Tek CSA7404/TDS7000 repair project (Upgraded memory/CPU)

[Jwalling]

Try this video driver.

[bricabrac]

Hello Jwalling,

PPC and NLX boards use exactly the same model of 128Mb DRAM.

I first ran Memtest86+ on the NLX DRAM -> no error
Then I swapped DRAMs between NLX and PPC and ran Memtest again -> no error

Then I restarted normally the oscilloscope (with DRAMs still swapped) -> no change, same tcsSynchronize ERROR and exception, and Tekscope freeze as before.

Can't think of anything else to try except checking the interconnect boards for bent pins. Still, you have a questionable NVRAM in there; I would consider replacing it before going any further. I remember seeing one that would pass the PPC diagnostics, yet fail the scopes diagnostics after the application loaded.

Yes, I have to change the NVRAM, at least for the excessive leakage current which depletes the battery in a few weeks. This is not a good health sign... These DS1245YP are quite expensive here. Best offer I have found is at Farnell at 40€.
I will also verify a few questionable electrolytics on the PPC board.
Anyway, I will keep you informed.

Thank you for your time,
Pascal

[Jwalling]

Yes, I have to change the NVRAM, at least for the excessive leakage current which depletes the battery in a few weeks. This is not a good health sign... These DS1245YP are quite expensive here. Best offer I have found is at Farnell at 40€.
I will also verify a few questionable electrolytics on the PPC board.
Anyway, I will keep you informed.

Thank you for your time,
Pascal

Yes, they are ridiculously expensive for a lousy SRAM and a voltage monitoring chip. I HATE Maxim. Not only for their prices, but the EOL'ing of components with no suitable replacements.

[snoopy]

Try this video driver.

Hi Jay

Is this the same one you gave me in the Tektronix bundle ?

cheers

[Jwalling]

Try this video driver.

Hi Jay

Is this the same one you gave me in the Tektronix bundle ?

cheers

I wasn't sure as they came from different images, but now that I look at them both, it would appear so.
They won't install manually for you?

[snoopy]

Try this video driver.

Hi Jay

Is this the same one you gave me in the Tektronix bundle ?

cheers

I wasn't sure as they came from different images, but now that I look at them both, it would appear so.
They won't install manually for you?

I just point Windows at the relevant directory and let it install it but it gets stuck on the last dll and just sits there indefinitely. How did you install yours ?

cheers

[Jwalling]

I just point Windows at the relevant directory and let it install it but it gets stuck on the last dll and just sits there indefinitely. How did you install yours ?

cheers

Same way as you're trying. How about disabling the ATI video, and uninstalling the Chips video from the device manager. Then re-boot the scope and let it try to install again?

[snoopy]

I just point Windows at the relevant directory and let it install it but it gets stuck on the last dll and just sits there indefinitely. How did you install yours ?

cheers

Same way as you're trying. How about disabling the ATI video, and uninstalling the Chips video from the device manager. Then re-boot the scope and let it try to install again?

If I try uninstalling the ATI driver from the Device Mangler it just hangs. Also the bios allows you to select between AGP and PCI graphics but selecting PCI to enable the scope operation doesn't appear to disable it completely. I had better luck when I used my Win XP SP3 build rather than the Win XP SP2 build which seems to pick up the ATI card for some reason.

Do you know what those NVRAM buffer errors are caused by ? Is this an issue with the NVRAM ?

cheers

[Jwalling]

If I try uninstalling the ATI driver from the Device Mangler it just hangs. Also the bios allows you to select between AGP and PCI graphics but selecting PCI to enable the scope operation doesn't appear to disable it completely. I had better luck when I used my Win XP SP3 build rather than the Win XP SP2 build which seems to pick up the ATI card for some reason.

Do you know what those NVRAM buffer errors are caused by ? Is this an issue with the NVRAM ?

cheers

It hangs when you Uninstall the ATI video, or just disabling it, which I recommended?

If you're referring to this:

Code: [Select]

tcsTableUnpack: checksum failed on buffer
tcsTableLoadFromNVRAM: tcsTableUnpack failed

To be honest, I've no idea... Are you sure that the NVRAM is OK, and have you run memtest86+ on the PPC memory?

