Appendix J
Troubleshooting
© National Instruments Corporation
J-3
VXIpc-486 Model 500 Series
Why does the VXIpc-486 and/or its installed components (GPIB, COM port) fail to work
once ISA bus plug-in cards are installed?
The VXIpc-486 and its components use port I/O register space, interrupts, and DMA, just like a
desktop PC. If installing an ISA bus card causes something to stop working, it is very likely that
you have a conflict of these resources between the VXIpc-486 and the plug-in card. See
Appendix G, VXIpc-486 Hardware Configuration, for the resources that the VXIpc-486 uses.
Why does my network not work properly?
There can be a possible conflict with the network card in your system. See the question Why
does the VXIpc-486 and/or its installed components (GPIB, COM port) fail to work once ISA bus
plug-in cards are installed? above.
In addition, most network cards use some portion of the upper memory area, usually between
D000h to EFFFh, for their operation. Because the VXIpc-486 also uses some of this memory
area, the computer and the network card may be conflicting. See Why does RESMAN report
warning/errors about devices that don’t exist in my system? earlier in this section for more
information.
When my computer boots, it says that it cannot access the hard disk drive (HDD), or says
System Not Found
, or
Fixed Disk Failure
. Is my HDD damaged?
It is not uncommon for the computer to be unable to access the HDD if the system loses power
during certain times of operation. Try the following procedure to fix the problem.
1. Reboot the VXIpc-486 and, during the system tests, press the <F2> key.
2. Select Setup from the menu.
3. Press the <F9> key to Auto Configure the system.
4. Press <F10> to save the configuration.
5. Press <Esc> until you exit the BIOS
Setup
utility.
6. If the errors do not go away, power off your mainframe, remove the VXIpc-486, and check
the hard drive settings on its label.
7. Reinsert the VXIpc-486, power on the mainframe, go back into the BIOS
Setup
utility, and
make sure that the hard drive parameters match those printed on the label.
8. If the errors do not go away, open the VXIpc-486 and make sure the hard drive cable and
power cable are securely attached to the hard drive.
If this procedure did not fix the problem, check to see if you can boot off a floppy DOS disk and
then change the drive to
C
. If the problem persists, your HDD is probably damaged and may
need to be reformatted or repaired.