Author Topic: Upgrading Mainboard in Lecroy DDA-3000 (aka WavePro 7300a?)  (Read 166894 times)

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Offline albertr

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Re: Upgrading Mainboard in Lecroy DDA-3000 (aka WavePro 7300a?)
« Reply #125 on: March 08, 2017, 06:27:46 pm »
Unfortunately, forum's software  doesn't accept rar archives, so .zip suffix needs to be removed before extraction. Here's the rest.

-albertr
 

Offline w2hx

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Re: Upgrading Mainboard in Lecroy DDA-3000 (aka WavePro 7300a?)
« Reply #126 on: March 09, 2017, 02:43:50 am »
What is the recommended version of windows 7 for this upgrade? Home? Home Premium? Professional? Ultimate?  Which version of Windows is recommended for the WR6100? Remember, I'll only have 2GB RAM and a 3.06 GHz processor.
thanks
 

Offline dxlTopic starter

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Re: Upgrading Mainboard in Lecroy DDA-3000 (aka WavePro 7300a?)
« Reply #127 on: March 09, 2017, 09:08:28 am »
I have Win7 Professional on my WavePro 7300 scope - but i guess the X-Stream Software would run on all versions.
 

Offline albertr

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Re: Upgrading Mainboard in Lecroy DDA-3000 (aka WavePro 7300a?)
« Reply #128 on: March 09, 2017, 08:29:08 pm »
Windows 7 Home Premium here, seems to be running fine - have both TRIM and Intel HD graphic multi-monitor support working without issues so far...

-albertr
 

Offline w2hx

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Re: Upgrading Mainboard in Lecroy DDA-3000 (aka WavePro 7300a?)
« Reply #129 on: March 21, 2017, 12:39:40 am »
Dear friends.

It has been a awhile since I began my journey in attempting to upgrade my WR6100.  Where we last left off, I finally decided to go ahead and install win7 along with the SSD upgrade, upgrade the 512MB to 2GB and 1.7 GHz Celeron to a 3.06 GHz Pentium 4.

Well, let me tell you what a long, strange trip its been.  Fraught with danger and heartbreak at every turn!

First, it was quite the project to get the computer out of the scope and especially to get the hard drive out which I miscalculated and ended up destroying the HD. Luckily, I was able to export all of the critical files of the scope before I destroyed it.

The RAM went in fine. A new 3.06GHz Pentium 4 arrived in the mail and some pins were bent and one pin was broken off. Back to the seller for a replacement. At the time of this writing I am still waiting for the CPU.

And then it was onto the SSD. The original scope had a 36GB IDE HD. I purchased a 60GB PATA SSD to replace it. I had a lot of trouble getting the machine to recognize the SSD beyond what was shown in the BIOS (which was correct). It ends up I needed an 80 conductor cable instead of the 40 that I was using (I was using 40 because I was trying to the SSD and another HD online at the same time and that was the only cable I had).

Once I got the machine to correctly recognize the SSD I began the process of attempting to create a win7 bootable image onto a USB stick. Well this did not go well. It was impossible. I ready everything there was to read about this and I could not make it work. I played with USB partitioning tools, played with the bios setting, you name it. No luck. After about a week screwing around with it, I gave up and decided to try making a bootabe CD with win7.

I soon discovered that win7 will not fit onto a CD but only a DVD. And I then proceeded to discover that the optical drive in the WR6100 was only a CD and not DVD! arrgh. I went and bought a DVD drive and figured I might as well put that into the scope as another upgrade.  DVD drive arrived. First i noticed it had a curved plastic fact, the kind that is found in a laptop. Oh well, it wont look very pretty with the top protruding while the bottom will be flush.

here is a picture of the face of the original CDROM.



and here is a picture of the new DVD (arrgh). You can see it in the mounting structure.



For kicks, I figured I'd better make sure it will fit into the opening in the back of the scope because once that thing is mounted beneath the motherboard, it is very hard to change.  And of course. It doesn't fit. Arrgghh. The plastic drawer is wider then the opening on the rear of the scope. Arrggh. I took some diagonal cutters and trimmed the plastic. Now it fits.

