Conference akocoa::decpc_portables

	Does anyone have NT or WIN95 running on one of these with a Network 
	Card and/or a Modem Card?

I had one - my VP535 worked fine with a DEPCM or a Sportster 28.8 card until
I put OSR2 on it....

					Steve

    If the model is VP510-545, there is a driver set for Windows NT 4.0 on
    the DEC WEB page. IF it is a VP 550-575, the drivers for NT are not yet
    released. Without these drivers for either set of systems, they will
    NOT work for NT 4.0.
    
    For Win95, almost all LAN cards work if you use I/O=340 or higher, IRQ
    11 and Memory D2000. 
    
    This is due to the use of most other addrersses and IRQ's in your
    feature packed, ready for prime time system, the DEC HiNote VP Series..
    Well that's what the ad's say. and by the way, the VP500 series is
    winning new awards all the time..
    
    Give that a try and see what happens.
    
    Vin
                                     

:    For Win95, almost all LAN cards work if you use I/O=340 or higher, IRQ
:    11 and Memory D2000. 

   Actually, PCMCIA cards and IRQ conflicts have provided me with more
   "entertainment" under NT than under W95.  Go figure.

   Does anybody have a pointer or document that explains this dreck, as
   applied to a HiNote VP <550?  (Generic HiNote, and generic discussion
   pointers welcome, as well.)

   (Somehow I feel I've been blasted back to the days of the Q-bus, too.)

	I have the 560. I've played with the IRQ and Base I/O addresses. 
	I'm told it needs WIN95 reloaded from scratch and that will
	fix my issue with WIN95. I'll try that tomorrow (Wednesday).

	As for NT are the test drivers available to be used? I really want
	to use NT. My PCMCIA is not even seen or my sound under NT. What DEC
	Web page are you refering to.

	Glad to hear it is winning awards but right now it is a RAS Client
	under WIN95 and useless under NT for me. It plays music nicely under
	WIN95 also.

   I also want to run NT 4.0 on a HiNote VP 560 (topic 2381).

   Vin mentions in .3 that the drivers are not available, but
   I just noticed that the compatibility list for the VP  550-575
   was updated yesterday. It now claims that some PCMCIA cards
   are compatible. But I can't find the necessary drivers anywhere.

   So how do we use those compatible cards on a VP 560 and NT 4.0??

   -Han

    The drivers for NT should be available for our customers and internal
    use in the next few weeks... The card list is getting updated as
    testing is being completed. THis does not mean that we are ready to
    release final drivers. 
    
    The need for an APPLICATION for PCMCIA support will keep these drivers
    from being PUBLIC DOMAIN... DEC did not purchase any hardware from the
    company writing the Application/Driver support for PCMCIA under NT and
    therefore the APPLICATION license only covers DEC customers and a
    finite number of licences... Sorry but that is the way it works with
    applications instead of hardware drivers. 
    
    Vin

I have read all the articles about people having trouble configuring the VP500
series notebooks, and I have spent of lot of time configuring these notebooks
too.

It's unbelieveable that these NT 4.0 drivers for VP560-VPXXX is'nt done yet,
and that it takes so much time to get PCMCIA support functioning on both Win95
and NT. If you add all the time we spent on getting these notebooks up and
running you would probably be surprised. And DIGITAL is selling these as NT
notebooks !!!

Next time I will order a Compaq or Toshiba notebook, so I will be able to
support my customers.


[Posted by WWW Notes gateway]

    [FLAME ON}
    
    No, it's not worth it.. People who know not of where they speak should
    investigate the facts first, then make snyde remarks.. 
    
    [Flame OFF]
    
The problems configuring the DEC VP500 notebook is under the Windows 95
    operating system. Most of the NT cards work properly with few errors.
    Yes the drivers and PCMCIA application are out 2 months after FRS.
    Did it ever occur to you that it might have been a planned, staged
    release....
    
    We are trying to serve no sine before its time.. The goal is QUALITY
    not quantity as some of our other competitors are doing.. We regularly
    get compliments from the PC card vendors for our efforts to insure that
    as many cards as possible work. Other vendors only bless 2-3 of their
    OWN named cards and leave the buyer out in the cold for all other card
    vendors. We at Digital, make an extra effort to insure that out
    CUSTOMERS installed base of cards work on our products..  Just trying
    to keep the customer satisfaction level at a high degree..
    
    Vin

we have a bunch of the 575's running 95b and cannot get the DEPCM-BA
to work.  It autodetects a DEPCM-XX but cannot find the driver. When
you put the DEPCM floppy in still no go.   If you add new hardware 
manually you can load it but it is still not seen and sometimes it will 
not boot so you must go into safe mode and delete it. 

Mark (.0) had to load an old version of 95.   I do not think that is 
the proper thing to do.   Is there a driver for a DEPCM-BA on the net 
that will work?  Are we doing something wrong?

    Yes we have recently come across the same failure.. The problem has
    been passed on to the network group at DEC, they own the drivers, and
    there is a workaround..  
    
    Install the card the first time and it will fail..
    Use Device manager to show the Driver version and do DRIVER UPDATE.
    Point to the floppy for the drivers and after the update the card will
    work.. 
    
    Again, we have addressed this with the driver folsk and await a new
    version.. The workaround will be in our tech tips for this syustem to
    be posted by next week (hopefully).
    
    Vin

Thanks, I will try that but I think I allready did.

What version driver should I be using?

    It works if you install the software from the floppy manually, then put
    the card in, then manually go to the card entry in Control Panel and
    use the Update Driver button. You may need a reboot or two sprinkled in
    between the steps.
    
    I personally believe this and related problems may be more related to
    Windows 95 OSR2 than anything we did. I've had a number of painful and
    unexplained things happen to systems (not just the VP laptops) that
    have OSR2 installed. At least with Win 3.1, there was a fair amount
    that a hacker (meant as "technically proficient") could work on when
    Windows was ill, or there were installation glitches or compatability
    issues. With Win95, I feel that there is so much undocumented, hidden,
    and downright secret stuff going on, that I begin to pine for the old
    UNIX days, when things were straightforward, clear, and well-docuented,
    at least compared to Win95 internals!!!
    
    Geoff

Hi,

According to .7 the cardbus drivers for NT4 will be available in weeks.

It is now almost a month since this note. When will the drivers for 
the cardbus be available?

We have customers who bought these machines as "NT certified" and now we 
cannot supply the drivers!

Nico Pretorius
MCS South Africa
[Posted by WWW Notes gateway]

    You should be receiving notification of NT shipping availability in the
    next few days.. Contact your official business folks for part numbers
    and current availability...    
    
    Vin