NT40 hanging on startup at updating ESCD.....

RA · External Since: Feb 02, 2006 Posts: 1

I put in a new 10/100 NIC card in my NT4.0 server and when restarting,
I get a continual hang on "Updating ESCD"......

What happened, and what can I do to get by or fix the problem?

Any suggestions are welcomed BIGTIME!

thanks!

Richard

Steven · External Since: Feb 03, 2006 Posts: 2

On Thu, 02 Feb 2006 17:23:21 -0600, RA wrote:

>I put in a new 10/100 NIC card in my NT4.0 server and when restarting,
>I get a continual hang on "Updating ESCD"......

This sounds like a BIOS issue. Perhaps it is having trouble updating
the part of the flash PROM that contains this info.

Does the problem disappear if you remove the new NIC ?

Can you try 'reset configuration data' in BIOS setup to see if this
helps ?

The only time I have hit this was when I used a non-standard PROM for
the BIOS. This was when I was testing an upgrade and didn't want to
change the original chip.

-- Steven

Richard Lionheart IX · External Since: Feb 04, 2006 Posts: 6

Steven, Thanks for the info. I did remove the NIC, tried without it,
put another in, changed the bios data and it still hangs in the same
place. Reset bios info was step 3 after the changeouts.

I even changed the memory out to other memory then replaced the
original memory. It worked for seven years with minimal reboots. A
VERY stable system until this fiasco! Hard to imagine that changing a
NIC card could cause this!

Thanx.
Richard

On Fri, 03 Feb 2006 13:40:42 +1100, Steven wrote:

>On Thu, 02 Feb 2006 17:23:21 -0600, RA wrote:
>
>>I put in a new 10/100 NIC card in my NT4.0 server and when restarting,
>>I get a continual hang on "Updating ESCD"......
>
>This sounds like a BIOS issue. Perhaps it is having trouble updating
>the part of the flash PROM that contains this info.
>
>Does the problem disappear if you remove the new NIC ?
>
>Can you try 'reset configuration data' in BIOS setup to see if this
>helps ?
>
>The only time I have hit this was when I used a non-standard PROM for
>the BIOS. This was when I was testing an upgrade and didn't want to
>change the original chip.
>
>-- Steven

Jiri Tuma1 · External Since: Mar 09, 2004 Posts: 31

What procedure you used to reset bios data? I hope you wrote down original
configuratin, before this reset made. Setting BIOS correctly to be used by
NT server could be sometimes a bit tricky. But you hangs even before BIOS
try to load anything, so first you need to solve this problem.

Get out this new NIC. Then try to look for help in your motheboard (BIOS)
manual. I think resetting of ESCD table could help here, as updating is
evidently messed up. Try to find ESCD reset option on PnP setting or Boot
settings BIOS setup page (unfortunately, this option is now obsolete, but if
you have older machine, you may have luck having it still here). Setting
this option to ON and restarting machine usually works like charm in your
situation (this option will apply just once on next TURN ON and set itself
to OFF automatically during procedure) . If this not help, you should to
remove all adapters except video. Try to disable all unneccessary onboard
devices. All you need is video and keyboard. Try to reset ESCD table again
and if you go over, continue by adding devices back one by one.

Seems your new NIC card inflicted rearrange of ESCD table by BIOS PnP
manager and that this caused two incompatible devices to try to share one
IRQ. It may happen even with PnP devices. Number of hardware interrupts in
standard PC is very limited. So new devices are made to be able to share it
with other "compatible" device. PnP devices present itself to PnP manager
with tag, containing also information about possibility to share IRQs.
Unfortunately, some devices are not able to cooperate even they present
itself as able to share IRQ. For example if you have 2 NICs from 3COM, they
both will share the same IRQ and there will be no problem. But if PnP
manager set 3COM NIC to be shared with Creative Soundcard, you can have
problems like you described in your post. It is sometimes possible to
rearrange devices, but you will sure meet another problem - Windows NT do
not like devices to be rearranged. Resetting of CMOS settings on NT server
machine is really dangerous, because servers usually have a lot of disk and
network devices that needs special BIOS settings to be functional under NT
system. If you know not original settings, you can spend hours trying to
find them again.