Ok, onto connecting the DVD to the motherboard. All I need to do is remove the cdrom from the metal mounting bracket, remove the cable converter board that goes from 40 pin IDE to a very small, high density connector on both the dvd and cd drives.  Uh oh. Next problem! The drive and the cable converter are secured on with tiny torx screws requiring a size of torx bit I dont have! arrgghh..  I go on amazon and order a torx bit kit with small sizes, then wait a few days for it to arrive.

Ok. I now have the RAM in, the new SSD connected and a DVD. With my other PC I finally burn a windows 7 bootable disk and I am off to the races.

Long story short (it might be too late for that), I spend another week trying to get win7 to install. I racked my brain here. The biggest problem is that there are no video drivers for the built in motherboard video controller. I tried EVERYTHING... EVERYTHING! I tried a hundred ways to install the latest drivers from Intel. I spent money on software/driver tools in hopes to solve the problem. No matter what I did it would not change from 640x480, 16 colors. Totally unusable. I really tried. I never tried the AGP card for the LCD, but with all the trouble I was afraid other drivers would also not work.  In the end, I had to acknowledge defeat and I was forced to realize that XP might be my only hope.

Fast forward to today. I now have WinXP Pro installed on the SSD, all drivers updated, all MS patches installed, everything set up the way I like and ready to go.  The next step will be to attempt to install the X-stream software and any other drivers I will need.

One thing I am not 100% clear on, is whether I need to have the acquisition stuff connected up to the PC at the time I attempt to install xstream, or whether I can get everything installed and running before attempting to reinstall the PC into the scope and hook everything up. This include whether I can run xstream and attempt to restore the "D:" critical files including calibration data before putting everything back together and connecting the acquisition stuff. I am very much hoping this is possible because if, for some reason, I need to work on getting the D: drive stuff recognized (without an error that has been reported) it would be easier to muck around with it before reinstalling it.

Well that is the saga so far. Any input would be appreciated about getting xstream installed and configured/restored before re-installing into the scope or whether it is time I buttoned everything up and did the rest in-situ.

Thanks for the BW and advice
Eugene









« Last Edit: March 26, 2017, 01:23:46 am by w2hx »
 

Offline Converter

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Re: Upgrading Mainboard in Lecroy DDA-3000 (aka WavePro 7300a?)
« Reply #130 on: March 21, 2017, 01:16:53 am »
Plastic panel DVD - it is a separate item. You can take it off and replace it with a more suitable one.
I would not set the x-stream before it is connected to the equipment.
« Last Edit: March 21, 2017, 01:25:35 am by Converter »
 

Offline w2hx

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Re: Upgrading Mainboard in Lecroy DDA-3000 (aka WavePro 7300a?)
« Reply #131 on: March 21, 2017, 02:02:19 am »
Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle! I had no idea. I found one on ebay. Thanks for the pointer! Things are looking brighter already. And thanks for the tip about xstream. Very helpful advice.
 

Offline w2hx

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Re: Upgrading Mainboard in Lecroy DDA-3000 (aka WavePro 7300a?)
« Reply #132 on: March 26, 2017, 01:20:05 am »
Hi friends. I now have the new CPU installed (P4 3.06), RAM, SSD, WinXP (from win2k), DVD (from CD). WinXP is running very nicely now! And I am excited to get the scope software installed.  I have just completed reassembling the scope in preparation of installing the xstream stuff.

Just some points of clarification.

Right now, I can only use an external monitor. I have not figured out how to get working the lecroy-provided video card that powers the front panel LCD. Will the LCD driver come along with the xstream software? Or can I get it running prior to downloading xstream?

I decided maybe I should try to first install the touch screen drivers that albertr posted above. I see there are 4 rar files .part1. through .part4. I downloaded them all but they all appear identical same files in them. Am I doing something wrong? I removed the .zip extension and I am using winrar. I thought maybe they are just a huge rar file split into 4 parts, but I can't seem to get winrar to do anything like combine them or something.

I know DXL wrote some win7 drivers. Am I correct to assume these will not help me at all in XP?

As for hyperthreading, my new P4 supports it. I know there were problems in the past that DXL solved for win7. Am I correct that the hyperthreading problem was not solved in XP?

If DXL's drivers are only good for win7, does this mean I do, indeed, need to first download and install X-Stream 6.x before doing the same with X-Stream 8.x ?

