Start a Conversation

Unsolved

This post is more than 5 years old

50273

May 1st, 2002 18:00

Ndis resetting the miniport driver

DELL Poweredge 2550:

Problem:
The gigabit ethernet card is not working properly in loading complicated web
pages. The server freezes for a couple of seconds after the web page is
requested from the client machine. The client machine starts to receive the
data for the web page but never gets all of the data from the webserver. The
page eventually times out.

By complicated web page, I am reffering to a page that is generated by the
web server which requires alot of server resources to process and draw the
page. (Database access,complicated queries, large record sets returned).

Event Log: \Device\B57NT41: Ndis is resetting the miniport driver.
This event log error occurs whenever a request to these types of pages are
requested.

Hardware Configuration:
- Hot swap drives
- RAID 1 Config - 36GB
- Dual Port NIC Card
- PIII 1Ghz
- 1GB RAM
- Serial Number: <>

Server Configuration (Software):
- Windows NT Server 4.0
- Service Pack 6a
- IIS 4.0 (Web Server)
- DNS Server
- Domain Contorller

Installed Software:
- SQL 7.0 - Server is configured as a distrubution server.

Solution:
- Disabled Gigabit Ethernet card in hardware profile and used only
Intel 8255x-based PCI Ethernet (10/100) NIC Card

Any suggestion????

2.5K Posts

May 3rd, 2002 03:00

Hi,

Have you upgraded the driver and firmware for the BroadCom NIC?

This is the link for the driver and utilities file (the firmware is in the utilities file):

BroadCom NIC

Thanks for using the Dell | Talk Forums

Hours 01:00 PM until 11:00 PM CST, Monday-Thursday
Dell PowerEdge Server E-support and Services
____Please include a Service Tag Number in _____
____all posts for the most accurate response.____

Message Edited on 05/02/02 11:51PM by DELL-Mark A














2 Posts

January 6th, 2003 18:00

I am having this exact same problem.  I have downloaded and installed the latest driver (NDIS 4.0 Version 2.67).  Problem still exists.  I have firmware of V1.3 installed.  Is this the latest firmware available?  Any other suggested solutions?

2.5K Posts

January 7th, 2003 14:00

Hi,

We do not have a later BroadCom firmware download available, however there has been a fairly recent driver upgrade:

Broadcom NetXtreme Family of Adapters , Driver, NT 4.0, v. 6.0, A04
Filename: Bcom_LAN_60_NT4_02.exe [4.55 MB]

<ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>

2 Posts

January 7th, 2003 19:00

Thanks.  That's the driver I have installed, but it did not cure the problem.

1 Message

December 31st, 2003 20:00

Same problems with my 2450 and a 3COM 3C996b.  Their web solution number 2.0.95643911.3585258 says to use the latest drivers to fix it.  It doesn't matter.  Problem still exists.

I'm losing my eyesight trying to find a fix for this, but have found some related material that may help out the engineers trying to fix the issue.

After my server crashes, the error it reports in the log goes hand in hand with the B57NT41 error.  Here's a quote:

DOCUMENT:Q156655
TITLE   :Memory Leak and STOP Screens Using Intermediate NDIS Drivers
PRODUCT :Microsoft Windows NT
PROD/VER:4.00
OPER/SYS:WINDOWS
KEYWORDS:kbbug4.00 kbfile kbfix4.00 kbnetwork ntnetserv NTSrvWkst

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0
- Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 4.0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

SYMPTOMS
========

When intermediate (layered) NDIS miniport drivers are in use on Windows NT
4.0, you may experience one or both of the following:

- A memory leak in kernel non-paged pool memory. Over time, memory may be
   depleted to the point where system stability is compromised.

- You may receive the following blue-screen STOP error message with
   parameters that indicate the bad instruction is in the Ndis.sys driver:

      STOP: 0x0000000A (0x00000014, 0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0xFCBA1062).
      IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL (* Address fcba1062 has base at fcb95000 -
      NDIS.SYS)

CAUSE
=====

Intermediate drivers are typically add-ons that layer themselves over
hardware drivers as a filter to provide additional functionality, such as
data encryption or other value added services. The Ndis.sys driver included
in Windows NT 4.0 has been found to have some deficiencies when such
intermediate drivers are used.

RESOLUTION
==========

You can work around this problem by removing any unnecessary filter
drivers.

To resolve this problem, obtain the hotfix below, or wait for the next
service pack.

NOTE: Service Pack 3 must be applied to Windows NT 4.0 prior to applying
this fix.

This hotfix has been posted to the following Internet location:

   ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/winnt/winnt-public/fixes/usa/NT40/
   hotfixes-postSP3/ndis-fix

I reinstalled SP6a to see if that would have an affect, but it didn't.  I also noticed a trend in the event log where the resetting starts and almost gets stuck in a loop, resetting the miniport driver almost exactly 10 seconds apart before the system crashes soon after.

I don't see this as a DELL problem, I think someone has used a modified .dll that wasn't fully tested in an NT4 environment before the cards were released, or are dependant on another file that isn't in NT4 OS by default.

I hope someone finds out a solution to this fast. 

February 25th, 2004 00:00

The link to the firmware update only links to the main support page. When searching for firmware udpates I get told there are none. Can someone provide a direct link to the Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet firmware update?
No Events found!

Top