Bubba wrote:
> Greetings to all,
>
> machine is Digital Prioris XL 5200, dual P200 P54C (Socket 5), Intel
> Neptune (NX) chipset, 256MB RAM (8x32MB).
>
> I'm unable to properly configure EISA slots to accommodate ISA cards. The
> cards are Digital Ethernet Controller (DE205), 3Com 3C509-TP Network
> Adapter and (two) 3Com 3C509-Combo Network Adapter. I have all the
> original EISA CFG files for all four cards (there are, once again, two
> 3Com 3C509-Combo NIC's).
>
> The story follows - BIOS is version 2.08, ECU is for appropriate version.
> All the cards are set to EISA mod (Digital via jumpers, 3Com via
> software). I enter the ECU, add all the cards, set up IRQ's and stuff,
> lock them and it all seems great - until the machine is restarted, that
> is, configuration saved. Just after the POST, I get the error about
> misconfigured EISA configurations in Slot 1,2,3,4, and when I enter ECU
> once again - there is not a single card installed (IOW, the slots seem to
> be empty).
>
> I followed the manual, tried fiddling with options myself, however, I
> can't seem to find a sane way enable those cards.
>
> Any help would be appreciated.
>
> Thank you in advance!
>
It's been a while, but I recall that the Prioris XL 5200 used a black
lego-sized CMOS/clock chip. If that chip has failed, this might explain
the problem. The other possibility is that the flash memory in the BIOS
chip has failed, which would imply replacing it if you can find one.

Honestly, I cannot remember whether the ECU data is saved in CMOS or in
flash memory. It's one or the other. The more I think about it, the
more I suspect that the flash memory has failed after all these years.
I saw something similar a number of years ago with Intel motherboards
failing because stupid Windows insisted on rewriting data to flash
memory, evn if the memory contents were unchanged. Flash memory can only
withstand a finite number of write operations before it fails... Ben Myers