P-Series Drives - FAQ (Windows 95, 98 and ME)

 
Useful links:

PCI IRQ routing in Windows 9x

The P-Series drivers support the following operating systems :

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.  (More details available...)

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Operating problems with Intel(R) Desktop Board D815EEA in Windows 98

When "Intel(R) Active Monitor" is installed, Windows 98 crashes with a page fault when a PC-Card is inserted. At the same time, "Active Monitor" may report an voltage out of range error.

The Intel(R) D815EEA Desktop board is an i815e based motherboard with integrated VGA, USB, Sound and LAN. By default, all the IRQ's on this motherboard are fully allocated, so when a PC-Card is inserted that requires an IRQ, Windows must re-balance the allocation of resources in order to allocate an IRQ to the PC-Card.

The problem is due to the drivers for the "Active Monitor" program which are not able to cope with a re-balance of resources, so when Windows performs a re-balance, the system crashes.

Solution: Un-install the "Intel(R) Active Monitor" program. Contact Intel for an update to the program

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Windows 95 OSR2 (B/C) fails to allocate resources to the PC-Card

The PC-Card is recognised by the operating system, but it fails to automatically allocate any resources to it, even though the resources may be available and a yellow exclamation(!) mark appears over the PC-Card in the Device Manager.

More Information: Windows 95 uses the BIOS IRQ routing table for IRQ routing information. As some modern motherboards do not have ISA bus slots, ISA bus interrupts are not "available". This poses a problem with routing an "ISA style" IRQ to a 16-bit PC-Card in a PCI based PC-Card adapter. 
This problem has been seen on an ABIT Intel 815e chipset motherboard when using a P111 adapter with the IBM Microdrive, but is quite likely to happen on other motherboards (without ISA slots) and with other PC-Card types in Windows 95.

Solution: First of all, check PCI IRQ routing is enabled and working correctly (see "PCI IRQ routing in Windows 9x"). Then you must manually assign all the resources to the PC-Card. If your PC has no spare IRQ's available, the trick is to assign an IRQ assigned to a PCI device (one marked "IRQ holder for PCI steering"). This will force Windows to move the IRQ for the PCI device onto another IRQ (PCI devices can share IRQ's with other PCI peripherals). 
Alternatively, use the BIOS to reserve an IRQ from being allocated to a PCI device (you must consult your motherboard manuals on how to do this), then manually allocate this to the PC-Card you are using.

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When I insert my PCMCIA card, my PC takes over 60 seconds to recognize it!

When a PCMCIA card is inserted in a PC running Windows 9x/Me, with a PCI Network card, but the PC is not connected to a network, it can take over 60 seconds for the operating system to recognize the card. During this time, the PC/mouse will freeze intermittently.

More information: When a PC has a PCI (or integrated) network card installed, by default Windows will configure the network card for a DHCP server to configure it's IP address etc. When the drivers for the network card are started, if this network card is not physically connected to a network, the DHCP client software will wait until the timeout period has expired (approx. 60 seconds) before allowing the PC to continue. During this process, the PC will not respond to mouse and keyboard actions.
If there are limited resources available in the system (very common!), then when a PCMCIA card is inserted into a PCMCIA slot, then Windows 9x/Me will re-balance the hardware resources and make PCI devices share IRQ's. This process involves stopping and re-starting any drivers for PCI devices. Hence when the network card drivers are re-started, the "freeze up" occurs. Also, during boot-up of the PC, this delay will always occur, so applying the following solution will speed up the boot process even if no PCMCIA adapter is in the PC.

Solution: Either disable the network card in the device manager, or in TCP/IP settings for the network, disable DHCP and manually assign a fixed IP address to the network adapter.

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Code 29 error in Windows 95 OSR2 on a Fujitsu/ICL ErgoPro D5/90P slim-line desktop Pentium 90 based PC

After correct installation of the PSeries drivers and the hardware on a Fujitsu/ICL ErgoPro D5/90P slim-line desktop Pentium 90 based PC, the Windows 95 Device Manager shows a yellow exclamation mark and "Code 29" error, "Hardware Disabled".

More Information:

The BIOS in this PC (PCI BIOS version 2.0) does not recognize the configuration headers of CardBus controllers so it leaves the controller in an unconfigured state. It also fails to connect an interrupt to the PCI slot.

PCI BIOS on this machine does not support IRQ configuration by calls to "SET_PCI_IRQ" (a PCI BIOS version 2.1 call) so the PSeries driver is not able to route an interrupt to the P111.

