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Troubleshooting And Info On "Network Device |
The information in this document applies to:
WordPerfect® 5.1 for DOS
Problem
Solutions: The "Disk Error 88" message was changed on the 01/03/89 interim release of WP 5.0 for DOS to "Network Device Fault Reading Drive F:". Disk Error 88 is the same as "Network Device Fault Reading Drive F:". Drive F: is just a logical location. WordPerfect uses Drive F: as a generic drive allocation. The customer could actually be defaulted to a totally different drive than the one that's reported. This error message is generated when a "Disk Error 88" is returned to WP's critical error handler. This error is reported to WP via INT24. WP interprets this "Disk Error 88" and displays the error message. The error message "Disk Error 88" occurs when there is a critical network device fault and the communication between the file server and the workstation is suspended. Generally this will indicate that a device or piece of hardware somewhere has failed. It occurs almost entirely on Novell. The error is returned when the shell thinks there is some type of hardware problem. If an entire segment or portion of a network experiences this problem simultaneously, chances are that the problem is at the file server itself or a router, concentrator, or hub. If the problem only occurs on one PC, chances are that the problem is either with the cable leading from the distribution device to the PC or the network card in the PC itself. Possible causes are: 1. A bad slot 2. No slot available 3. Bad network number 4. Bad local address 5. Bad cabling 6. Bad hub 7. Bad card 8. Two network interface cards with the same address 9. Physical distance between work station and server is too far 10. Expanded memory pageframe is in conflict with the shared memory buffers for the network interface card 11. A slow network interface card running on a very fast machine. If this is the cause, the problem can be fixed by changing the wait state. For a single machine, the wait state can be slowed down (i.e. from 12 to 8 megahertz). If the error occurs on all stations then the wait state for the file server needs to be increased. It is logical for this error to occur if the file server goes down. Disk Error 88 can occur in WP while other applications run fine. WP makes more calls and demands on a network than probably any other software. WP gives the I/O a workout by making many calls to disk and writing temporary files to block, print, save, generate, merge, list files, change the set file, or many other WP functions. Disk Error 88 can be narrowed down to an area or a specific work station. In most cases, the error is due to hardware problems, or improper network setup. The following are things to try when troubleshooting a "Network Device Fault Reading Drive F:", "Disk Error 88" or "Device Error 88 Writing To LPT1" (on OS/2) error message: 1. The error can be caused by insufficient rights to the WP directory. One user eliminated the error by redirecting the temporary files with the /D switch to a local drive (e.g., /D-C:\). 2. One customer got this error when entering WP without supervisory rights. Troubleshooting revealed that this error was related to a problem Novell Netware 3.10 has with trustee assignments in regards to COMMAND.COM. This customer's computer was reading COMMAND.COM from the network drive in a directory where the users had only RF (Read and File Scan) privileges. By using the SET COMSPEC=A:\COMMAND.COM command, he was able to work around the problem. 3. Other users have corrected this error by starting WP with the /NC startup option. 4. One user found that she had an older version of NETx on the machine. Updating the NETx file corrected the problem. 5. Another customer got this error after printing to a local printer. This customer found an ENCAP command in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Removing this command allowed the customer to print normally. 6. One user corrected this problem by replacing the Cable Centers from CABLETRON and exchanging the media filters. 7. A customer using Novell 3.11 and DOS 5.0 solved this problem by removing the STACKS command in the CONFIG.SYS file that PC TOOLS had put in. 8. Another customer with DOS 5.0 solved this problem by running DOS 5.0's LOADFIX command. The syntax for LOADFIX is LOADFIX [drive] [path] [filename]. 9. One customer using IBM Token Ring 16/4 network cards with a BIOS date of 1990 contacted Novell about this error message. Novell told him that the problem could be one of two things. First, Novell has a new IPX for the card which may solve the problem. This IPX file (TRNFRM.ZIP) is on CompuServe. The user should contact Novell to obtain the exact location of the file on CompuServe. Second, Novell instructed the customer to try decreasing the Receive Packet Buffer Size. This can be done on the command line by typing the following (_=space): IPX_O_TBZ=2000. This will reduce the buffer size from 4K to 2K. The second option solved the problem for this customer. 10. Another customer using IBM Token Ring 16/4 and Proteon 1890 Token Ring cards found that the file server had a failing Token Ring card in it. After the customer replaced the Token Ring card in the file server, the problem was eliminated. 11. Another customer changed out the passive hub for an active hub which eliminated the error. 12. Packets can easily get dropped on a network if they have a long way to travel. With proper Multiple Access Units (MAUs), the problem may be avoided. Customers should meter their wires to find out whether they can use passive MAUs, or if they need active MAUs to get the packets to their destinations. 13. One customer on a diskless workstation found that using the /NF startup option solved the problem. A diskless workstation requires that the NIC (Network Interface Card) have a remote boot ROM. The /NF switch forces WP to make its video calls through the BIOS instead of directly to the card. 14. Another customer on a diskless workstation received the error "Network Device Fault Reading Drive A:." This customer was able to solve this problem by inserting a LASTDRIVE=E: statement in the CONFIG.SYS file. This made the first network drive F:. Drive A: is not available on diskless workstations. 15. Customers receiving either a "Network Device Fault Reading Drive F:" or "Disk Error 88" who are running Novell NetWare version 2.2 Shell should contact Novell for an update that should correct the problem. 16. One user on a Novell NetWare 3.11 network receives the error "Network Device Fault Reading Drive F:" when starting WP. The user changed the IRQ and base address of the network interface card (NIC) to correct the problem. The user had a Novell Ethernet NIC, NE2000. As a general rule, Novell recommends avoiding IRQ 2,3, and 9 and setting the base address at 300 or above. 17. One user corrected the "Network Device Fault Reading Drive F:" error by manually selecting the IBM VGA Graphics Screen Type instead of allowing WP to autoselect. |
Answer:
Details:
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