Re: More: cromutil hangs when flashing 3C905C-TXM

[Heinrich Rebehn <rebehn@comm.uni-bremen.de>]

Well, I guess I should have taken more time to think before writing the
last mail :-(

The fact that i was able to erase the eeprom really does rule out the
possibility of protected mode. Beeing able to read and erase the eeprom
also rules out resource conflicts. Only possibilities that remain are
broken circuitry (no write enable) or broken eeprom.
I already returned the card to the vendor who said he well send it back
to 3com for replacement.

Regards

	Heinrich 

PS: will continue bying 3com-NICs.


Steve_Marfisi@3com.com wrote:
> 
> YES, WE ARE LISTENING, Heinrich.
> 
> If the Atmel went out in protected mode, then our own 3Com MBA flash utility
> wouldn't be able to work. However, I won't deny the (slim) possibility that a
> batch of 905C-TXM may have released with the Atmel write protected...the NICs
> are produced in different parts of the world....
> 
> Simple test  - (Greg) - run the MBAFlash utility that came on the utility floppy
> / CD. Does it work? If not, let me know the error messages you receive - and
> also where you bought the NICs (try and go back as far as the distributor).
> 
> Heinrich Rebehn <rebehn@comm.uni-bremen.de> on 04/24/2001 02:30:01 AM
> 
> Please respond to netboot@baghira.han.de
> 
> Sent by:  Heinrich Rebehn <rebehn@comm.uni-bremen.de>
> 
> To:   netboot@baghira.han.de
> cc:    (Steve Marfisi/US/3Com)
> Subject:  Re: More: cromutil hangs when flashing 3C905C-TXM
> 
> Greg Beeley wrote:
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > > >> I have been using cromutil successfully fro quite some time with
> > > >> 3C905C-TX NICs.
> > > >> Today i tried to program a 3C905C-TXM and cromutil hangs. I am using
> > > >> cromutil from etherboot 4.7.22, older versions did not work either.
> >
> > It is possible that the Atmel chip was already protected.  I think that
> > particular chip has a feature that allows the programmer to optionally
> > permanently write-protect the bootblock (can't be undone).  If that's true,
> > then it can't be reprogrammed.  Note that I don't think Etherboot makes
> > any distinction between the chip's bootblock and the non-bootblock part.
> >
> > Greg.
> >
> 
> Is this really true? Can anyone confirm/deny this? If it is true, i
> would have to look for an alternative to the 3c905.
> 
> ARE YOU LISTENING, 3COM?
> 
> Heinrich
> 
-- 

Heinrich Rebehn
                        "Have disk - will travel"
University of Bremen
Physics / Electrical and Electronics Engineering
- Department of Telecommunications -

E-mail: mailto:rebehn@comm.uni-bremen.de
Phone : +49/421/218-4664
Fax   :            -3341
===========================================================================
This Mail was sent to netboot mailing list by:
Heinrich Rebehn <rebehn@comm.uni-bremen.de>
To get help about this list, send a mail with 'help' as the only string in
it's body to majordomo@baghira.han.de. If you have problems with this list,
send a mail to netboot-owner@baghira.han.de.