PCI TROUBLESHOOTING GUIDE
Contents
1. 7 BACKGROUND 7 QUESTIONS ANDANSWERSG ccccceeceeeeseeeeeeeeeeweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeseneseeeew ess 7 Motherboard 7 Motherboard Spe citiCations cccccccccccccccccececeeeteseteceteeeteeeteeeseeteeens 8 CMOS Setup BIOS cccccccccccccccccceceseceenecsccececececseeceeessesessesemesetess 8 System Errors 9 10 Hard Disk Drives 11 Floppy CD ROM 12 Memory ieee erste issih tsi os ee a eh Got Lele 13 13 POMONA CC Eid Pea eb 14 TECHNICAL 16 ec 17 List of Tables Introduction This troubleshooting guide is provided to assist OEMs dealers and resellers with the support of the NexGen PCI motherboard It will explain and provide a resolution to most common incidents and configuration questions your customers may encounter during the installation and usage of their motherboard or system Please consult this guide prior to contacting NexGen Technical Support This will allow you to become more responsive to your customers About This Manual The guide is organized into2. BIOS The Update Kitontains the latest BIOS release and flash utility for your motherboard It is always prudent to operate your motherboard using the latest BIOS since NexGen and AMI are continuously improving the BIOS with new features and functions Also the latest BIOS may resolve some of the problems you are encountering See How to Obtain the PC Update kabove for instructions on obtaining this kit System Errors Lockups Q15 A15 Q16 A16 My application will not run is producing errors or hangs the system What can I do to resolve this First contact the vendors that developed your operating system application or hardware adapters to determine if a known problem exists that can be corrected Itis not uncommon for back level device drivers for video and drive controllers to cause problems within a system It may also help to check and correct your hard disk for corruption followed by a re installation of your software Why don t I see any video when I power up my system The NexGen motherboard requires at least one memory SIMM pair to be installed before the video will be seen Also some PCI adapters only partially supdarame Write Mergingas defined in the PCI specification Therefore if enabled try disabling this option in theChipsetoption of the BIOSSetup Finally you might try pressing the INSERT key on the Numeric Keypad during a cold boot Make sure you continue to press the key until you are pro
3. MHZ CMOS Setup BIOS 010 10 011 11 15 the PCI system BIOS Plug and Play PnP compatible Yes What are theIRQx options the Advanced Setup used for If you are using non Plug and Play compatible Legacy ISA adapters in conjunction with PCI adapters then the interrupts used by the noRnP ISA adapters should be set to ISA in order to reserve these particular interrupts for these ISA adapters Otherwise if set toAuto the PnP system BIOS may erroneously assign the same interrupt to nonPnP ISA adapter and a PCI adapter If all adapters compatible then thdRQx settings may be left toAuto For example if your sound card is programmed to use interrupt 5 th RQ5 should be set toISA Q12 12 013 1 014 14 When should enable Boot withPnP OS in the Advanced Setup Enable this option only if your operating system is Plug and Play compatible such as Windows 95 Leave this option disabled if you are using DOS Windows 3 1x or OS 2 all versions released including OS 2 Warp There are several Setup options in the BIOS that do not understand Can change any of these parameters to increase my performance Unless instructed otherwise by a NexGen Technical Support Representative it is highly advised that theOptimalsetup values be used without any changes This will ensure that your system will run optimally as well as reliably How do know if I am using the latest
4. on the motherboard labeledNxMC If it is stamped VL82C500PSFCthen EDO memory cannot be used Any other variation of this part number for instance the presence of a trailing numeric 1 indicates that EDO memory is supported The performance benefits of EDO memory in the NexGen PCI motherboard are minimal due to the full speed L2 cache design of the Nx586 processor and the superior buffering scheme designed into the PCI chipset Therefore little if any performance degradation will be observed when using Fast Page Mode memory Do I need to change any memory related parameters in Setup based on the speed of my memory No the default values set by loading th ptimalsettings will suffice for 60 70 and 80 ns memorySIMMs The performance benefits gained by attempting to use faster memory parameters on the NexGen PCI motherboard are minimal due to the full speed L2 cache design of the Nx586 processor and the superior buffering scheme designed into the PCI chipset Sound Cards Q31 A31 Why isn t my sound card working An interrupt or DMA conflict may exist with other peripherals in your system Run the sound card diagnostics to help resolve these conflicts See Q11 for interrupt related information 13 Performance Q32 How can 1 maximize my system performance A32 1 Use a 64 bit graphics PCI adapter with the latest driver supplied from the 14 manufacturer 2 Use the on board IDE controller with the lat
