Why do i keep getting PCFS failures on my BSTDX9000s?

[drule]

I've got a whole bunch of BSTDX 9000s in my network, and i'm getting a huge amount of 31.0 PCFS errors on my CP40s. I had a problem sourcing new flash cards that would work out of the box on the boards, but finally managed it. We've swapped loads, but even with the new flash i'm still seeing recurring PCFS errors. I'm at a loss as to what could be causing them.
When looking at the card diagsa i see a 31.0 fatal error, the diagnostics source is Device Driver Level. The messages is failed starting PCFS. I'm beginning to suspect this is not hrdware at all but abug in the version of code we are running. We're on 04.04.02.04.
Can anyone help, have you seen this before?

 

[ralphgb]

It's likely that a CP40 is bad and needs to be replaced.

However, version 4 firmware is ancient. It may well be a bug, but if it is, it's probably fixed in a later version (the current version is 8).

 

[Papa4]

There is so little knowledge about Lucent 9000 and CBX500
switches. Documentation is hard to come by and support is
VERY expensive from Lucent. As the previous post said,
version 4 is old.

There is a newer version 8 of the Opcode that I have seen cause the processor boards to constantly reboot. My memory is failing me right now, but I believe the version ends in 08.xx.xx.12 This is especially true if your machine has
440 mb SanDisk flash cards. These are special IDE type
flash cards that I have not been able to read in anything
but a specialized $400.00 PCMCIA flash card reader.
The next higer version that ends in .14 seems to correct
this.

There exists a 440mb flash card made by another vendor that can replace the SanDisk. These CAN be read in many
laptop computers for some reason, so it makes it easy to
save all your files to your PC before doing any upgrades.

For what it's worth, a company named Lord's Computer

http://www.lordsnet.com

sells these CP40 cards and PCMCIA
flash cards (or hard disks) for resonable prices. They
offer a replace with like item warranty, so you don't
have to fear getting a bad card and not being able to
send it back.

http://www.lordsnet.com/index-2.htm

http://www.lordsnet.com/vendors/lucent/broadband_hardware/lucent_b-stdx_wan_switch.html

 

[drule]

Thanks for both comments - as oyu know the 9000 and 500 are both end of life, so even if i was inclined to be ripped of by Lucent that would be impossible anyway.

I've already been in contact with Lords and we have a very god relationship. We're not going down the upgrade route at the moment, besides v8 needs the NMS upgrade too. We're running the code version we have as a legacy things back from the days of support from Lucent and our patch having a specific fix in it.

Lords have found that the SimpleTech flash cards are much better and the PCFS is difficult if not impossible to reproduce with those. I have had the same issue reading the SanDisk cards. Try and get simpletech to sell you these cards though - ha!!!

Anyhow i guess i'm stuck with what seems to be a write problem/driver problem in this code version, with some less than pleasing PCMCIA reliability. Unless i can get hold of a batch of the SimpleTech cards which seem much more robust.

Thanks again.... you have reinforced my own beliefs!!!