Just looking for next steps.
thanks
Eugene




 

Offline Converter

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Re: Upgrading Mainboard in Lecroy DDA-3000 (aka WavePro 7300a?)
« Reply #133 on: March 26, 2017, 08:20:07 pm »
Hello, Eugene.
I went the other way - I used a discrete graphics card, so I'm not familiar with this problem.
But LeCroy original design used AGP adapter Touchstone Technology, Inc. that outputs a video signal from the built-in GPU of the motherboard. Maybe this requires a special driver. Or you need to check BIOS settings. I would also check the properties of the screen in Windows XP, multidisplays.
RAR files .part1-.part4 are usually combined automatically during unpacking. Just run any of them when they are all in the same directory.
For Windows XP, DXL made a keyboard driver for multi-core processors as early as last year, and it works fine. If the DXL does not mind, I can send it to you in private messages.
First install X-Stream 6.x. It seems in X-Stream 8.x does not contain all the necessary components.
Sorry about my (poor) English.
 

Offline Someone

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Re: Upgrading Mainboard in Lecroy DDA-3000 (aka WavePro 7300a?)
« Reply #134 on: March 26, 2017, 09:14:07 pm »
Sorry about my (poor) English.
Your written english is excellent, better than many native speakers. Thanks for making the effort and contributing so much :)
 

Offline w2hx

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Re: Upgrading Mainboard in Lecroy DDA-3000 (aka WavePro 7300a?)
« Reply #135 on: March 28, 2017, 01:38:56 am »
Ok everyone. A big update! (LeCroy WaveRunner 6100)

I installed xstream software version 6.5.0.5 (the latest I could find on lecroy) and the scope works! It lives again! I realized that the intel graphics utility (that came with the latest video driver) allowed me to select external video, internal video or both. I think the LCD wasn't working because I had "external" video selected. 

The scope works. A few things I noticed. First was the message about the missing calibration data (I had not yet restored those files). Secondly, when the xstream started up, I was seeing a message about missing MASK database. 

After taking another image of the SSD, I then upgraded to 8.1.0.1 as recommended. Now, the mask database error has gone away and the calibration message is still there.

I then restored the zip file that was originally created after backing up "critical files" from the scope under win2k before I killed the HD.  It appears that the scope did do something. If I attempt to restore the files with the zip file not present where the scope expects it, it complains. But when I do a restore with the zip file there, it does not complain. But strangely, there is absolutely no message, no acknowledgement that the scope successfully imported these critical files. This is very unusual. I would have expected a "FILES RESTORED" message or something.

So I am not certain but I think they imported. One other reason I believe they restored properly is that I can see all of my software options listed. Unfortunately, I forgot to check this before I did the restore. Had I done that I would have known 10000% that the files imported properly.

However, as Albertr reported previously, the message when the scope starts up it still complains about the calibration data. I know that Albertr solved the problem by installing win7 which, unfortunately, is not an option for me with this motherboard. When xstream starts up and gives this message about the calibration data, it does give me the option to "don't display this message again" effectively suppressing the message.  I wonder if the correct thing to do would be to allow it to suppress this error.  And I wonder, if I had paid lecroy to upgrade me to XP (if such a thing was ever possible) if they would have done the same thing. Restore the critical files and then turn off the message. Kind of like the "service light" on your car. After the service has been performed, the light must be manually turned off by the technician.  I wonder if this is the same case.

Let me review the beginning of this saga. The scope worked fine, but I found the xstream UI sluggish. I would click on a menu option and it would take 1/2 second to 1 second for the screen/menu/options to appear. In addition, browsing the web was impossibly slow. Even with chrome (which I generally find speedy).

Here are the list of upgrades I performed:

Hardware Upgrades
1.6 GHz Celeron --> 3.06 GHz Pentium 4
512MB RAM --> 2GB RAM
36 GB IDE HD --> 60 GB IDE/PATA SSD
CDROM Drive --> DVD-RW  Drive
Much quieter and better CPU fan (I should have replaced the fans on the acquisition board too, but oh well).

