Re: [K12OSN] Enabling boot prom on SMC1211TX

Jim Thomas (jthomas@bittware.com)
Wed, 28 Aug 2002 10:11:42 -0400 

Doug Simpson wrote:
> 
> Put the setup program on a bootable floppy (dos is fine) and ruin it from
> there.  That way you won't have to take the card out and swap it to
> another computer.  It won;t matter that you boot to DOS to fix the NIC to
> EEPROM.  Once it is set, remove the floppy and restart the computer.
> 
> BINGO!

That's exactly what I did.  Now I think I need to revist the ROM image,
because it was ignored.  The boot screens did change when I configged
the NIC (it said something about EZ-BOOT - which it didn't before the
change), but I guess it didn't recognize the ROM.

The SMC1211TX has a 32-pin socket, but the ROMs I've got are 28-pins. 
Often when a ROM is designed into a board, it's wired in such a way to
allow this.  I've designed boards this way, so I actually do know what
I'm talking about.  The trick is to bottom justify the ROM in the
socket, but you also need to figure out how to route either power to pin
28 (for a 28-pin device) or an address line to it (for a 32-pin
device).  This is usually done with a jumper.  But there is no jumper on
the SMC1211TX, which leads me to belive that this particular NIC cannot
take a 28-pin ROM.  Which would explain why my client won't boot from
it.

I guess I'll have to poke around the NIC with a meter to see what gives,
but if anyone *happens* to know if this NIC can take a 28-pin ROM in its
32-pin socket, you could save me some trouble (and I'd sure appreciate
it!)

As I see it, if this NIC won't take smaller ROMs, I have three options: 
buy some bigger ROMs, hack up my NICs to route power to the power pin,
or boot from floppies.

-- 
Jim Thomas            Principal Applications Engineer  Bittware, Inc
jthomas@bittware.com  http://www.bittware.com          (703) 779-7770
Things could be a lot better around here, but worse is more likely -
Calvin



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