5. PCI TROUBLESHOOTING GUIDE NexGen Nx586 PCI ISA System Board with on board Bus Master PCI IDE and Super I O January 22 1996 DOC 754010 01 Copyright 19 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED No part of this document may be photocopied reproduced stored in a retrieval system transcribed or translated to another language in any form or by any means electronic mechanical magnetic optical chemical or otherwise without the prior written consent of NexGenInc NexGen Inc reserves the right to revise this document and make changes in the specifications of the product described herein at any time without notice and without obligation to notify any person of any such revision or change NexGen Inc makes no warranty express implied or statutory concerning this document or its use and assumes no responsibility for any omissions or errors which may appear in this document nor does it make a commitment to update the information contained in this document NEXGEN INC SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES RESULTING FROM THE ACQUISITION USE OR SALE OR OTHER TRANSFER PERMITTED OR OTHERWISE OF THIS DOCUMENT OR THE USE OF THE PRODUCTS DESCRIBED IN THIS DOCUMENT NxPCI are trademarks of NexXaGen Corporation NexGen and Nx586 are registered trademarks of NexGen Corporation AM WINBIOS areregistered trademarks of American Megatrends Inc Microsoft Windows 95 and th
6. contained within a self extracting file that will create all the files you need to use the CPU Identifiers One of the files is readme txt that will fully explain how to install and use the CPU Identifiers Games That Require theDOS CPU Identifierto Install Each of the following DOS games requires the assistance of the DOS CPU Identifierto be installed Once the game is installed you will not need the Identifier to run the game e Oregon Trail Il v1 0 e Star Trek The Next Adventure Final Oregon Trail II v1 toes not require theDOS CPU dentifieto install Star Trekrequires Alternate Instructionset to ON in Advanced Setup in order to run Games That Require theDOS CPU Identifierto Run Each of the following DOS games will install without incident but will require the assistance of the DOS CPU Identifieto run Cadillacs and Dinosaurs Primal Rage Loadstar Wingnuts Need for Speed Games That Require theDOS CPU Identifierto Install and Run Each of the following DOS games requires the assistance of the DOS CPU Identifierto be installed and to run e Bloodwings e PGA Tour 96 e Hockey 96 Games That Require theWindows CPU Identifierto Install Each of the following Windows games requires the assistance of the Windows CPU Identifierto be installed Once the game is installed you will not need the Identifier to run the game Spectre Enhanced CD Games That Require theWindows CPU Identifiert
7. e Windows logo are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation Other brands and products are trademarks of their respective holder s First printing January 1996 Table of Contents INTRODUCTIONS ee ee 1 ABOUT THIS MANUAL aD ENEE EEREN EEEE TEDE Ei 1 DESIGNED IN 2 TECHNICAL SUPPORT FOR 2 BACKGROUND 2 GAMES REQUIRING THE CPU 3 How to Use the CPU 3 How to Obtain the PCI Update Kit ccccccccceeeeteeeeeesneeeteenteestees 3 Games That Require the DOS CPU Identifier to Install 3 Games That Require the DOS CPU Identifier to 4 Games That Require the DOS CPU Identifier to Install and Run 4 Games That Require the Windows CPU Identifier to Install 4 Games That Require the Windows CPU Identifier to Run 4 Games That Require the Windows CPU Identifier to Install and Rain GAMES REQUIRING A FLOATING POINT 6 Games That Require a Floating point 6 HOW AO USE 6 HOW ODtAIN 8 6 FREQUENTLY ASKED
8. e video adapter faulty This is not a fatal error Replace the video adapter or the RAM on the video adapter ROM Checksum Error The ROM checksum value The BIOS ROM chip is does not match the value bad The system encoded in WINBIOS probably needs a new BIOS ROM chip CMOS Shutdown The shutdown register for The motherboard must Register Read Write CMOS RAM has failed be replaced Error Cache memory The cache memory test failed The motherboard must not enable cache Cache memory is disabled Do be replaced not press lt Ctrl gt lt Alt gt lt Shift gt lt gt to enable cache memory Table 1 WINBIOS Beep Codes 15 Technical Support If you or your customers encounter any problems during the installation or operation of your system that are not addressed by this guide please check one of NexGen s on line support sites NexGen maintains a BBS Bulletin Board System an Internet World Wide Web site and an Internet FTP site These sites contain the latest driver and BIOS releases product announcements and answers to commonly asked questions NexGen BBS System 408 955 1839 14 4 Kb s 8 bits 1 stop no parity NexGen Internet Web Site www nexgen com NexGen Internet FTP Site ftp nexgen com 16 Notes cont