Software Upgrades
Windows 2000 --> Windows XP Pro
X-Stream 6.3.x.x --> X-Stream 6.5.0.5 --> X-Stream 8.1.0.1
All calibration data and other critical data restored

And now I'll tell you my impressions.  This scope now FLIES! I can't believe how responsive it is! It is a real dream. I must say, I was not expecting a lot of performance improvement. Maybe a little. I have never had much luck upgrading a system and seeing real improvement in speed. It seems as soon as you upgrade the hardware, the software upgrades (gets slower) to counteract any improvement in the hardware :)

I am very, very happy. Here is a picture of the results in the utilities screen..



So what is next? Here are the next things I will tackle.

1. I'd like to try to add a 1Gbps ethernet card. I think it might make using WaveStudio faster. Although it is possible that the PCI bus speed might be the limiting factor here.  The scope has a small window at the rear for the GPIB connector (which mine does not have). I am hoping that the ethernet card RJ45 port will line up with this little window.

2. Enable Hyper Threading. I will use the upgraded keyboard drivers for XP that will hopefully allow me to use HT which this new P4 supports.  I have also read up about how to enable XP to see the second logical core since it normally won't see it once it installs with only one core (in addition to enabling it in bios). There are ways to do it and I'll try them.

All in all, this upgrade was extremely successful. A big thank you to everyone who has helped me here. DXL, Albertr, and Converter. 

As a side note, I just acquired a LeCroy HDO 4024. I will be very curious to see how it performs. Having been a little emboldened doing this upgrade to the WR6100, I wonder if I will be foolish enough to try to upgrade the HDO too!

Eugene
« Last Edit: March 28, 2017, 11:41:03 pm by w2hx »
 

Offline albertr

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Re: Upgrading Mainboard in Lecroy DDA-3000 (aka WavePro 7300a?)
« Reply #136 on: March 28, 2017, 06:43:30 pm »
Looks like a nice set of options you have enabled in your scope!  :-+

As far as a missing calibration dialog box goes, what does your hard drive's partition layout look like? I think you might want to make sure that D: drive is mapped to the second partition (physical or logical) and that it has "USERDATA" volume label.

-albertr

 

Offline w2hx

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Re: Upgrading Mainboard in Lecroy DDA-3000 (aka WavePro 7300a?)
« Reply #137 on: March 29, 2017, 01:37:48 am »
Hi all,

Just a little update and then a response.  I tried to install the GB ethernet card and... no joy...  :-[



I was hoping the little square opening that was designed for a GPIB connector would have been aligned for the standard pci card opening, but no such luck :(. I tried to move the card a little so that I could insert the cable, but it just wasn't going to work. 

The only possibility would be to attempt to cut that small opening to be larger. But I worry I could not do a good job of it and I really worry I would create a lot of metal burrs which is probably the sort of thing that should be kept away from a high-end piece of test and measurement equipment, not introduced to it. 

The only other thing that I could consider would be either a) using a USB-ethernet adapter or b) a wireless adapter.  The USB-ethernet might be a little faster than the existing 100 mbps ethernet given that usb 2.0 is up to 480 mbps. So even if I could get 200 mbps out of the usb-ethernet adapter, it might be worth it. As for the possibility of a wireless adapter, as long as the RF connector would line up with the opening in the chassis. I could either use the little right-angle antennas or an outboard antenna.  Of course, I would not achieve 1 gbps either.  Any opinions?

Second subject.

Quote
As far as a missing calibration dialog box goes, what does your hard drive's partition layout look like? I think you might want to make sure that D: drive is mapped to the second partition (physical or logical) and that it has "USERDATA" volume label.

Here is what my partitions look like:



As you can see I have one primary partition and one "extended" partition. Could this be wrong? If so, what kind of partition should I make it?  Any suggestions? Again, thanks to everyone for your help.

Eugene
« Last Edit: March 29, 2017, 01:08:38 pm by w2hx »
 

Offline albertr

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Re: Upgrading Mainboard in Lecroy DDA-3000 (aka WavePro 7300a?)
« Reply #138 on: March 29, 2017, 02:44:04 am »
Unless I'm missing something, your partition layout looks good. I  went thru the same ordeal with missing calibration data dialog box. I think XStream software stores the calibration partition location somewhere (in the windows registry, perhaps?) during installation. Right now I have a dual boot setup with both Windows Xp and Windows 7. Xp still complains about missing calibration data, while Win 7 doesn't. Obviously, they are using the same calibration partition and the same data. Since I always boot into Win 7, I don't care much about Xp, but if it bothers you, try to wipe out windows registry by re-formatting C: drive and re-installing windows and then re-install XStream afresh.