The BIOS configuration utility (accessed by pressing "Insert" during boot) allows for manual configuration of the PCI interrupt to the CardBus controller (ID 104C AC1E) but even this fails to actually route the IRQ to the PCI slot.

All CardBus controllers (products like the P111/P222/P423 & P424) are likely to be effected by this problem on this PC.

Suggested Solution:

This PC does not meet the minimum system requirements for PSeries hardware (PCI BIOS Version 2.1). If a PCI adapter is required, install a CL6729 based PCMCIA adapter like the P113, or otherwise install an ISA based adapter like the J103

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"PCMCIA Card Services" entry in Device Manager shows "Code 1" error in Windows Me

After installation of the PSeries drivers, and hardware, Windows recognizes the PCMCIA adapter and installs the drivers. On the first reboot when a card is inserted in the PCMCIA slot, although the card is recognized, configured and works correctly, the Device Manager shows a "Code 1" error message (refer to these bmps) associated with the PCMCIA Card Services devices. The same error will occur for each slot the very first time a PCMCIA card is inserted.

This is a known "feature" of the "feature rich" Windows Millennium Edition (Me) operating system and there is nothing to worry about! The next time you reboot the PC the error will disappear forever.

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PC Locks During Boot

PSeries driver version 5.07 causes some PC's running Windows 95,98 or Me to lock up during boot.

More information

The PSeries version 5.07 driver attempts to fix a problem in the PCI IRQ routing that effects many PC's. On some PC's this causes problems with some devices not able to share PCI IRQ's.

Get Around

Remove the PSeries hardware boot into Windows and install this registry setting, then shut down, replace the hardware and boot the PC. For best operation, you should ensure PCI IRQ routing is correctly enabled in the Device Manager.

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Code 29 Failure in Windows 95 OSR2 on a Fujitsu ErgoPro D5/90P

After correct installation of the PSeries drivers and the P111 hardware on a Fujitsu/ICL ErgoPro D5/90P slimline desktop Pentium 90 based PC, the Windows 95 Device Manager shows a yellow exclamation mark and "Code 29" error, "Hardware Disabled".

More information

The BIOS in this PC (PCI BIOS version 2.0) does not recognise the configuration headers of CardBus controllers so it leaves the controller in an unconfigured state. It also fails to connect an interrupt to the PCI slot.

PCI BIOS on this machine does not support IRQ configuration by calls to "SET_PCI_IRQ" (a PCI BIOS version 2.1 call) so the PSeries driver is not able to route an interrupt to the P111.  The BIOS configuration utility (accessed by pressing "Insert" during boot) allows for manual configuration of the PCI interrupt to the CardBus controller (ID 104C AC1E) but even this fails to actually route the IRQ to the PCI slot.

All CardBus controllers (like the P011/P111/P222/P423/P424 & P416) are likely to be effected by this problem on this PC.

Suggested solution

This PC does not meet the minimum system requirements for PSeries hardware (PCI BIOS Version 2.1). If a PCI adapter is required, install a CL6729 based PCMCIA adapter like the P113, otherwise install an ISA based adapter like the J103.

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Windows Locks when a CardBus Network Card is Installed on a Machine with an Existing PCI Network Adapter Installed

Symptoms

When a CardBus network card is installed for the first time, and Windows installs the drivers for the network card, the PC may lock up if a network card is already installed in the system. This may occur on any PC/motherboard with integrated LAN network adapter or a PC with peripheral PCI based network adapter already installed.

This may effect installation of any CardBus network adapter like an SMC 802.11a Wireless NIC or "wired" 10/100 LAN Ethernet Interface card like the 3Com Megahertz 10/100 LAN CardBus PC-Card, in Windows 9x/Me

Work around

Before installing the CardBus network adapter, open the "Device Manager" select the "Network adapters" key and select the network adapter that is pre-existing in the PC. Open the properties for this network adapter and select the "Disable in this hardware profile" checkbox (make sure there is a "tick" in the box) and then click "OK".

If your PC locked up as a result of this problem, then it is possible the installation of the CardBus card did not complete correctly. The "Device Manager" may show the card as working correctly, but it does not appear as a network device when "winipcfg.exe" is executed and communication over the network does not work. If this occurs, go to the "Device Manger" and select the CardBus network card under "Network adapters", right-click on the CardBus card and select "remove". Make sure the existing network card is disabled (as described above),  then eject and re-insert the CardBus card. Windows will then re-install the drivers for the CardBus card and the device should work correctly.

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