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Using a PCMCIA-GPIB With Windows 3.1 and IBM EZPlay

Hardware: GPIB>>Plug-in Controllers>>PCMCIA-GPIB

Problem:
How do I use a PCMCIA-GPIB with Windows 3.1 and IBM EZPlay?

Solution:
IBM is currently the only manufacturer that ships their own card services with their machines. Not only that, but they are also the only manufacturer who does not ship a version of MS-DOS (they ship PC DOS, their own version of DOS). The IBM machines have been through several different revisions, but all the known machines have a custom controller chip that is supported only by EZPlay and by CardSoft.

There are some older IBM machines that have different controller chips. These machines can use other CS besides EZPlay and CardSoft. You will not come across these machines very often. You may find one Thinkpad model that has a particular controller chip and will work with a certain configuration and a second one of the same model that will not.

There is another version of EZPlay that IBM is calling by a different name, however the files and directories are all the same. It is EZPlay with another name.


Recognizing EZPlay
EZPlay is typically installed in a \THINKPAD directory. It installs several drivers in the config.sys. The last two drivers listed below are not always installed. Sometimes you will see one or the other but should never see both.

DEVICE=C:\THINKPAD\IBMDSS01.SYS
DEVICE=C:\THINKPAD\IBMDOSCS.SYS
DEVICE=C:\THINKPAD\DICRMU01.SYS /MA=C800-CFFF
DEVICE=C:\THINKPAD\$ICPMDOS.SYS
DEVICE=C:\THINKPAD\AUTODRV.SYS AUTODRV.INI
DEVICE=C:\THINKPAD\SRAMDRV2.SYS
DEVICE=C:\THINKPAD\DISKDRV.SYS

The /MA switch on the DICRMUO1.SYS driver shows what memory location EZPlay will load into. This location should also be excluded in the memory manager. Of all of the above drivers, only the first four drivers are required for the GPIB card to work. To reduce RAM usage your only options are to remove the extra drivers.


Using EZPlay
There is little that the user has control of with EZPlay. It comes preconfigured for particular machines. There is a Windows utility (usually called EasyPlaying) but it offers little more than showing which cards are inserted in particular slots.

EZPlay does work properly in that it will not configure the card until it is asked to. An important issue to remember, however, is that when it gives the resources, it gives an invalid address. The address that it gives is 0x508. This is an issue in EZPlay; it is a violation of the PCMCIA specification. Unfortunately, due to an issue with the 2.7 DLL, there are several steps that must be followed to get the cards configured.

To get the card working with EZPlay, you must have the 2.7.2 DLL. You have no choice but to force resources with EZPlay since it will always give us the 0x508 address as described above. The best way to set it up is to use ibdiag to find a base address that will work with the card and then force this address in ibconf. Due to other issues with the DLL, you must not force interrupts.


Other Known Problems
Other than the 0x508 problem, the only other major problem seen that is isolated to EZPlay is that some systems pass with EZPlay and a regular PCMCIA-GPIB. This card could then be replaced with a PCMCIA-GPIB+ and the card would get an interrupt conflict at every possible interrupt, even the one that passed with the PCMCIA-GPIB. Installing CardSoft may fix this problem, so you might try a different version of EZPlay or use CardSoft if you run into this same issue.



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Report Date: 07/01/2006
Last Updated: 07/27/2006
Document ID: 3Z0HJO5N

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