-albertr
 

Offline w2hx

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Re: Upgrading Mainboard in Lecroy DDA-3000 (aka WavePro 7300a?)
« Reply #139 on: March 29, 2017, 03:28:09 am »
Hi AlbertR,

Actually, my scope is giving me the option to dismiss the message forever. so with one mouse-stroke I can eliminate the message. However, I would love to know if the data was loaded properly or not. As I mentioned in my previous post, maybe this function (backup critical files) is really meant for use by a lecroy technician. And maybe they can reset this message like a car "service" light can be reset by a mechanic. Maybe the message was meant to be manually dismissed by a lecroy technician after restoring the data? Not sure.

I actually did some thorough looking at the registry. I looked through everything I could find with "LeCroy" and there was nothing about cal data, location of it, or even that the message should appear/not appear. Very little in the registry from what I could find. Could there be some other nvram elsewhere that holds this? Maybe this data gets loaded into the acquisition board somewhere? Maybe there is just a bug in the XP stuff that isn't properly resetting this message once the data is loaded? I dunno.

I wonder if I might see if I can find a friendly lecroy employee who might know about this detail, even if it is > 10 years old!

Tomorrow, I should receive my HDO 4024 in the mail. I hope I like it. I have no idea if it is well respected or not in the world of scopes.
Eugene



« Last Edit: March 29, 2017, 01:11:16 pm by w2hx »
 

Offline Converter

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Re: Upgrading Mainboard in Lecroy DDA-3000 (aka WavePro 7300a?)
« Reply #140 on: March 29, 2017, 12:20:53 pm »
Okay, volume D: you have. But what is contained in that volume? Could you show?
 

Offline w2hx

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Re: Upgrading Mainboard in Lecroy DDA-3000 (aka WavePro 7300a?)
« Reply #141 on: March 30, 2017, 02:45:24 am »
Good question.  Your question made me think of doing a comparison between the D:\calibration folder on the scope and the \calibration folder in the ZIP file created when I "backed up critical files" before the scope died.

The link below is the diff. The "left" file is the one currently on the D:\ drive, created by installing 6.5.0.5 and then 8.1.0.1 on top of it.  The "right" file is the ZIP file from the scope originally. The RED rows indicate a difference.

http://w2hx.com/x/LeCroy/WR6K/diff.html  (Sorry, I tried to figure out how to include that file inline but couldn't figure it out.)

expertsettings.vbs - the file on the scope shows today's date. all I did today was start the DSO and exit a bit. So this file must be updated whenever the scope is started. But interestingly, the file from the old hard drive has a date of 12/31/2001. So the old scope must not have updated this file whenever the DSO was run... hmmm.

Trigger threshold.crv - this is the same situation as the expertsettings.vbs. Same dates, same situation?

CalCacheB.mdb - interesting in that this only appears on the new scope install not the old scope files.

And that is the total extent of the differences for the /Calibration directory! Unfortunately, I did not get a directory tree listing on the original disk, but here is the directory tree for the D:\ drive after the new software installs.

Code: [Select]
D:.
????Applications
?   ????64b66b
?   ????8b10b
?   ????ARINC429
?   ????CAN FD
?   ????CAN Std
?   ????DigRF
?   ????EyeDr
?   ?   ????USB3
?   ????FLX
?   ????I2C
?   ????LIN
?   ????Manchester
?   ????MIL1553
?   ????NRZ
?   ????SENT
?   ????SPI
?   ????TDR
?   ?   ????Calibrations
?   ?   ????CalibrationStandards
?   ????UART
?   ????USART
?   ????USB2
?   ?   ????Results
?   ?   ????Setups
?   ????VerticalNoiseCal
?   ????VirtualProbe
????CableCompensation
?   ????CableDescriptions
????CustomDSO
????Documentation
????HardCopy
????Masks
?   ????Backup
????Scripts
????Setups
????Tables
????Waveforms
????XPort

To see the the full directory tree including the files, see here http://w2hx.com/x/LeCroy/WR6K/d-tree-files.rtf 

The only thing I can think of is that somehow, the new 8.1.0.1 puts the files somewhere else? I dunno. I am completely baffled. Comments, questions and suggestions welcome.