[bricabrac]

If you're referring to this:

Code: [Select]

tcsTableUnpack: checksum failed on buffer
tcsTableLoadFromNVRAM: tcsTableUnpack failed

To be honest, I've no idea... Are you sure that the NVRAM is OK, and have you run memtest86+ on the PPC memory?

On my TDS7054, when the NVRAM battery was flat and before trying to restore its content, I had exactly the same errors :

Code: [Select]

tcsTableUnpack: checksum failed on buffer
tcsTableLoadFromNVRAM: tcsTableUnpack failed
After executing [tcsLoadTableToNVRAM "setup.tcs"] and [NvramClearDb = 1] as explained in this thread, these two errors disappeared in the boot log.

[snoopy]

If I try uninstalling the ATI driver from the Device Mangler it just hangs. Also the bios allows you to select between AGP and PCI graphics but selecting PCI to enable the scope operation doesn't appear to disable it completely. I had better luck when I used my Win XP SP3 build rather than the Win XP SP2 build which seems to pick up the ATI card for some reason.

Do you know what those NVRAM buffer errors are caused by ? Is this an issue with the NVRAM ?

cheers

It hangs when you Uninstall the ATI video, or just disabling it, which I recommended?

If you're referring to this:

Code: [Select]

tcsTableUnpack: checksum failed on buffer
tcsTableLoadFromNVRAM: tcsTableUnpack failed

To be honest, I've no idea... Are you sure that the NVRAM is OK, and have you run memtest86+ on the PPC memory?

It hangs if I try to unistall it or disable it.

I've done the memtest on the PC memory and it checks out

[snoopy]

If you're referring to this:

Code: [Select]

tcsTableUnpack: checksum failed on buffer
tcsTableLoadFromNVRAM: tcsTableUnpack failed

To be honest, I've no idea... Are you sure that the NVRAM is OK, and have you run memtest86+ on the PPC memory?

On my TDS7054, when the NVRAM battery was flat and before trying to restore its content, I had exactly the same errors :

Code: [Select]

tcsTableUnpack: checksum failed on buffer
tcsTableLoadFromNVRAM: tcsTableUnpack failed
After executing [tcsLoadTableToNVRAM "setup.tcs"] and [NvramClearDb = 1] as explained in this thread, these two errors disappeared in the boot log.

I'm a bit confused on this aspect of it.

Do i set the startup script to run setup.tcs with NvramClearDb = 1 in the script ??

cheers

[Jwalling]

If you're referring to this:

Code: [Select]

tcsTableUnpack: checksum failed on buffer
tcsTableLoadFromNVRAM: tcsTableUnpack failed

To be honest, I've no idea... Are you sure that the NVRAM is OK, and have you run memtest86+ on the PPC memory?

On my TDS7054, when the NVRAM battery was flat and before trying to restore its content, I had exactly the same errors :

Code: [Select]

tcsTableUnpack: checksum failed on buffer
tcsTableLoadFromNVRAM: tcsTableUnpack failed
After executing [tcsLoadTableToNVRAM "setup.tcs"] and [NvramClearDb = 1] as explained in this thread, these two errors disappeared in the boot log.

Interesting. I've never seen that behavior. When the battery is dead, I see the exact same thing as shown in the OP from TiN.

[bricabrac]

I have attached the boot logs (taken from console port) to my post Reply #313.
I attach them here again for convenience (two files, one before any repair attempt, then after trying to refresh the NVRAM content).
Since the two errors disappeared (but in my case the tcsSynchronize error is still there), we can conclude they can be related to the NVRAM content.
I hope this will help.

However, to my opinion, the effects of a depleted NVRAM battery are not necessary always the same from one unit to another, since we cannot predict which RAM cells will first lose their content.

Regards,
Pascal

[snoopy]

OK made some progress tonight. Yesterday I decided to start from scratch again and reinstall Windows as I may have screwed it up along the way doing all of the driver updating etc. Also the thing wouldn't shut down properly and I was getting BSOD when I booted up. It was in a mess so it needed a makeover.