9. eled KEYLOCK PWR are for tlkeeylock switch The keylock connector can be attached to the caseylock connector in either orientation Q6 A6 Q7 A7 How do I connect the Turbo switch and Turbo LED my system case to the motherboard The PCI motherboard always runs in Turbo mode and cannot be switched to non Turbo mode Therefore there is no Turbo switch connector on the motherboard The Turbo LED from the case can be connected to the 2 pin connector labeled TURBO LED Since the PCI motherboard only runs in Turbo mode the Turbo LED should be illuminated when the connectors are mated If it is not illuminated then the connector is installed backwards and must be turned around How do connect the Hard Drive LED in my system case to the motherboard The 2 pin connector labeled HD LED can be attached to the case Hard Drive LED connector to support the on board IDE controller If the LED does not illuminate during hard drive activity then the connector is installed backwards and must be turned around Motherboard Specifications Q8 A8 Q9 A9 What is the speed of the PCI Bus on my motherboard The PCI bus runs asynchronously at 3MHZ What is the speed of the ISA bus on my motherboard The speed of the ISA bus is equal to the speed of the PCI bus divided by 3 or 4 where the divisor is selected in thChipsetoption of the BIOS Setup The default setting of PClIclk 4is recommended for a standard ISA bus speed of
10. est driver supplied by NexGen in thePCI Toolkitand PCI Update Kithat provides 32 bit virtual disk access support 3 Use hard drives that support higher PIO modes 4 Use at least 8 MB of memory 16 MB is even better for performance 5 Use 32 bit disk and 32 bit file access in Windows 3 11 or Windows foWorkgroups 3 11 Beeps Error Message Description Resolution Refresh Failure The memory refresh circuitry is Reseat the memory faulty SIMMs If the system still beeps replace the memory Parity Error Parity error in the base memory Reseat the memory the first 64 KB block of SIMMs If the system memory still beeps replace the memory Base 64 KB Memory Memory failure in first 64 KB Reseat the memory Failure SIMMs If the system still beeps replace the memory Timer Not Operational A memory failure the first 64 The motherboard must KB of memory or Timer 1 is be replaced not functioning 5 Processor error The CPU generated an error The motherboard must 8042 Gate A20 Failure be replaced 8042 Gate A20 Failure Cannot switch to protected Try a different keyboard Processor Exception mode or replace the keyboard Interrupt Error fuse if the keyboard has one Processor Exception The CPU on the CPU Card The motherboard must Interrupt Error generated an exception be replaced interrupt Display Memory The system video adapter is There is a memory error Read Write Error either missing or its memory is on th
11. hip When I make a change to my system such as adding more memory lose my video What can I do to resolve this A19 This problem is resolved in BIOS version PO6W034N and later To get your video back wait 20 seconds after powering up then press F1 Wait about ten seconds and press ESC then ENTER The system should boot with video At this your BIOS to the latest level using th C Update Kit See How to Obtain the PCI Update kabove for instructions on obtaining this kit 10 Hard Disk Drives Controllers Q20 What is LBA mode in the Peripheral section of Setup used for A20 Q21 A21 Q22 Under the IDE standard hard drives greater than 528 MB could not be supported since the size of the drive parameters as defined in the BIOS INT13 versus those defined by the WD 1003 IDE standard are not the same This difference meant that the least common denominator for the cylinder head and sector sizes C H S had to be used 1023 16 and 63 respectively The EIDE standard resolves this barrier by a technique known aggical Block Addressing LBA If the INT13 BIOS supports LBA then the C H S information is translated into a 28 bit logical address which any hard drive that supports LBA can accept This addressing scheme allows for the complete use of the INT13 drive parameters 1024 cylinders 255 heads and 63 sectors yielding a total drive capacity of 8 4 GB LBA can be found in thePeripheraloptio
12. ing LBA accordingly see Q20 for LBA information 11 Q23 A23 Q24 A24 025 25 using the Adaptec AHA3940 PCI Dual Channel SCSI adapter conjunction with NovellMicrodyne NE5500 Ethernet adapter I cannot get my system to boot What I do to resolve this Place the NE5500 adapter in the PCI slot closest to the memory SIMM sockets This problem may occur with other PCI adapters such as video adapters in which case the solution is the same That is place the video adapter in the PCI slot closest to the memory SIMM sockets Why does the Performance tab under System Properties of My Computer state that my File System and my Virtual Memory are running in MS DOS Compatibility Mode when using the on board IDE controller under Windows 95 The most probable cause is that Windows 95 was not installed on your NexGen motherboard You musuninstall then reinstall Windows 95 on your NexGen motherboard in order to use the protected mode 32 bit driver capability provided by Windows 95 I use the PCI on board IDE controller driver win4bm 386 which was installed by the EZIDE installation utility supplied by NexGen under Windows 95 No this driver is intended to be used with Windows 3 1x only Use the EZIDE utility to uninstall this driver prior to upgrading to Windows 95 Floppy CD ROM Drives Q26 A26 Q27 A27 12 Why doesn t the system
