Upgrading Mainboard in Lecroy DDA-3000 (aka WavePro 7300a?)

[ollopa]

Various sources:  Technologies for Very High Bandwidth Real-time
Oscilloscopes, Advances in Oscilloscope Technology, and older product service manuals.

One of the service manuals adds the following:
MTB: Monolithic TimeBase
MCG: Monolithic Clock Generator
HTR: Hybrid Trigger compaRator
HSY: Hybrid Switchyard
HAM: Hybrid Acquisition Memory

No reference to AMB found yet.  I wonder if it could be for AMBient temperature, though.

[nctnico]

Here is my temperatures after 30 min run in 2ch 20GS mode at 7300A. This is with sound absorbing foam vent mod.

Here is a screenshot from mine (with the Gentle Typhoon fans):


The room temperature is around 22 degC. I don't think your foam addition is improving the airflow from the fans because the temperatures in my scope are about 5 to 8 degrees lower. I'd guess that the rough and irregular surface of the foam causes a lot of turbulence and limits the airflow. It is also clear that the airflow over the acquisition board is far from consistent given the large differences between the channels.

[analogRF]

it's a bit silly that the software reports temperatures with 2 decimal digits 

[analogRF]

i dont have a screen shot but my MAD temperatures with the original Panaflo fans after around 1-1.5 hours of normal use (mostly spectrum analysis) are around 71-76 degrees C. Other temps hover around 60-68...so the fans are lousy but noisy ... they sound like a jet engine but not very effective...

EDIT: and my Prescott 3.2GHz HyperThreading CPU is holding up with the original stock fan! temp is around 60-62... the software does not heavily load the CPU

[ollopa]

Whether or not the software loads up the CPU depends on what features are enabled.  Basic scope functionality is low load but filtering, protocol decode, and other math transforms and software triggers wind up having to use the CPU to process the capture buffer.  Your CPU load then becomes a function of your sample rate and memory depth.

[analogRF]

Whether or not the software loads up the CPU depends on what features are enabled.  Basic scope functionality is low load but filtering, protocol decode, and other math transforms and software triggers wind up having to use the CPU to process the capture buffer.  Your CPU load then becomes a function of your sample rate and memory depth.

yes, I have ALL options enabled, I was measuring temps with one cascaded math AVG (FFT) on ch1 and a digital filtering on ch2
both at 10Gs/s. both threads on the CPU remain below %60-70 or so...in fact one of them is way below...

[DaJMasta]

Ran into a strange issue working on a WP7300 running the latest XStream compatible with XP - everything seems to work fine and feel responsive, until you move a waveform... then you get a couple seconds worth of lag before it updates anything and starts acquiring.  Makes it especially difficult to use the knobs to pick an offset, since it seems to only get the first bit of the input.

Tried uninstalling and reinstalling the XStream package, also tried reinstalling the chipset drivers.  Is this some confused XP thing that just needs a full OS install, or have you run into something that causes this?  When acquiring, all the software menus are responsive, and I haven't been able to mimick the behavior in any of the other software I try on the scope.

Anyone run into it and have a fix?

[analogRF]

can you state at what time/div and sample rate and memory length you face this problem? or is it happening all the time?

[DaJMasta]

Basically all the time, happens well into the 10s of ns time divisions, also on the full autoset mode - the update rate is great when you're not messing with it (and moving from balanced performance to display performance makes a surprising difference), but you try to move a trace and the whole program (not the OS) locks up for a couple seconds.

[analogRF]

Basically all the time, happens well into the 10s of ns time divisions, also on the full autoset mode - the update rate is great when you're not messing with it (and moving from balanced performance to display performance makes a surprising difference), but you try to move a trace and the whole program (not the OS) locks up for a couple seconds.

I couldnt reproduce anything close to this on my 7300A. does it happen when you move the trace by position knob or by touch screen?
also how about moving the waveform horizontally?

[DaJMasta]

Just managed to fix it, I think it was actually a driver issue - I had updated to 8.1.2 but had not installed the follow up driver package, which may have solved my problem.  Thinking back, I had some trouble with getting the acquisition card recognized at one point, and the image from another scope had some slightly flaky front panel lights... probably all related.

