E3C509X.1

Sourced from a 3C509B-TPC (RJ45/BNC)

=============================

E3C509X.2

Sourced from a 3C509B-C (RJ45/BNC/AUI)

Hope that helps!

... and the configuration for the 3C509B-C:

... and finally, the info screen for the 3C509B-TP:

Oh it sure does, the second card is a -C(OMBO) identical to mine. This dump alone should get me what I need, but with the screenshots I can now try to figure out where exactly my data is glitched. Many thanks!

The good news: The idea was good, and my program works, I was able to write the modified image back to EEPROM. The card is now recognized as 3C905B-Combo and all the HW tests pass, including FIFO.
The bad news: It seems in the extended data chunk there is yet another checksum because the EEPROM Vital Data Test still fails, this is the only thing left to fix. I might have to disassemble the diagnostic program to figure this one out, but I'm close.

Let me know if there's anything more I can help with via these two cards of mine.

It seems I got the card error-free by changing it's config to full duplex. During saving 3Com configuration program clears the last 16 bytes of the EEPROM image, and modifies a few more, but now all checksums are finally correct - and the card is still a 509B model with my MAC and manufacturing date. I don't know what is stored in those bytes and I can't figure out that checksum thing so for now that's as good as it gets. I could use a few more images from different cards but it's already kinda solved so it goes on the back burner for now.
The config program itself is huge and uses overlays, I'd have to debug it on a running system with the NIC installed. I don't have the time for such adventures at the moment. I might be able to install Win3.11 and test it over the weekend, and if it works then I don't really need anything more.

Linux to the rescue! I have another busted 3Com card, a PCI 905B series (this one mysteriously stopped working years ago), so I figured I might try to tackle that problem too. I peeked into Linux driver sources and found some EEPROM checksum calculation, decided to try that method on my images. I'm not very good with Python so it took a few hours but now I know how checksum works and where it stored. Then I realized that my card has no BOOT ROM enabled - and sure enough that option makes the config program populate the last 16 bytes. I now have the tools to rebuild the entire EEPROM image from zero, with correct MAC from sticker, if for example the chip died and had to be replaced with a new one.

And last thing, neither 386DX nor 486DLC at 40MHz seem able to saturate the 10Mb link under DOS, best I can do is half of that. There also doesn't seem to be much of a difference between DOS and Windows setting, but perhaps this is more evident for smaller packets or different use case than FTP. Well, it's weekend so I guess I'm installing Win 3.11 next...

EDIT: I think I can call that a success.

In case someone finds this useful:
- Trident 8900 series drivers for Win 3.1 are... lacking. Not in amount, there's plenty of versions, but rather in quality. I got some working eventually by using the Windows setup directly rather than driver installer.
- TVGA8900D has RAMDAC with 15/16-bit color support, while 8900C does not, or it doesn't work with the driver I've picked.
- Win 3.11 driver for 3C509 cards doesn't like SVGA or Trident drivers, causes weird screen corruption. Fixed by installing newer 3C509 driver. There were no problems in pure VGA 640x480 though.
- My system seems somewhat unstable in Windows, I had to set ISA bus to 1WS to prevent random hangs - no idea if it's the network or multi I/O card causing this.
- Netscape 3 is pretty much unusable now, rarely any site still supports pure HTTP without SSL and JS is best turned off as it just keeps throwing errors. Obviously no CSS support (and no UTF on Win 3.x).

Hi Deunan, I hope you can help me!

I had my 3Com Etherlink III 3C509B-TPO working perfectly fine with these settings:

Today I couldn't get an IP address from my router and when I ran 3C5X9CFG.EXE I got this:

The peculiar thing is that when you press "Transreceiver Type" a couple of times, you get these settings:

Test fails at "FIFO Built-in Self-test":

Picture of the card:

Dump of the EEPROM:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0m32dxgbnu364s0/E3C … 9X_BIN.zip?dl=0

There is a bug in 3C5X9CFG if the card does not support plug and play or full duplex. Toggling the transceiver type will cause those fields to appear but they have no affect.

