P-Series Drives - Troubleshooting Elan PCI to PCMCIA Adapters.
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If You Have A Problem

  • Firstly, please make sure that you are using the current P-series drivers and that these are installed on your PC.
  • It is also worth checking that the operating system that you are using is supported by our drivers.  (See our list of supported operating systems, please note that in NT4 you will require SP6)
  • Then check out the known problems described on these pages.
  • If you cannot find a solution here, please contact us by phone or email.

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PCI-to-PCI Bridges

Motherboards with PCI-to-PCI bridges may give some problems when used with a PCMCIA card reader. The issue is due to the various types of PCI-to-PCI bridge and patchy operating system support for enumeration of PCI bridges.

The PCI bus specification allows for approximately four to six devices on the PCI bus, the actual number generally depends on the bus loading of the devices, so can be more. Motherboard manufacturers generally want to sell motherboards with more integrated features etc, so a PCI-to-PCI bridge is sometimes used to extend the capability to support more devices.

To reduce costs, chipset manufacturers integrate devices into their chipsets, for instance modern Intel chipsets (i810e to i850 etc) incorporate devices like integrated VGA and sound, then a built-in PCI-to-PCI bridge is provided for the PCI expansion bus slots. On these motherboards the PCI bus expansion slots generally appear as PCI bus number 2 and no primary PCI bus slots are available.

Generally, the Windows PCI drivers will support modern Intel chipset based motherboards with integrated PCI bridges. These PCI chipsets are usually setup as 'subtractive decode' bridges, and do not normally present a problem in this situation.

The problems occur when the motherboard manufacturer has added a PCI-to-PCI bridge to extend the PCI bus further, or a daughter board or backplane with PCI bus slots has a additional PCI bridge incorporated. These are usually 'positive decode' PCI-to-PCI bridges. The standard Windows PCI drivers do not support enumeration of 'positive decode' PCI bridges. This means that on these systems you are likely to have problems with allocation of resources. These problems usually show up as failures of the PCMCIA controller in Windows 9x/Me/2000 and XP as 'Code 10' or 'Code 12' failures and a 'No PCMCIA controller found' message in Windows NT4.

When a PCI-to-PCI bridge is present, the PCI bus number that the PCMCIA controller appears on is greater than 0 (zero). The PSeries diagnostics program may be used to identify this situation.

Work Around

In Windows NT4.0 Systemsoft CardWizard supports enumeration of positive decode PCI bridges. 

Known Problems

Microstar MS-6373 motherboard (http://www.msi.com.tw/products/mainboard/mainboard.php?model=MS-6373) is not supported in Windows. This motherboard contains the nVIDIA® nForce 420D Chipset, and the offending PCI-to-PCI bridge is the nVIDIA nForce PCI Bridge made by nVIDIA Corporation. Other motherboards with this chipset (like the Asus A7N266-E) may also not be supported in Windows, but we have no test results for these.

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Motherboard / BIOS Problems

On some motherboards an out of date bios can cause operating problems which may cause the PC to crash.  The solution is to upgrade the BIOS  (You should be able to download an upgrade from the website of the manufacturer of your hardware.)

This problem has been found with the following motherboards/PCs:  

This problem may occur with other motherboards;  if you find that upgrading your bios fixes this problem in your system please let us know which motherboard you are using and the bios versions that you upgraded from/to so that we can update this list.

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Multiprocessor Machines

Currently the P-Series range of adaptors cannot fully support multi-processor operation.  In some systems a P-series adaptor will work, but this cannot be replicated in all systems and it is not possible to determine in advance from system information whether a P-series adaptor will work or not - you just have to try!

The legacy models (Cirrus Logic chipset based) CANNOT be made to work with a multi-processor motherboard. You will need to try one of our TI models (P111/P222/P423)

Motherboards Reported As Working With The P-Series

  • HP Kayak XU800, Bios IA 11.10
  • ASL Marquis C250S system = Tyan S1867 Thunder 2500 motherboard with dual Pentium III 1 GHz Coppermine processors (see www.aslab.com)

If you have a multiprocessor machine working with a P-series please let us know so that we can add your system here!

More Information

In a multi-processor PC, Windows NT & 2000 uses the IOAPIC to assign interrupts from the PCI bus, based on information provided by the BIOS.

