3Com (R) Corporation Etherlink Server 10/100 PCI 3C98X NIC Family Microsoft Windows Server Driver Installation Notes Table of Content ================ * Installing the MS Loopback Driver During a Fresh Installation * Performing a Fresh Installation on a Backup Domain Controller * Windows NT 4.0 TCP/IP Performance in Compaq Servers * Adding Protocols when DynamicAccess Server Features are installed * Memory Requirements for VLANS * Self-healing driver error codes * Windows NT Known Problems * Windows 2000 Known Problems Note: Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 5 is required to install the DynamicAccess software. Windows NT 4.0 TCP/IP Performance in Compaq Servers =================================================== On Compaq ProLiant 1200, 1600, 3000, and 5500 servers, which use the RCC PCI chip set, the NIC performance is slow during file transfer under Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 with TCP/IP at 100 Mbps. Other protocols show no significant performance problems. Compaq is investigating the root cause of the problem. Meanwhile, you can use the memory write invalidate configuration utility (MWICFG) to address your immediate needs. The utility disables the MWI NIC register. Downloading the MWICFG Utility You can download the MWIFIX.EXE compressed file, which contains the MWICFG utility and a readme file, from the 3Com public FTP site as follows: 1. To connect to the 3Com FTP site, enter the following information into your FTP client: Hostname: ftp.3com.com (or 192.156.136.12) Username: anonymous Password: <your Internet e-mail address> A user name and password are not needed with Web browser software such as Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer. 2. After you are connected, enter these commands to download the MWIFIX.EXE compressed file: cd \pub\nic\3c90x bin get mwifix.exe 3. To expand the compressed file, enter: mwifix Using the MWICFG Utility To disable the MWI register: 1. Boot the system under DOS. 2. Change to the directory where you placed the MWICFG utility. 3. At the DOS prompt, enter this command to run the MWICFG.EXE utility: MWICFG 4. Follow the prompts. 5. When the utility has finished running, restart the system. To reenable the register, run the utility with the /e option: MWICFG /e Adding Protocols when DynamicAccess Server Features are installed ================================================================== When you add a protocol to the system for the first time after DynamicAccess server features are installed, individual NICs may be listed in addition to the NIC groups with which they are associated. After adding a protocol for the first time with DynamicAccess server features installed, it is recommended that you remove and reinstall DynamicAccess server features. In the case of TCP/IP, you should remove DynamicAccess server features, assign each NIC an IP Address, and then reinstall DynamicAccess server features. Memory Requirements for VLANS ============================= Number of VLANs Minimum RAM Size (MB) up to 16 128 Self-healing driver error codes =============================== If you see the message "3Com EtherLink Server 10/100 PCI NIC (3C980C-TXM): Could not allocate the resources necessary for operation" in event viewer, it indicates that the self-healing driver has detected an error condition. The error code is located in offset 28 hex in the data area of the event. Here is a list of the error codes and their meanings. c9 - Transmit Stall Detected ca - Receive Stall Detected cb - Interrupt Stall Detected cc - Excessive Error Detected cd - Invalid DPD List Detected ce - Invalid UPD List Detected Windows NT Known Problems ========================= 1. The NT Diagnostics Test fails using 100TX Hub on half duplex. Running the Network Connectivity Test with 3C980C, 3C982 or 3C905C using 100mbs half-duplex setting and a 100TX hub fails. This problem does not occur using a switch or using a hub set to auto detect mode. 2. Self-Healing Driver (SHD) settings for secondary NICs are ignored. If you have a group of NICs where each NIC has its own SHD settings, only the primary NIC settings will be used. The settings for the secondary NICs will be ignored. 3. Diagnostics do not start. If you invoke the 3Com NIC Doctor diagnostics program right after Windows NT boots up, the 3Com NIC Doctor may not appear on the screen. This is because the NT Service Database is still locked. Wait until the NT Service Database is unlocked, then restart 3Com NIC Doctor. 4. System services do not start. After VLANs have been configured, system services that are set to start automatically may not start. To start them: a Determine which services did not start. In the Services Control Panel, services listed as automatic should show a started status. Note those that do not. b Determine the order to start the services. Check the Event Viewer to see the order in which services must be started. c Start the services from a DOS command line. Enter this command for each failed service: NET START service where service is the name of the service. Be sure to start the services in the order shown in the Event Viewer. 5. Installing a 3C905B NIC with a 3C980B or 3C980C NIC causes a crash. To install a 3C905B NIC along with one or more 3C980B or 3C980C NICs, make sure that you are using the latest 3C905C network card software, which can be obtained from the 3Com support web site. If DynamicAccess software is installed and the 3C905B card is not connected to a network, the computer may crash. This can be resolved by securing a network connection for the 3C905B NIC, removing DynamicAccess software, or by removing all 3C905B drivers. In the future, a new release that resolves this problem will be available for the 3C905B and 3C905C. This release will be newer than EtherCD5.1. Remove all 3Com network card software before you attempt to install this newer software for the 3C905B. Windows 2000 Known Problems =========================== 1. There is no standalone diagnostics installation program. If you remove the 3Com diagnostics program through the control panel, you must reinstall or upgrade the driver to reinstall the diagnostics. 