So this time before I installed Windows XP SP3 I made sure the video card was set to PCI in the BIOS and not AGP. The last time I installed windows I had it set to AGP which uses the onboard ATI chip rather than the C&T chips on the PPC board. You can tell because the video displays on an external monitor instead of the oscilloscope LCD display. You don't want this as it appears to confuse windows later on with all sorts of driver issues.

After windows has installed itself it may display at 800x600 and not fit on the screen properly. If this happens go into Control Panel and change the display settings back to 640x480 16 bits resolution.

Now if you go into device manager you will note a whole lot of exclamation marks for some of the drivers such as display etc. This is where you need to install the drivers that Jay has kindly made available to  us. In my case there were two VGA drivers that had exclamation marks so Windows obviously picked up the onboard ATI chipset which you don't use in this app ! So you should be able to update one of these drivers using the Asilant C&T driver. Now update the PCI and touch screen drivers as well and don't worry about the PCMCIA driver.

OK so now the scope is going through its motions but is still hanging on like last time

Code: [Select]

    excHookAdd(stopStressForException)
value = 17557980 = 0x10b
So I'm looking at Tin's setup and note that for other (o) : nvfs=0x1000 whereas mine is set to 0 so I change it and sure enough the scope boots up completely and is working now !!

Now the only problem is that when I run the diagnostics i get miscellaneous failure of 531. Not sure what that is.

cheers
david

[Jwalling]

Now the only problem is that when I run the diagnostics i get miscellaneous failure of 531. Not sure what that is.

From the manual:

NOTE . If diagnostic error message 531 is displayed, run signal-path compensa-
tion and then rerun Instrument Diagnostics.

Hope that's all it is.

[snoopy]

Now the only problem is that when I run the diagnostics i get miscellaneous failure of 531. Not sure what that is.

From the manual:

NOTE . If diagnostic error message 531 is displayed, run signal-path compensa-
tion and then rerun Instrument Diagnostics.

Hope that's all it is.

Yes that fixed it up

Also what is the deal with the serial number thing as it appears to have defaulted to standard factory settings as far as options are concerned.

Is there anyway to bump up the options ?

cheers
david

[Jwalling]

Yes that fixed it up

Also what is the deal with the serial number thing as it appears to have defaulted to standard factory settings as far as options are concerned.

Is there anyway to bump up the options ?

In the [help] [about] pulldown menu, what is the serial # of the unit?
A picture would be great!

[snoopy]

Yes that fixed it up

Also what is the deal with the serial number thing as it appears to have defaulted to standard factory settings as far as options are concerned.

Is there anyway to bump up the options ?

In the [help] [about] pulldown menu, what is the serial # of the unit?
A picture would be great!

Hi Jay

This is what I get from the About screen. Now the funny part about it is that it appears to have defaulted to Option 1M because I can crank up the record length on one channel to 2Meg which according to the specs is the 1M option. Wouldn't mind the 3M option which is the max this model can do

[Jwalling]

Hi Jay

This is what I get from the About screen. Now the funny part about it is that it appears to have defaulted to Option 1M because I can crank up the record length on one channel to 2Meg which according to the specs is the 1M option. Wouldn't mind the 3M option which is the max this model can do

Now try it with all four channels on. 
In the c:\vxboot folder there are two important files. You will need to edit these with the serial number on the rear of the unit and the current option key on the same sticker in a hex editor and drop them in there.
It will need to be rebooted after doing this for the scope to see the updated serial/option key.

[snoopy]

Hi Jay

This is what I get from the About screen. Now the funny part about it is that it appears to have defaulted to Option 1M because I can crank up the record length on one channel to 2Meg which according to the specs is the 1M option. Wouldn't mind the 3M option which is the max this model can do

Now try it with all four channels on. 
In the c:\vxboot folder there are two important files. You will need to edit these with the serial number on the rear of the unit and the current option key on the same sticker in a hex editor and drop them in there.
It will need to be rebooted after doing this for the scope to see the updated serial/option key.

Yes it's still 2M on 1 channel and 500k on all 4 channels but the 1M option is now showing up in the About menu !