CardBus adapters are usually enumerated by the BIOS as PCI to CardBus bridges and as such most BIOS's consider them as not requiring an IRQ.
During the initial boot process, Windows stores this IRQ routing information, and it is not re-configurable, so when the PSeries driver loads, this decision not to assign an IRQ to the CardBus adapter has been set in stone.

For correct operation, the PSeries and PCMCIA drivers require an IRQ to be assigned for card status change etc. In the Uni-processor kernel, IRQ's are not routed through the IOAPIC, so if the BIOS has not assigned an IRQ, the PSeries driver is able to route an IRQ through to the hardware without any problems.

NOTE that this FAQ also applies to multiprocessor motherboards with only one processor fitted if the following Windows NT4.0/2000 kernels are installed:

  • ACPI Multiprocessor PC
  • MPS Multiprocessor PC
  • MPS Uniprocessor PC

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PC Reboots When A Lucent Orinoco WLAN Card Is Inserted

This problem effects both Laptop and Desktop PC's (with PCI or ISA PCMCIA adapters) running Windows 95,98,98SE & Me (probably Windows 2000/XP as well, but we haven't seen this yet!). It also will effect other similar re-badged Lucent Wireless LAN cards from Cabletron, Enterasys, Dell and others. It might also effect WLAN cards made by other manufacturers if they indicate to the operating system that their IRQ may be shared.
It is not a problem with the P-series so other PCMCIA cards will work perfectly well in the adapter, in fact this problem can be reproduced on a laptop.

Symptoms:

When a Lucent WaveLAN (Orinoco) card is inserted into the PCMCIA slot, or the Lucent card is already inserted and another PCMCIA card is inserted into the adjacent PCMCIA slot, the PC immediately reboots. When you boot the PC with the Lucent WaveLAN(Orinoco) card and another PCMCIA card in the adjacent PCMCIA slot, the PC reboots, then reboots, then reboots..... for ever!

The Reason For The Problem:

The Lucent WaveLAN Wireless LAN drivers are not able to share an interrupt with a PCI device in the Laptop/Desktop PC. When available IRQ resources are low and a second PCMCIA card requiring an IRQ is inserted into an adjacent PCMCIA slot, Windows will re-balance the resources in the PC to free up an IRQ for the new device. 
The Lucent WLAN card reports that it is able to share it's IRQ, so Windows allocates it an IRQ that is assigned to a PCI device. The trouble is, a PCMCIA card is technically an "ISA" device when speaking in terms of it's IRQ's, so now two very different devices are sharing an IRQ that can only be steered correctly on the motherboard to one of them. So Windows cannot even hope to be able to configure the IRQ properly for both devices at the same time and fails to do it. Then an interrupt occurs from one of the devices which then just runs away un-handled causing a stack overflow and eventually the reboot. 

The Solution:

NB: Please make sure you have backed up the registry and your important files before you do this. Team Solutions, Inc. cannot be held responsible for any problems that may occur!

  1. From the start menu "Run..." command, type "regedit" in the box and click OK
  2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\Net\000x were x is a number (0,1,2 etc). There may be several network interfaces installed, and each PC is likely to be different, so you need to look in each one until you find the right key.
  3. Check that the "DriverDesc" entry is the expected one of the card (e.g. on my PC it says "WaveLAN/IEEE PC Card (5volt)", yours may have "Orinoco" or something like that). If it does not match the expected or similar text then try one of the other keys under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\Net until you find one that matches.
  4. Click "Registry" "Export Registry File" and save the selected key to a file so that you can restore it later (just in case you make a mistake or want to restore the original settings).
  5. Find the binary entry that's called "EnableIRQSharing" and delete it.
  6. Close the registry editor and re-boot the PC.

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Enabling SRAM/Linear FLASH Card File System Support in Windows 

Windows operating systems do not natively support linear flash and SRAM cards, but they can easily be made to work. Just follow the appropriate instructions below for your operating system...

If you don't want file system access to your card, binary access of linear FLASH, SRAM, CF and ATA cards is possible in all Windows operating systems by using Memory Card Explorer (MCE)

Windows 95 / 98 / 98SE

SRAM Cards

To install a PCMCIA SRAM card in Windows 9x, the following two entries must be placed in the Config.sys file :

device=c:\<windows>\system\csmapper.sys
device=c:\<windows>\system\carddrv.exe /slot=<x>

where <windows> is the Windows folder and <x> indicates the number of PCMCIA card slots in the computer.

