3Com 3C996B-T manual Diagnostics, Initializing the Management Programs

Initializing the Management Programs

■Memory Address: Indicates the memory mapped address that is assigned to the selected NIC. This value can never be zero.

■PCI Bus Mode: Indicates the type and mode of PCI bus slot that is occupied by the selected NIC. The possible values of this parameter are:

PCI 33MHz 32-bit bus PCI 33MHz 64-bit bus PCI 66MHz 64-bit bus PCI-X 100 MHz 64-bit bus

■Network Status: Provides overall status of the following:

■Link Status OK—When GREEN, it indicates there is a link established at 10, 100, or 1000 Mbps. When RED, it indicates that a link is not established.

■Receive OK—Indicates the selected NIC is able to receive data (gigabit only).

■Transmit OK—Indicates the selected NIC is able to transmit data (gigabit only).

NOTE: Only NICs with a 1000 Mbps link will light the Local Receiver/Remote receiver LEDs.

NOTE: Parameters (3 thru 10) are not applicable on other vendors' NICs and

these values are displayed as: Information Not Available.

Diagnostics

The Diagnostics screen allows you to view information for 3Com NICs. This function is used to test the physical NIC components.

NOTE: Network connection will be lost when running these tests.

Interface components of the Diagnostics window are described below:

■Control Register Test: Verifies the read and write capabilities of the network controller registers by writing various values to the registers and verifying the result. The device driver uses these registers to perform network functions such as sending and receiving information. If the test fails, the network NIC may not work properly.

■MII Register Test: Verifies the read and write capabilities of the physical layer chip registers. The physical layer chip is used to control the electrical signals on the wire and for configuring network speed, such as 1000 Mbps.

■EEPROM Test: Verifies the content of the EEPROM by reading a portion of the EEPROM and computing the checksum. The test fails if the computed checksum differs from the checksum stored in the EEPROM. An EEPROM image upgrade will not require a code change for this test.

■Internal Memory Test: Verifies that the network controller internal memory is functioning properly. The test writes patterned values to the memory and reads back the results. The test fails if an erroneous value is read back. The network controller will not function without its internal memory.

■On Chip CPU Test: Verifies the operation of the two internal CPUs in the network controller.

■Interrupt Test: Verifies that the NDIS driver is able to receive interrupts from the network controller.

■MAC and PHY Loopback Test: Verifies that the NDIS driver is able to send packets and receive packets from the network controller. (See “DOS Diagnostic Failures” on

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