Instead, I poked around for a bit with settings and eventually did a clean windows install suspecting some sort of driver corruption/conflict from the image I had used copied from another machine.  I learned a couple things in the process!

To do a clean install of XP over the normal partition:
Install Windows XP as normal
Install D865GLC drivers (no longer available form intel, but hosted on third party sites - consists of chipset INF drivers, LAN drivers, Audio drivers, graphics drivers) - this was on a later model 7300, there are different mainboards used so check the board markings or open up CPUZ first to verify!
Install the 8.1.2 XStream package
Install the accompanying XStream driver package - on my unit, one driver failed install, but if you manually point it to LeCroy Data Acquisition devices later it will install fine
Install the touch panel drivers (not included with the XStream driver package, as it suggests in the how-to installation guide) which is UPDD v3 with support for the 3M SC4 Serial touch controller driver - not officially available for download, but a link I found for version "3854" included the needed drivers and installed properly.  The official UPDD current version does not open on XP 32 bit.

That should get your WP 7k to boot into the scope application and function successfully.  You'll need to calibrate the touch screen (can be done from the utilities menu) and if you don't have the cal data on the second partition, you'll need to calibrate it too.

[Mechatrommer]

Install D865GLC drivers (no longer available form intel,

bummer! i remember downloading all the update files last year when they are still up (61MB size), now they all gone! intel must have deleted the links within this year. same happened to D845GERG2, D845GRG and D865GSA board

[sixtimesseven]

Install D865GLC drivers (no longer available form intel,

bummer! i remember downloading all the update files last year when they are still up (61MB size), now they all gone! intel must have deleted the links within this year. same happened to D845GERG2, D845GRG and D865GSA board

Found the BIOS update file floating around on the net but since I do not have my 5005 here yet I have no way to test it so use with care:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/mdq6nwxv0af7rj1/AADC0HEm9npvn11GlOINyvqYa?dl=0

[sixtimesseven]

Install the 8.1.2 XStream package
Install the accompanying XStream driver package - on my unit, one driver failed install, but if you manually point it to LeCroy Data Acquisition devices later it will install fine
Install the touch panel drivers (not included with the XStream driver package, as it suggests in the how-to installation guide) which is UPDD v3 with support for the 3M SC4 Serial touch controller driver - not officially available for download, but a link I found for version "3854" included the needed drivers and installed properly.  The official UPDD current version does not open on XP 32 bit.

Where do I get the X-Stream Software Packages and the touch panel drivers?
I searched this thread as well as Lecrys site but so far I could not find them.

I would need them since the 5005 I ordered will come without hdd and I will need the hole package to make any use of it.

[sixtimesseven]

Maybe I'm just to young but how exactly do I install the BIOS upgrade which comes as an executable? I tried loading it on to a usb stick and booting from it but that does not seem to be it.

Do I need to upgrade the BIOS to install XP on it? I'm starting to suspect so because I'm having trouble installing the OS in general. The original CDROM drive does not work at all. I had no look booting XP setup from several usb sticks. With an external CD/DVD drive and the win2000 cd I get a NTDLR error so taht disk is prob. gone. With the same drive and the windows xp disk 1 I get the "no boot disk inserted" error.

[DaJMasta]

BIOS upgrade?  What BIOS upgrade?


I'm always hesitant to upgrade the BIOS on a bit of test gear with a normal motherboard because they are sometimes customized for the device - at the very least a bios upgrade not direct from LeCroy wouldn't have the splash screen and stuff.

That said, the normal procedure for a BIOS update would be to load it on a floppy and boot from it (usually an exe that makes the floppy bootable with the flashing application), or in the case of some BIOSes, they have a mechanism in the menu to point to the update file.  It wasn't until more modern boards than this one that even booting from a USB key was common and relatively error-free, so expecting it to be able to handle a BIOS update from USB or bootable CD is more credit than I would give it...

The CD drive in the rear should be fine to boot from with a normal XP installation CD, I did it on one a couple months ago, but you may have to configure the boot order in the BIOS for the system to even try the CD drive by default.

[nctnico]

You can update the BIOS without any problems on the Wavepro 7000 series. The boot screen is in a different section of the flash.

