CS1000E - Software Install Problems on CP PIV

[riscyrich]

We've had one of our CPU's die this week in our Campus Redundant install of the CS1000E. Turns out that the 1Gb flash card / hard disk had failed on the CPU board.

We've replaced the CF card, made a bootable software install flash card for the CF2 slot using the Nortel tools and attempted to boot, however it just fails and gives the following message, then reboots again : "VxWorks OS not found"

This seems to be a BIOS message as it's set to look for VxWorks. You can turn the option off in the BIOS and it will then just report that it couldn't find any OS.

We've tried a few flash cards but they all produce the same results, have tried producing the CF software install card on all sorts of different laptops and OS' (Win98 to WinXP) but not had much luck. Has anyone any suggestions as we just can't get the CPU to boot from the card in the CF2 slot?

Best regards,

Richard

 

[dlesap]

maybe the method to install soft on cf2 is not correct. i had to do it once, last december. i had a zip file from nortel(0450w_i29_p115_pre_cpp4.zip), inflated it in a directory on my laptop, write the content of this directory (2 files .sys and 6 subdirectories) on the cf2 using a pcmcia adaptor from my laptop, but not copy the directory itself..
Then booting from cf2.

That must runs... if you are not sure of your cf2, if possible, insert it in the active cpu, and boot to check if it's ok. If ok, then the problem it's a hardware failure on the other cpu

 

[dlesap]

find that text file in a directory:

Bootable RMD utility usage
---------------------------

- Download the CP PIV software load zip file from software download site.

- Extract all the files to a temporary folder. You will see 5 folders under the
root directory, as follows:
/cf2/
/backup
/install
/keycode
/swload
/utilities

- Go to utilities directory and double click on mkbootrmd.bat file to make your
RMD bootable.

Please see below for more details on mkbootrmd.bat script.

- Once the script execution is complete. Copy all the folders in the temporary
folder and paste it to the Compact Flash RMD.

About the utility:
------------------

- This tool works on all versions of Windows OS.

- This tool does not validate whether the drive letter that the user enters is a
valid RMD Compact Flash. So, please make sure that you enter the correct RMD
drive.

- Usually drive C: and D: will be Windows hard disk partitions, so be careful
when entering drive C or D.

- This tool formats the drive, so by executing mkbootrmd.bat script You will
lose the data on RMD Compact Flash or on any drive that you enter.

mkbootrmd.bat script:
---------------------

- Prompts the user to enter the RMD Compact Flash drive letter.

- Formats the RMD

- Installs the VxWorks boot loader on to the boot sector of RMD.

- Copies the fdrom.bin to RMD as bootrom.sys

- copies the nvram.sys to RMD.

 

[riscyrich]

Done all that, still don't have a winner.

The real bones of the problem is that we simply cannot get the CPU to boot from the cf2 slot, we've tried 3 or 4 different 256Mb cards (the software build is 188Mb) some of which even the BIOS fails to find. The only one the BIOS seems happy with is the SanDisk type. Also tried a 1Gb SanDisk CF card but can't get it to boot from that either.

What is even more strange is the CPU board won't accept the 1Gb SanDisk card in the CF2 slot, but will accept it in the internal hard disk slot.

We have managed to get it to boot from the original 1Gb (that came with the spare CPU) but due to the partition sizes we couldn't get the software build on to it). However once we had formatted the card so we could get the software build on it also became un-bootable. We are convinced it has something to do with the way in which the card is formatted and/or partitioned up.

FYI - we have a spare CPU on hand and have tried all of the above and obtained the same results.

Cheers

Rich

 

[dlesap]

You look to have done all what i should do in the same case.

Is there not any point in the boot process where you may hit a key to stop the process to boot from hard disk? That's a usual way to do.

Don't you have the original cf2 card? or is it definitly dead?
Don't you have another CS1000E with original cf2?

 

[riscyrich]

Well just by luck we managed to find an original CF card i.e. pre formatted by Nortel and popped the software on it.

From what we understand the CF2 slot will only boot from cards that have been formatted, partitioned and MBR created by VxWorks. If any other OS created the MBR then there is no way that the PentiumIV cpu card will boot from it when it is in the CF2 slot.

I'm going to see if Nortel have anything to say about this because it cost us over a days worth of engineering time, even when we used all the right tools they mention in the build docs.

Cheers

Rich

 

[dlesap]

The same problem exists with PCMCIA formated with non FAT system or without the Nortel tool. Not a surprise, but the solution is welcome