We have been observing a strange phenomenon with our MMI screens . These are PC's running on WinNt 4.0 & SP-6A & our proprietary software for process control. During normal operation the screen freezes ( system hangs ) & the only remedy is to recycle the power. This repeats at random intervals of time .

The system requires 2 network adapters .Once of them being the standard Ethernet adapter ( Intel / 3comm adapter ), while the other is a proprietary TCP-IP ( PCI ) adapter FOR INFORMATION Exchange on our network. We have been using Hp - Vectra, VL-400 machines with HP reccomended accessories. We are suspecting that the network adapter drivers may be causing this problem. IRQ levels & base memory addreses & IP address are distinct for both the cards. In cases where there is only one NIC,this problem is not observed. The unpredictability of WinNT also bothers us .

Now , the questions :

Have any one of you encountered similar problems with your NT- based applications employing multiple NICs ???

Could there be any other reason as to why this might be happening ?

Could you suggest any remedies to the problem ?

Thanks in Advance

 

I am doing this type of thing with a PC control product called ThinknDo. One network card is configured for an IPX protocol that does the control while the other network card is configured for TCP/IP which will handle the data. In this setup both network cards are from the same manufacturer. In the setup of the IPX card the TCP/IP is disabled. Likewise with the TCP/IP card the IPX protocol is disabled. This setup has worked very well with no problems. I suspect that your cards may not be properly configured which confuses NT and causes the crash.