Where is the serial number stored in these things ?

cheers

[Jwalling]

Hi Jay

This is what I get from the About screen. Now the funny part about it is that it appears to have defaulted to Option 1M because I can crank up the record length on one channel to 2Meg which according to the specs is the 1M option. Wouldn't mind the 3M option which is the max this model can do

Now try it with all four channels on. 
In the c:\vxboot folder there are two important files. You will need to edit these with the serial number on the rear of the unit and the current option key on the same sticker in a hex editor and drop them in there.
It will need to be rebooted after doing this for the scope to see the updated serial/option key.

Yes it's still 2M on 1 channel and 500k on all 4 channels but the 1M option is now showing up in the About menu !

Where is the serial number stored in these things ?

cheers

It's stored on the disk drive in the .sn file and also in the NVRAM on the PPC board. If the info is lost in the NVRAM, then the scope retrieves it from the drive. Sometimes it takes a few boots to recover it. That's probably what happened in your case. If you lose the NVRAM contents and the disk drive, that's when editing those two files is required.

[snoopy]

Hi Jay

This is what I get from the About screen. Now the funny part about it is that it appears to have defaulted to Option 1M because I can crank up the record length on one channel to 2Meg which according to the specs is the 1M option. Wouldn't mind the 3M option which is the max this model can do

Now try it with all four channels on. 
In the c:\vxboot folder there are two important files. You will need to edit these with the serial number on the rear of the unit and the current option key on the same sticker in a hex editor and drop them in there.
It will need to be rebooted after doing this for the scope to see the updated serial/option key.

Yes it's still 2M on 1 channel and 500k on all 4 channels but the 1M option is now showing up in the About menu !

Where is the serial number stored in these things ?

cheers

It's stored on the disk drive in the .sn file and also in the NVRAM on the PPC board. If the info is lost in the NVRAM, then the scope retrieves it from the drive. Sometimes it takes a few boots to recover it. That's probably what happened in your case. If you lose the NVRAM contents and the disk drive, that's when editing those two files is required.

I'd previously removed the NVRAM battery on the PPC board to test it so it would have lost the contents. It appears that if you use any other serial number and key it will not accept it so the serial number must be stored elsewhere on the board.

Also do you know if it's possible for this scope to remember the last settings because every time I reboot it defaults to it's own settings and ignores where I left it last time. I can't see any options to do this.

cheers

[Jwalling]

I'd previously removed the NVRAM battery on the PPC board to test it so it would have lost the contents. It appears that if you use any other serial number and key it will not accept it so the serial number must be stored elsewhere on the board.

Also do you know if it's possible for this scope to remember the last settings because every time I reboot it defaults to it's own settings and ignores where I left it last time. I can't see any options to do this.

cheers

That's not what I've experienced when mucking around with these scopes. For instance, I remember one that had a dead battery, and a dead hard drive. I replaced the battery, and programmed the NVRAM. Then I imaged a new drive with an image from another scope. It assumed the serial # and option key from the scope that I imaged it with.

RE: the scope not remembering it's last settings, I see that all the time, so I think it's a bug in the firmware that never got fixed. Very annoying. It doesn't happen every time but quite often.

[snoopy]

I'd previously removed the NVRAM battery on the PPC board to test it so it would have lost the contents. It appears that if you use any other serial number and key it will not accept it so the serial number must be stored elsewhere on the board.

Also do you know if it's possible for this scope to remember the last settings because every time I reboot it defaults to it's own settings and ignores where I left it last time. I can't see any options to do this.

cheers

That's not what I've experienced when mucking around with these scopes. For instance, I remember one that had a dead battery, and a dead hard drive. I replaced the battery, and programmed the NVRAM. Then I imaged a new drive with an image from another scope. It assumed the serial # and option key from the scope that I imaged it with.

RE: the scope not remembering it's last settings, I see that all the time, so I think it's a bug in the firmware that never got fixed. Very annoying. It doesn't happen every time but quite often.

But in that case you should be able to use other serial numbers and keys but you can't with the scope I have. Have you tried other keys and sn's ??

cheers