"Richard Lionheart IX" píse v diskusním príspevku

> Steven, Thanks for the info. I did remove the NIC, tried without it,
> put another in, changed the bios data and it still hangs in the same
> place. Reset bios info was step 3 after the changeouts.
>
> I even changed the memory out to other memory then replaced the
> original memory. It worked for seven years with minimal reboots. A
> VERY stable system until this fiasco! Hard to imagine that changing a
> NIC card could cause this!
>
> Thanx.
> Richard
>
> On Fri, 03 Feb 2006 13:40:42 +1100, Steven wrote:
>
> >On Thu, 02 Feb 2006 17:23:21 -0600, RA wrote:
> >
> >>I put in a new 10/100 NIC card in my NT4.0 server and when restarting,
> >>I get a continual hang on "Updating ESCD"......
> >
> >This sounds like a BIOS issue. Perhaps it is having trouble updating
> >the part of the flash PROM that contains this info.
> >
> >Does the problem disappear if you remove the new NIC ?
> >
> >Can you try 'reset configuration data' in BIOS setup to see if this
> >helps ?
> >
> >The only time I have hit this was when I used a non-standard PROM for
> >the BIOS. This was when I was testing an upgrade and didn't want to
> >change the original chip.
> >
> >-- Steven

Richard Lionheart IX · External Since: Feb 04, 2006 Posts: 6

Jiri and Steven,
Thanks millions for the advice. Once I removed all hardware except
the video, I was able to get past the ESCD screen update. Seems that
my CMOS battery was getting low. I replaced it, still comes up with
CMOS battery message - that it is low, but it booted up.

A series of new problems have appeared, maybe due to the CMOS battery
problem. I lost the video card, then the boot drive, after I replaced
the video card. I think everything is CMOS/BIOS related.
Richard

On Fri, 3 Feb 2006 15:05:31 +0100, "Jiri Tuma"
wrote:

>What procedure you used to reset bios data? I hope you wrote down original
>configuratin, before this reset made. Setting BIOS correctly to be used by
>NT server could be sometimes a bit tricky. But you hangs even before BIOS
>try to load anything, so first you need to solve this problem.
>
>Get out this new NIC. Then try to look for help in your motheboard (BIOS)
>manual. I think resetting of ESCD table could help here, as updating is
>evidently messed up. Try to find ESCD reset option on PnP setting or Boot
>settings BIOS setup page (unfortunately, this option is now obsolete, but if
>you have older machine, you may have luck having it still here). Setting
>this option to ON and restarting machine usually works like charm in your
>situation (this option will apply just once on next TURN ON and set itself
>to OFF automatically during procedure) . If this not help, you should to
>remove all adapters except video. Try to disable all unneccessary onboard
>devices. All you need is video and keyboard. Try to reset ESCD table again
>and if you go over, continue by adding devices back one by one.
>
>Seems your new NIC card inflicted rearrange of ESCD table by BIOS PnP
>manager and that this caused two incompatible devices to try to share one
>IRQ. It may happen even with PnP devices. Number of hardware interrupts in
>standard PC is very limited. So new devices are made to be able to share it
>with other "compatible" device. PnP devices present itself to PnP manager
>with tag, containing also information about possibility to share IRQs.
>Unfortunately, some devices are not able to cooperate even they present
>itself as able to share IRQ. For example if you have 2 NICs from 3COM, they
>both will share the same IRQ and there will be no problem. But if PnP
>manager set 3COM NIC to be shared with Creative Soundcard, you can have
>problems like you described in your post. It is sometimes possible to
>rearrange devices, but you will sure meet another problem - Windows NT do
>not like devices to be rearranged. Resetting of CMOS settings on NT server
>machine is really dangerous, because servers usually have a lot of disk and
>network devices that needs special BIOS settings to be functional under NT
>system. If you know not original settings, you can spend hours trying to
>find them again.
>
>
>
>

Steven · External Since: Feb 03, 2006 Posts: 2

On Thu, 02 Feb 2006 22:11:51 -0600, Richard Lionheart IX
wrote:

>Steven, Thanks for the info. I did remove the NIC, tried without it,
>put another in, changed the bios data and it still hangs in the same
>place. Reset bios info was step 3 after the changeouts.
>
>I even changed the memory out to other memory then replaced the
>original memory. It worked for seven years with minimal reboots. A
>VERY stable system until this fiasco! Hard to imagine that changing a
>NIC card could cause this!

Sorry to hear nothing worked. I presume you have reseated all the cards
and DIMMs in case they have been moved during the surgery.

Is the BIOS PROM removeable ? If so, can you copy the BIOS to a new
PROM ? This is rather involved as you need a matching flash RAM and a
suitable burner. I have never seen a PROM fail but 'updating ESCD' does
write to part of it and I suppose it chip will fail sooner or later. Or
(assuming the chip is in a socket) can you find a matching motherboard
and try swapping the chips.

Hopefully someone else will provide some easier and more helpful
suggestions.

--
Steven