13. mpted to press F1 This will by pass the saved NVRAM and CMOS settings thereby allowing you to avoid any conflicts that may have occurred due to the Plug and Play BIOS Q17 Why does my motherboard produce a series of long beeps when power up my system A17 The Power On Self Test POST code in the BIOS has detected an error Table 1 contains a description and resolution for each of thWINBIOS Beep Codes Q18 When l first boot my system see a message indicating that a conflict exists such as Resource Device Conflict What can I do to resolve this A18 You may be able to resolve this as follows while your system is powered down press and hold the INSERT key on the Numeric Keypad While still pressing the INSERT key power up the system until you are prompted with Press F1 to RESUME Press F1 and you will enter Setup Load the Optimal values along with your custom settings and exit Setup You may have a conflict between the on board devices and add on devices such as Floppy Controllers IDE Controllers Serial Ports In this case you must resolve or disable one of the resources to avoid the conflict For instance if you are using a PCI SCSI adapter that also contains a floppy controller you must either disable the floppy controller on the SCSI adapter or disable the on board floppy controller in the Peripheral option of Setup Video Q19 am using the Diamond Stealth 64 VRAM video adapter with the S3 968 c
14. n ofSetupon the PCI motherboard If a drive was previously partitioned and formatted without LBA enabled the drive will not operate properly with LBA enabled unless the drive is re partitioned and re formatted Of course the drive data would have to be backed up first since all existing drive data would be lost following the partition and format operations What Hard Disk Programmedinput Output PIO mode or DMA transfer rates are supported on the PCI motherboard The system BIOS contains support for PIO Mode 0 3 3 MB s through PIO Mode 4 16 6 MB s andMulti word DMA Mode 1 13 3 MB s andMulti word DMA Mode 2 16 6 MB s It is very important to be certain of the transfer rate supported by the drive before selecting a mode thBeripheraloption ofSetup If uncertain about the mode supported select thAuto option and the system BIOS will auto detect the fastest PIO mode supported as defined on the drive note this is true of BIOS versions PO6WO34N and later previous BIOS versions will select the fastest or DMA mode Why do I get a message that my operating system is missing A22 The BIOS cannot detect the presence of a device from which to boot Ensure that the floppy drive is installed correctly as described above if attempting to boot from a floppy Also ensure that thebootable hard drive is installed correctly in SETUP including 1 Specifying the correct cylinder nead sector parameters for the drive 2 Enabling or disabl
15. o Run Each of the following Windows games will install without incident but will require the assistance of the Windows CPU ldentifi amp o run Daedulus Encounter Pitfall v1 0 Hover Games That Require theWindows CPU Identifierto Install and Run Each of the following Windows games requires the assistance of the Windows CPU Identifieno be installed and to run Spectre VR Games Requiring a Floating point Presence Games That Require a Floating point Presence Dark Forces Magic Carpet II Fade to Black PGA Tour 96 Falcon 3 0 Rugby World Cup 95 Falcon Gold Spectre Enhanced CD e FX Fighter e Spectre VR e Hereti e US Navy Fighter Hereticdoes require a floating point processor if invoked as follows c gt heretic debug The US Navy Fightersupgrades US Navy Fighter Gola amp nd US Marine Fightersdo not require a floating point processor If your NexGen motherboard does not contain a floating point processor you may use a floating point emulator such as Q87 to assist with the execution of those games that require a floating point presence The NexGen compatibility lab has successfully tested Q87 version 4 03 with all of the games listed above How to Use Q87 The Q87package contains areadme txttile and aQ87 txtfile that explain how to us amp Q87 How to ObtainQ87 A shareware version of Q87 can be downloaded from the NexGen Web Server www nexgen com the NexGen FTP Serve