However if the OS doesn't install I'd look at the motherboard and surrounding components first. Likely the problem is in there. Also don't let Windows install any drivers for unknown devices. Just let them remain unknown.

[analogRF]

as others mentioned, there is no need for tampering with the bios. XP should install with whatever bios you have. It's probably the latest version anyways.

[sixtimesseven]

BIOS upgrade?  What BIOS upgrade?


I'm always hesitant to upgrade the BIOS on a bit of test gear with a normal motherboard because they are sometimes customized for the device - at the very least a bios upgrade not direct from LeCroy wouldn't have the splash screen and stuff.

That said, the normal procedure for a BIOS update would be to load it on a floppy and boot from it (usually an exe that makes the floppy bootable with the flashing application), or in the case of some BIOSes, they have a mechanism in the menu to point to the update file.  It wasn't until more modern boards than this one that even booting from a USB key was common and relatively error-free, so expecting it to be able to handle a BIOS update from USB or bootable CD is more credit than I would give it...

The CD drive in the rear should be fine to boot from with a normal XP installation CD, I did it on one a couple months ago, but you may have to configure the boot order in the BIOS for the system to even try the CD drive by default.

Well every time I want to boot a xp stick I get a disk read error...
Im using Rufus 2.18 to burn a bootable mbr bios usb stick with my xp iso file.

The iso file is good. It works fine on my vm.

I also tried the winsetupfromusb 1.8. This starts to boot and xp starts installing (from the same usb stick) but then crashes with some windows bluescreen error during installation.

[nctnico]

Did you change the hard drive and/or IDE cable? Your symptoms look like the hard drive or the cable between the motherboard and hard drive is bad. Another suspect is the memory.

[DaJMasta]

For what it's worth, no XP era machine I've worked with I could get to reliably boot from bootable USBs.  A normal bootable CD should be fine, and a bootable floppy would be fine, but something about the USB implementation in boards from this era has made USB booting (less so from USB CD drives) a roll of the dice even when there's a bios option for it.

If you're installing XP, use a CD, that's what I'd stick with.

[sixtimesseven]

Did you change the hard drive and/or IDE cable? Your symptoms look like the hard drive or the cable between the motherboard and hard drive is bad. Another suspect is the memory.

The original hd has a serious case of the clicking death... That's why I have to reinstall.
I attached a 500gb hd on the sata1 port. When I used an alternative cd drive, I attached that one on the sata1 just to see if I would get anything. I do not have another IDE cd drive. I would have another IDE hd to test but I dont see how that would help at this stage.

Maybe I burn another set of xp cds.

However I find it strange that with the original IDE cd drive, the win xp setup fails without any error at all (new never opened disks) and the win 2000 installation at least reports an error...

Strange. Windows. I love it ^^

[nctnico]

If you burn a CD-ROM be sure to burn it at the lowest speed. I have bad experiences using CD-ROMs burned at high speeds in older CD-ROM drives.

[analogRF]

Did you change the hard drive and/or IDE cable? Your symptoms look like the hard drive or the cable between the motherboard and hard drive is bad. Another suspect is the memory.

The original hd has a serious case of the clicking death... That's why I have to reinstall.
I attached a 500gb hd on the sata1 port. When I used an alternative cd drive, I attached that one on the sata1 just to see if I would get anything. I do not have another IDE cd drive. I would have another IDE hd to test but I dont see how that would help at this stage.

Maybe I burn another set of xp cds.

However I find it strange that with the original IDE cd drive, the win xp setup fails without any error at all (new never opened disks) and the win 2000 installation at least reports an error...

Strange. Windows. I love it ^^

despite the hdd being noisy and about to die, does the scope boot and work with that hard drive? if it does, just make an image on a ssd
you need to back up and transfer your cal data from D drive anyways, I think.

[sixtimesseven]

For what it's worth, no XP era machine I've worked with I could get to reliably boot from bootable USBs.  A normal bootable CD should be fine, and a bootable floppy would be fine, but something about the USB implementation in boards from this era has made USB booting (less so from USB CD drives) a roll of the dice even when there's a bios option for it.

If you're installing XP, use a CD, that's what I'd stick with.

Dammit! Burned the iso to a disk and it works