0000-7FFF 0
Color Graphics - 3D0-3DF B800:0000-7FFF 0
Hercules Mono
(286A server) - 3B4-3BF B000:0000-7FFF -
B800:0000-7FFF.
DEVICE INT I/O DECODE (h) MEM DECODE DMA
IBM SDLC 4 or BiSync 1 3A0-3AF - 1
3 BiSync 2 380-38F
AST clock/cal. - 2C0-2C7 - -
Gnet Remote Boot - - D000:0000-3FFF -
Novell GENSH & GENOS Device Drivers
DEVICE INT I/O DECODE (h) MEM DECODE DMA
Generic NetBIOS (5ch)
#0 2 - 3(2)
#1 3 368-36B - 3
Allen-Bradley Vista
LAN/PC
#0 2 2E0-2EF D000:0000-FFFF -
#1 3 3E0-3EF E000:0000-FFFF -
#2 3 3E0-3EF C000:0000-FFFF -(3)
Nestar PLAN 2000
#0 2 - D200:0000-0FFF -
#1 3 - D000:0000-0FFF -
Standard Microsystems
ARCNET
#0 2 2E0-2EF D000:0000-3FFF -
#1 2 2F0-2EF D000:0000-3FFF -
#2 3 2E0-2EF D000:0000-3FFF -
#3 3 2F0-2EF D000:0000-3FFF -
#4 4 2E0-2EF D000:0000-3FFF -
#5 4 2F0-2EF D000:0000-3FFF -
DEVICE INT I/O DECODE (h) MEM DECODE DMA
#6 5 2E0-2EF D000:0000-3FFF -
#7 5 2F0-2FF D000:0000-3FFF -
#8 7 2E0-2EF D000:0000-3FFF -
#9 7 2F0-2FF D000:0000-3FFF -
#10 2 300-30F C000:0000-3FFF -
#11 3 2F0-2FF C000:0000-3FFF -
#12 4 2E0-2EF C000:0000-3FFF -
#13 5 2E0-2EF C000:0000-3FFF -
#14 7 300-30F D000:0000-3FFF -
#15 2 300-30F E000:0000-3FFF -(3)
#16 3 2F0-2EF E000:0000-3FFF -(3)
#17 4 2E0-2EF D000:0000-3FFF -
Santa Clara PCnet
#0 2 380-387 - 1
#1 3 380-387 - 1
#2 4 380-387 - 1
#3 5 380-387 _ 1
Orchid / Santa Clara
/ AST PCnet
#0 2 380-387 - 1
#1 3 380-387 - 1
#2 4 380-387 - 1
#3 5 380-387 - 1
Proteon ProNET with
Checksum
#0 2 300-307 - -
#1 3 300-307 - -
#2 2 308-30F - -
#3 3 308-30F - -
#4 4 310-317 - -
#5 2 340-347 - -
Corvus Omninet
#0 - 248-24F - -
#1 - 258-25F - -
#2 - 240-247 - -
#3 - 250-257 - -
3Com 3C505 EtherLink Plus
#0 2 300-307 - 5
#1 3 310-317 - 6
#2 4 320-327 - 7
#3 3 300-307 - 1
#4 4 310-317 - 3
DEVICE INT I/O DECODE (h) MEM DECODE DMA
3Com EtherLink
#0 3 300-30F - -
#1 5 300-30F - -
#2 3 310-31F - -
#3 5 310-31F - -
Gateway G-Net
#0 - 2E0-2EF D000:0000-FFFE -
#1 - 300-31F C000:0000-FFFE -
#2 - 2A0-2BF E000:0000-FFFE -(3)
IBM PC Network
#0 2 360-363 - 3(2)
#1 3 368-36B - 3(2)
#2 3 360-363 - 3(2)
#3 2 368-36B - 3(2)
AT&T StarLAN
#0 2 360-367 C000:0000-1FFF -
#1 2 368-36F C000:0000-1FFF -
#2 3 360-367 D000:0000-1FFF -
#3 3 368-36F D000:0000-1FFF -
#4 4 368-36F D000:0000-1FFF -
#5 4 360-367 E000:0000-1FFF -(3)
IBM PC Cluster
#0 3 790-793 D000:0000-7FFF -
#1 7 B90-B93 - -
#2 7 1390-1393 - -
#3 7 2390-2393 - -
IBM ASYNC Remote
Dial In Line
#0 4 3F8-3FF - -
#1 3 2F8-2FF - -
IBM Token Ring
#0 2 A20-A23 CC00:0000-1FFF -
D800:0000-3FFF
#1 3 A24-A27 CE00:0000-1FFF -
D400:0000-3FFF
#2 6 A20-A23 A400:0000-1FFF -
A000:0000-3FFF
#3 7 A24-A27 C400:0000-1FFF -
C000:0000-3FFF
DEVICE INT I/O DECODE (h) MEM DECODE DMA
NetWorth Engineering
- vLAN V2.1
#0 2 380-384 - 1
#1 5 380-384 - 1
#2 3 380-384 - 1
#3 2 280-284 - 3
#4 5 280-284 - 3
#5 3 280-284 - 3
Novell Star Intelligent NIC
#0 - 2B8-2B9 D000:0000-07FF -
#1 - 358-359 D400:0000-07FF -
#2 - 35C-35D D800:0000-07FF -
#3 - 2BC-2BD DC00:0000-07FF -
Novell Standard NIC 2 2B8-2BB D000:0000-07FF -
(810-86-001)-
Micom-Interlan N15010 Ethernet
#0 3 300-31F - -
#1 5 300-31F - -
#2 3 320-33F - -
#3 5 320-33F - -
Ungermann-Bass Net/One Personal Connection
#0 - 360-367 C000:0000-0FFF -
#1 - 360-367 D000:0000-0FFF -
#2 - 360-367 E000:0000-0FFF -3
#3 - 368-36F C000:0000-0FFF -
#4 - 368-36F D000:0000-0FFF -
#5 - 368-36F E000:0000-0FFF -3
DEVICE INT I/O DECODE (h) MEM DECODE DMA
Torus Ethernet
#0 2 300-31F D000:0000-7FFF -
#1 3 300-31F D000:0000-7FFF -
#2 4 320-33F D000:0000-7FFF -
#3 5 320-33F D000:0000-7FFF -
#4 2 320-33F D800:0000-7FFF -
#5 3 320-33F D800:0000-7FFF -
#6 4 300-31F D800:0000-7FFF -
#7 5 300-31F D800:0000-7FFF -
#8 2 300-31F C000:0000-7FFF -
#9 3 320-33F C000:0000-7FFF -
#10 4 300-31F C000:0000-7FFF -
#11 5 320-33F C000:0000-7FFF -
#12 2 320-33F C800:0000-7FFF -
#13 3 300-31F C800:0000-7FFF -
#14 4 320-33F C800:0000-7FFF -
#15 5 300-31F C800:0000-7FFF -
#16 - 368-36F E000:0000-0FFF -3
1 Network Interface Cards in the file server and Network Printers may share
the same interrupt in the File Server. Network Interface Cards cannot
share interrupts with each other or with devices other than the Network
Printers in the File Server.
2 Some of the Network Interface Card Device Drivers have been written to
allow two cards to share the same DMA channel. Those drivers will
reference this footnote.
3 All reference to memory E000:0000 can not be used in any 286 file server.
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