In your case, since the fields did originally appear before your issue, I would suspect a hardware failure on the card itself.

maxtherabbit wrote on 2022-07-23, 13:05:

There is a bug in 3C5X9CFG if the card does not support plug and play or full duplex. Toggling the transceiver type will cause those fields to appear but they have no affect.

In your case, since the fields did originally appear before your issue, I would suspect a hardware failure on the card itself.

Well that would suck.

When I ran PNPDSABL.BAT I got this:

Does this mean that the card is running in EISA mode? If it is, then maybe I need to try this Re: ISA 3Com EtherLink III 3C509B-TPO Repeatedly fails self test, "Vital EEPROM," error.?

I apologize for the poor quality photos I'm using my wife's old OnePlus 2 until my new phone arrives 😁

.

Deunan wrote on 2021-05-21, 14:46:

Linux to the rescue! I have another busted 3Com card, a PCI 905B series (this one mysteriously stopped working years ago), so I figured I might try to tackle that problem too. I peeked into Linux driver sources and found some EEPROM checksum calculation, decided to try that method on my images. I'm not very good with Python so it took a few hours but now I know how checksum works and where it stored. Then I realized that my card has no BOOT ROM enabled - and sure enough that option makes the config program populate the last 16 bytes. I now have the tools to rebuild the entire EEPROM image from zero, with correct MAC from sticker, if for example the chip died and had to be replaced with a new one.

And last thing, neither 386DX nor 486DLC at 40MHz seem able to saturate the 10Mb link under DOS, best I can do is half of that. There also doesn't seem to be much of a difference between DOS and Windows setting, but perhaps this is more evident for smaller packets or different use case than FTP. Well, it's weekend so I guess I'm installing Win 3.11 next...

EDIT: I think I can call that a success.

Good stuff!

So, after a couple of days fiddling around, I came to the conclusion that the card is probably failing as mentioned earlier, because it can't pass the tests and I cant see PnP and Full Duplex settings anymore. It gets an IP address though, so I'm going to keep using it. I compiled 3C3 and 3C5XSETUP in the Virtualbox using Knoppix V6.0.1 because my 486 couldn't compile them and then ran them on 486. I will attach them below.

Link to the KNOPPIX used: KNOPPIX_V6.0.1CD-2009-02-08-EN.iso

P.S. Can the date be correct? 😁

Grzyb wrote on 2022-07-23, 22:21:

3C509 cards have nothing to do with EISA. They can work in two modes: - ISA, where addresses and IRQ are set by 3C5X9CFG.EXE - I […]
Show full quote

Xupack wrote on 2022-07-23, 22:04:

Does this mean that the card is running in EISA mode?

3C509 cards have nothing to do with EISA.
They can work in two modes:
- ISA, where addresses and IRQ are set by 3C5X9CFG.EXE
- ISAPNP, where addresses and IRQ are set by BIOS or OS, or possibly by some generic ISAPNP utility like ICU

Not true. The cards have an ISA interface, but *do* have an EISA mode, and are notorious for not working properly in ISA systems if set to EISA mode. To recover, you either need an ISA system or you need to short a factory configuration test point at startup.

However I don't think that's the issue here, as EISA mode would be indicated by 3c5x9cfg.exe with the following message:

Error! - There are one or more Etherlink III ISA (3C509) NICs configured to EISA mode and installed in an ISA slot. Remove these NICs, place them in an EISA slot on an EISA computer, and configure them for ISA operation.

This is my favorite ISA Network card. Never had any problems.
Just run the 3c0m 3c509 auto configuration tool.
And select your preferred interface type
You have to do this on each computer.
You can’t configure it on one computer and then plug it into another computer and expect it to work.
Because you could have IRQ or resource conflicts.
Also you might want to run Microsoft diagnostic tool “MSD” to find what resources are available and used.

You could also try the “Intel Pro 10” card. I hear that one is easy to setup too.

dionb wrote on 2022-07-27, 09:38:

The cards have an ISA interface, but *do* have an EISA mode

Oops, you're right.
I'm wondering, what's the idea behing the EISA mode in ISA card? To allow it to be configured with EISA Config Utility?