Flash Cards

To install a PCMCIA Flash memory card in Windows 9x, the following entries must be placed in the Config.sys file :

device=c:\<windows>\system\csmapper.sys
device=c:\<windows>\system\carddrv.exe /slot=<x>
device=c:\<windows>\ms-flash.sys

where <windows> is the Windows folder and <x> indicates the number of PCMCIA slots in the computer.

NOTE: The Ms-flash.sys file is not included with Windows 9x. This file must be provided by the Flash memory card manufacturer.

Windows ME

PCMCIA Flash/SRAM drivers are supplied on the Windows Me CD-ROM. They can be found in the \drivers\storage\flash folder on the CD-ROM. 

Install the file named TRUEFFS.INF by right-clicking on the file and choosing "INSTALL" from the pull down menu. 

Once you have installed the driver, reboot the system, then insert the card and follow the prompts. 

Note:

Older "Series I FLASH" cards will not function under Windows ME, even with these drivers.

Windows NT4

SystemSoft CardWizard is required for "file system" operation with SRAM cards.

Windows 2000 / XP

SRAM Cards

SRAM cards are natively supported by the operating system, though there are occasionally issues with SRAM cards on some PC's

If you have an SRAM card from an unsupported manufacturer (in which case, when you insert the card, the OS will ask you for a driver), you may need to select the SRAM card driver (memcard.sys) by choosing "Update Driver" in the device manager and selecting the "Generic PCMCIA Memory Card" driver from the list of "Memory technology drivers"

Linear Flash

Some Linear Flash cards are supported by these OS's, but if your card is not in this list (in which case, when you insert the card, the OS will ask you for a driver), then you could get read only support by selecting the "Generic PCMCIA Memory Card" driver (as above). Though, in this situation, you will need to have the card formatted as if it were an SRAM card. You could also try using the "M-Systems PCMCIA Flash Card" (tffsport.sys) driver, but it will only work if this driver supports the particular chipset in your Linear Flash card (you will get a yellow ! icon in the Device Manager if it does not).

If you require full R/W support of your Linear Flash card, then you will either need drivers provided by your Linear Flash card vendor or you should install third party Linear Flash card support like Systemsoft's "FlashManager for Windows 2000&XP" (see http://www.systemsoft.com/l-2/l-3/products-flashmanager.htm for more information.).

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Current Driver Version

The current P-series driver version is 5.05; you can download new drivers but note that these will only work with a genuine Elan manufactured product purchased from Team Solutions, Inc. or Ines GmbH.  If you have any questions, contact your supplier for assistance.

Models using these drivers:

P111 - P222 - P423 - P424 - P113 - P114 - P115 - P116 - P117 - P118 - P119 - P122 - P223 - P224 - P228.

Downloading Software Drivers for PCI-to-PCMCIA Adapters:

IMPORTANT:  Please read this information carefully before trying to install these drivers....

Downloadable from this page is the latest version (5.05) of the P-Series drivers, supporting Windows9x, Me, NT4.0 & 2000.
To install, you should firstly uninstall any previous revision of the driver (via the Control Panel Add/Remove Programs). It is not necessary to remove the hardware, just any PC-Cards you have inserted. Copy the attached zip file to a temporary directory and extract all the files using WinZip or other zip file utility (go to http://www.winzip.com/ for the latest copy if required), then run setup.exe and follow the on-screen instructions.

These drivers are only for use with the range of PC-Card/Card Bus adapters for the PCI bus products sold by Team Solutions, Inc. and Ines GmbH. They can NOT be used with adapters made by other manufacturers. If your adapter has an "Elan Technology License" label attached to it, or your original driver floppy disk has such a label, then your hardware is not manufactured by Elan and these drivers will not work, so do not install them. You should go to your supplier for a driver that is compatible with your hardware.

You will need a password as the zip file is password protected.  The password can be found by looking in the licence.txt file on your original driver disk. The password is the last word in the section headed "Reverse Engineering"

Please contact Team Solutions, Inc. or Ines Gmbh. for assistance if you have any questions.

Download the driver from our new website:  www.TeamPCTechnology.com

Search For: P-Series Driver

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