2. Removing a driver through the Local Area Connection Driver Details Pane. There are two methods to uninstall a network card driver: through the Device Manager and through the Driver Details pane accessed through the Local Area Connection pane. The former method is recommended. If you use the Driver Details pane, the following message dialog may appear at the end of the removal cycle: "An unexpected condition occurred. Not all of your requested changes in settings could be made". Ignore this message; the driver software is removed correctly. 3. Erroneous disconnected indicator appears after changing the media speed. After you use the Windows 2000 Advanced tab to change the media speed, the 3Com icon in the system tray indicates erroneously that the NIC is disconnected (it appears with a red circle and slash). To correct this problem, restart Windows 2000. 4. After changing the media type in the Advanced tab, the LAN properties window hangs. If you change the media type in the Advanced tab, the Local Area Network Properties window may hang. If this happens, enter Ctrl+Alt+Del and end the Local Area Network Properties task. 5. Node address does not display when other NICs are installed. If the 3C980C is installed in the same server as a 3C905 NIC, the node addresses for both NICs may not display correctly in the 3Com NIC Diagnostics program. To correct this problem, download and install the latest 3C905 driver from 3Com web site. 6. 3Com NIC Diagnostics program is not reinstalled correctly if the NIC driver is upgraded through the Local Area Connection pane. If you use the Add/Remove program in the Control Panel to remove the 3Com NIC Diagnostics program, you can reinstall it only by upgrading the NIC driver through the Device Manager window or by removing and reinstalling the NIC drivers through Device Manager. If you attempt to upgrade the driver through the Local Area Connection Pane, the diagnostics program will not be installed correctly. 7. DHCP Server Service installation recommends use of static IP addresses. If you install DHCP Server Service on a server where the 3Com NIC driver and DynamicAccess server features are already installed, the DHCP Server Service installation detects dynamically assigned IP addresses for the DynamicAccess miniports and warns that you should use static IP addresses. Ignore these warnings. Do not assign static IP addresses. 8. Invoking the Advanced tab through the Network Wizard causes the NWLink NetBIOS component to unbind. Invoking the Advanced tab through the Network Wizard instead of through the Device Manager and then changing property values such as the media speed causes components such as NWLink NetBIOS to unbind. To avoid this problem, invoke the Advanced tab and change property values through the Device Manager as follows: a. Right-click My Computer and select Properties from the menu. b. Click the Hardware tab, then click Device Manager. c. Double-click Network Adapters. d. Right-click the NIC name and select Properties from the menu. e. Click the Advanced tab. f. Select the property you want to change. g. Use the scroll list to change the value. h. Exit the Device Manager. 9. You must uninstall the driver before removing a NIC or moving it to another slot on the server. In systems that do not support PCI hot plug, you must first uninstall the driver before you physically remove a NIC from the server or move it to another slot on the server. If you fail to first uninstall the driver, the DynamicAccess Miniport assignment for the NIC remains in the system. The procedure for moving or removing a NIC is: 1. Uninstall the driver from the NIC. 2. Shut down the server. 3. Move or remove the NIC. 4. Restart the server. 5. Install the driver to the NIC. If you move a NIC without first uninstalling the driver, the procedure to recover is: 1. Uninstall the driver and DynamicAccess software from all NICs. 2. Reinstall the driver and DynamicAccess software. 3. Reconfigure the NICs. 11. How to install the driver and advanced server feature from floppies. After running the MAKEDISK utility, create a temporary directory in the server e.g. c:\3c980. Insert the floppy disk #1 into the server machine and issue this command: XCOPY A:\*.* C:\3C980 /S Repeat the command for the rest of the floppy disks. Then, go back to Windows 2000 driver installation screen and enter the directory C:\3c980 as the source directory of the driver files. 12. During a failover event, Windows 2000 may generate the following spurious message: "The server has encountered a network error." This message is not indicative of an error; it should be ignored. (%VER \WINNT\README.TXT v2.1.0.1)Download Driver Pack
After your driver has been downloaded, follow these simple steps to install it.
Expand the archive file (if the download file is in zip or rar format).
If the expanded file has an .exe extension, double click it and follow the installation instructions.
Otherwise, open Device Manager by right-clicking the Start menu and selecting Device Manager.
Find the device and model you want to update in the device list.
Double-click on it to open the Properties dialog box.
From the Properties dialog box, select the Driver tab.
Click the Update Driver button, then follow the instructions.
Very important: You must reboot your system to ensure that any driver updates have taken effect.
For more help, visit our Driver Support section for step-by-step videos on how to install drivers for every file type.