16. or and as a result will not allow you to install it In other cases the game may install without incident but may not be executable because of the misidentification of the Nx586 For such cases NexGen has developed the DOS CPU Identifier and the Windows CPU Identifer that will allow you to smoothly run all such games without incident note the Windows CPU Identifier supports Windows 3 1x and Windows 95 hereafter referred to aWindow9 In addition there is a small percentage of games that require the presence of a floating point processor to run NexGen has successfully tested these games with 087 a floating point emulator developed bQuickWare This chapter should help you assist your customers with the questions they may have regarding these particular games Games Requiring the CPU Identifier How to Use the CPU Identifiers The DOS CPU Identifierand the Windows CPU lIdentifierare currently provided as part of the PCI Toolkit and the PCI Update Kit the Toolkitis currently shipped with every PCI board the PCI Update Kit contains all of the tools the PCI Toolkit along with new and updated versions of these tools Within these kits is a readme txt file that clearly describes how to use the CPU Identifiers How to Obtain thePC Update Kit The PCI Update Kitcan be downloaded from the NexGen Web Server www nexgen com the NexGen FTP Server ftp nexgen com or the NexGen BBS 408 955 1839 14 4 Kb s The PCI Update Kitis
17. r ftp nexgen com NexGen BBS 408 955 1839 14 4 Kb s Q87 is contained within a self extracting file that will create all the files you need to use the floating point emulator along with instructions for registering the software withQuickWare Frequently Asked Questions Background This chapter is provided to assist you in answering the most commonly asked questions related to installing and operating the NexGen PCI motherboard Questions and Answers Motherboard Jumpers Q1 How do I reset my CMOS settings A1 With the system powered down install a jumper on JP20 for about ten seconds Then remove the jumper since the normal setting is for the jumper to be open Q2 How do connect the Reset switch in my system case to the motherboard A2 The 2 pin connector labeled RESET can be attached to the case Reset switch connector in either orientation 03 How do connect the speaker my system case to the motherboard A3 The 4 pin connector labeled SPEAKER can be attached to the case speaker connector in either orientation Q4 How do connect the power LED in my system case to the motherboard A4 Pins 1 2 and 3 of the 5 pin connector labeled KEYLOCK PWR are for the power LED Pins 1 and 3 should be connected to the case Power LED Pin 1 is connected to 5 volts and pin 3 is connected to ground 05 How do connect thekeylock switch my system case to the motherboard 5 Pins 4 and 5 of the 5 pin connector lab
18. recognize my floppy drive Ensure the floppy drive is cabled correctly orientation of pin 1 and is installed correctly in the BIOS Setup based on the size and the drive letter desired Why isn t my IDE CD ROM detected when attached to the on board IDE controller If using the on board IDE controller an IDE CD ROM must be configured as a slave device if it is connected to the same IDE channel as a hard drive where the hard drive is the master The CD ROM can only be configured as a master if it is the only device on the secondary IDE channel If a CD ROM is connected to the secondary IDE channel thenSecondary Device 0 Installedr Secondary Device 1 Installed under Peripheralin Setup must be set toOther depending upon whether the CD ROM is the master or slave respectively Memory Q28 A28 Q29 29 Q30 A30 use 70ns memory SIMMs the motherboard Yes with one exception certain P100 based PCI motherboards require memory These can be identified by examining the memory controller on the motherboard labele NxMC If it is stamped VL82C500PSFC then it requires 60ns memory Any other variation of this part number for instance the presence of a trailing numeric 1 indicates that 705 memory is supported Does the PCI motherboard support EDO memory Yes with one exception certain PCI motherboards require Fast Page Mode memory These can be identified by examining the memory controller
19. two main sections A section that provides a list of those games that will require the assistance of various tools to install and or execute e section that provides a list of frequently asked questions and answers relative to a wide variety of topics concerning the PCI motherboard Designed In Compatibility At the inception of the development process NexGen ensured x86 binary code compatibility with two years of research on Intel processors During Nx586 processor design the knowledge gained in the exhaustive research process formed the foundation of formal tests for every aspect of design and development of the Nx586 processor In simulation tens of millions of operations were applied to demonstrate that the Nx586 processor design provided full x86 binary code compatibility On the final Nx586 processor NexGen and the XXCAL independent testing lab have run hundreds of diverse applications and an extensive range of peripherals transparently covering trillions of processor cycles Through this process the Nx586 processor has been shown to provide full binary code compatibility with x86 processors allowing users of Nx586 processor based PCs to utilize the full spectrum of more than 50 000 applications Technical Support for Games Background This chapter is provided to assist you with installing and running various games on the Nx586 PCI motherboard You may find that certain games will misidentify the Nx586 as an 80386 process
Download Pdf Manuals
Related Search