Products > Test Equipment
Agilent 54835A scope (4 channel 1GHz / 4Gs/s) repair & uphack
Krzys:
--- Quote from: charlyd on May 15, 2019, 05:26:09 pm ---why not install Windows XP (32) on that scope... and then crry over all software needed and if i am right there is a Windows xp version of this scope so drivers and scope software should run...
--- End quote ---
No version of 54845 came with factory pre-installed XP from Agilent, as far as I know.
I guess that alpher struggles to get working scope with his new mobo first - just like he had it working with factory mobo - then maybe he would do some more experiments with XP, which might prove unsuccessful (based on my attempts). If I were him, I would do the same.
Drivers from Windows 98 based Infiniiums won't work in XP as these were old style .vxd drivers (not WDM). Scope software that was in factory configuration in this scope won't work too (it messes around with I/O ports of C&T 65550 graphics card, something palette-related I think).
While there are drivers for acq board in 54845 for XP and there are newer versions of scope software that do run in XP (codebase carried over from Win 9x scopes), both were meant for 54831/54832 scopes (or possibly some others that I've missed), which were newer than 54845.
For more details on trying to run XP on first infiniium (lowly 54810), see my post here.
Update: And for explanation, why it failed, see my latest post here.
Converter:
I did everything that you wrote over a year ago. I even at some point achieved that the Agilent oscilloscope application in Windows XP 54845 starts up successfully (it incorrectly identifies the device model), and there are no visible errors in the device manager. But the original drivers do not work in Win XP, and the drivers from 54830/54831 do not support this ACQ board. If someone does not make a modification of the original drivers 54845 (15, 25,35) to support Win XP, the success did not reach, IMHO.
Tony_G:
--- Quote from: Krzys on May 15, 2019, 06:07:54 pm ---Drivers from Windows 98 won't work in XP as these were old style .vxd drivers (not WDM).
--- End quote ---
This is correct but I should point out that WDM was introduced in Win98 so if HPAK wrote WDM drivers for Win98 there is a chance that they might work. VxD certainly not though as Krzys pointed out.
TonyG
Krzys:
--- Quote from: Tony_G on May 15, 2019, 09:02:29 pm ---
--- Quote from: Krzys on May 15, 2019, 06:07:54 pm ---Drivers from Windows 98 won't work in XP as these were old style .vxd drivers (not WDM).
--- End quote ---
This is correct but I should point out that WDM was introduced in Win98 so if HPAK wrote WDM drivers for Win98 there is a chance that they might work. VxD certainly not though as Krzys pointed out.
TonyG
--- End quote ---
In all Win 9x-based scopes I've seen VxD drivers, .sys driver files only on XP-based scopes. I think that I looked into all versions available in usual places, before I discovered set of XP recovery ISOs.
But well, that gives me another idea to try - taking let's say tstone.sys from XP based scope and trying to run it in Windows 98, with correct 54810/15/25/35/45/46 win 9x app - to see, if the driver itself works with old (codename "Tombstone") board. Of course all that provided the XP-sourced driver would work in Windows 98 (and it is real WDM driver, not the old-style kernel-mode NT .sys). This could be both tricky (as alpher's case demonstrated, where he is trying to make it just working, such extravagant experiments for now) and unconclusive (if it wouldn't work).
Krzys:
I've found, why my efforts on getting Windows XP on 54810 were doomed to failure... :-BROKE
... in this very thread ... :palm:
--- Quote from: Jwalling on July 09, 2017, 06:06:17 pm ---Before anyone starts talking WinXP on the 54810A series. ;)
The 54830/31/32A/D used 1GHz or 1.2 GHZ Pentium III processors on a newer platform without ISA slots. They did use the same C&T graphics driver chip, though. However, the ACQ controller is newer (In fact the older ACQ controller from the 54810A series is present but only used for power on functions, front panel control, and the scope's video frame buffer) I think upgrading to XP would be a problem as the driver for the ACQ controller would not want to talk to the old ACQ board.
EDIT: And I don't think the pin-out for the ribbon cable is the same anyway...
EDIT2: which wouldn't matter anyway. Duh. You'd have to find an XP driver for the OLD controller.
The picture shows the newer ACQ controller in red, the old one in blue
If one could find a newer motherboard (just to upgrade the hardware for performance) with an ISA slot (For GPIB functionality) it just might work.
--- End quote ---
According to the post cited above, Tombstone board (old acq board interface card that is in 54810) was delegated to handling I/O and C&T graphics in XP based scopes (5483x) (edit: according to service manual, I/O was connected to new board, old board was connected to display only - and nothing else - which makes no sense to me whatsoever, from what it got data to display? from Windows scope app!?). Scope was connected to another board.
So its no surprise that Windows XP tstone.sys is not enough for running XP on 5481x/2x/35/4x...
No surprise that opening \\.\Scope0 failed... On the other hand opening \\.\Tombstone0 failed as well... (I think that I've tried it at least once, but now I'm not sure).
I don't know how could I've missed that post on the first page. I guess I never enlarged that thumbnail, as I don't remember this image.
Prior to this latest ehm... discovery, I've got an impression, that there were two distinct ACQ boards interface cards used in 54830/1/2/3 scopes - the original one that was carried over from 5481x/2x/35/4x, present in Win'98 based 54830/1/2/3 and newer one present in XP-based 54830/1/2/3. According to my impression, factory XP image in 54830/1/2/3 had only drivers for newer acq board interface card, while mythical XP upgrade kit that fetches insane amounts of money on ebay® (N5383A Infiniium Performance Upgrade kit) provides drivers for older acq board interface card as well.
My impression formed while reading the other thread and other posts on the topic. I cannot find it right now, but somebody tried to force drivers for newer acq board interface card (VEN_15BC&DEV_050X) to the old one (VEN_103C&DEV_1020 - he had big question mark in Device Manager for that card) and had some error message from the scope software (wrong address? invalid address? don't remember).
Maybe my impressions were all wrong and all 54830/1/2/3 Infiniiums in fact have two cards, as quoted post says - old tombstone board carried over from first generation of Infiniiums, now delegated to handle I/O and display (edit: according to service manual, I/O was connected to new board, old board was connected to display only - and nothing else - which makes no sense to me whatsoever, from what it got data to display? from Windows scope app!?), and new ACQ board interface card that interfaces mobo with the scope. This makes perfect sense for me.
Or maybe I mistook ACQ board (that big thing underneath) for interface card - and there were indeed two revisions of ACQ board installed in different revisions of the scope.
Somewhat supporting the hypothesis about two ACQ boards interface cards in 54830/1/2/3 is the fact, that XP-based 54831D had tstone.sys/tstone.inf as well, as evidenced by this post. I think that mythical XP upgrade kit that fetches insane amounts of money on ebay® (N5383A Infiniium Performance Upgrade kit) is the same as recovery media for all 54830/1/2/3 scopes, used internally by HPAK. The ISO's that once were hosted on Keysight's ftp, are possibly the exact same thing (except for the fact, that XP was upgraded to SP2 here).
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version