Troubleshooting
Problem
Netfinity 10/100 Ethernet Adapters - Do not leave IBM Netfinity 10/100 Ethernet Adapters uninstalled in IBM Netfinity servers Potential problem description Do not leave the IBM Netfinity 10/100 Ethernet adapter uninstalled into an active PCI slot
Resolving The Problem
Do not leave IBM Netfinity 10/100 Ethernet Adapters uninstalled in IBM Netfinity serversPotential problem description
Do not leave the IBM Netfinity 10/100 Ethernet adapter uninstalled into an active PCI slot when running Microsoft Windows NT version 4.0 or Windows 2000. When running Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000 on any IBM Netfinity servers, all IBM Netfinity 10/100 Ethernet adapters must have their adapter software installed and operating. Leaving the ethernet adapter "PCI active, but uninstalled" may occasionally
cause a PCI configuration resource conflict with other PCI adapters (in particular the IBM ServeRAID adapter). This resource conflict results in a system crash. The term "uninstalled" means the adapter is physically inserted into a PCI slot and is power-on, but the associated adapter driver software is not installed and running. When the ethernet adapter is properly installed, this problem will not occur.
In general, it is a good practice to always install any PCI adapter software as soon as possible after inserting an adapter into a PCI slot after a cold-reboot. Active PCI (formerly known as PCI Hot Plug) removes many of the reasons for keeping uninstalled ethernet adapters in the server system. You can easily hot-add an ethernet adapter on-demand via Active PCI. This is a key feature of IBM Active PCI supporting Netfinity Servers.
How the problem most likely occurs and why
If you have the ethernet adapter sitting in a PCI slot uninstalled, with the server running, and then attempt to Hot Add another PCI device like a ServeRAID card, then you may encounter a Blue Screen. This is because, though uninstalled, the ethernet adapter would still try to access some PCI resource without actually using it. When Hot Adding another PCI device, both cards would then try to map to the same PCI resource, causing a conflict.
How to avoid the potential problem
- Have the ethernet card installed whether it is used or it is not used.
- Remove the ethernet card from the server if you are not using it.
Document Location
Worldwide
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Document Information
Modified date:
23 January 2019
UID
ibm1MIGR-4HTNJC