 

Offline Converter

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Re: Upgrading Mainboard in Lecroy DDA-3000 (aka WavePro 7300a?)
« Reply #142 on: March 30, 2017, 01:50:04 pm »

To see the the full directory tree including the files, see here http://w2hx.com/x/LeCroy/WR6K/d-tree-files.rtf 

The only thing I can think of is that somehow, the new 8.1.0.1 puts the files somewhere else? I dunno. I am completely baffled. Comments, questions and suggestions welcome.
Hello.
But I do not see absolutely on your disk directory D:/Calibration/. Look at my «Reply #122 on: March 08, 2017, 03:32:24 PM» - there is an example in a text file. I do not know how this difference can be caused, but it seems to me that it is important.
Maybe there are some settings in the X-stream for the directory for storing these files, and they are located on another disk? Otherwise, you can try to do this manually.

Have you allowed to view the hidden and system protected files on the disk?
You have somewhere on the disk files like: cached_gd_10p0_1.txt, cached_comp_10p0.txt, CalCache.mdb, CalCache.ldb ?
« Last Edit: March 30, 2017, 07:08:33 pm by Converter »
 

Offline w2hx

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Re: Upgrading Mainboard in Lecroy DDA-3000 (aka WavePro 7300a?)
« Reply #143 on: March 30, 2017, 11:22:29 pm »
Rats, my bad. I thought that folder was in there, but I see it was not (it was hidden). Here is the tree for d:\calibration

Code: [Select]
Folder PATH listing for volume USERDATA
Volume serial number is 1987-42D0
D:.
|   AAcqBTD.btd
|   CalCacheB.mdb
|   FeBTDC1.btd
|   FeBTDC2.btd
|   FeBTDC|.btd
|   FeBTDC4.btd
|   FeBTDExt.btd
|   Had440BTDC1.btd
|   Had440BTDC2.btd
|   Had440BTDC|.btd
|   Had440BTDC4.btd
|   Trigger threshold.crv
|   
+---Compensation
    |   expertsettings.vbs
    |   
    +---c1
    |   +---af00
    |   |       response.txt
    |   |       
    |   +---af01
    |   |       response.txt
    |   |       
    |   +---af02
    |   |       response.txt
    |   |       
    |   +---af10
    |   |       response.txt
    |   |       
    |   +---af20
    |           response.txt
    |           
    +---c2
    |   +---af00
    |   |       response.txt
    |   |       
    |   +---af01
    |   |       response.txt
    |   |       
    |   +---af02
    |   |       response.txt
    |   |       
    |   +---af10
    |   |       response.txt
    |   |       
    |   +---af20
    |           response.txt
    |           
    +---c3
    |   +---af00
    |   |       response.txt
    |   |       
    |   +---af01
    |   |       response.txt
    |   |       
    |   +---af02
    |   |       response.txt
    |   |       
    |   +---af10
    |   |       response.txt
    |   |       
    |   +---af20
    |           response.txt
    |           
    +---c4
        +---af00
        |       response.txt
        |       
        +---af01
        |       response.txt
        |       
        +---af02
        |       response.txt
        |       
        +---af10
        |       response.txt
        |       
        +---af20
                response.txt

I will add that this is exactly the same as what I have in my zip file that resulted from the "backup critical files" from the service menu. I see that your folders have some other files, "cached_xxx" but I don't know why my scope did not produce these files. I WONDER. My scope is a WaveRunner 6100. Perhaps your is different and therefore produces different files?

I will add one more thing of interest here. When I installed windows XP, I created two accounts. Administrator and LeCroyUser. LeCroyUser was the user that came with the scope and I believe is the standard username.  All the installing and testing I've been doing was with the Administrator account and I always received the message about the Calibration (shown here):



Interestingly, today I decided to log in using LeCroyUser and to my amazment, when I run Start DSO, I do not get the error message! Using LeCroyUser, the DSO starts up perfectly fine with no error message!

Could it be that these calibration data are somehow tied to a particular windows user account? I wonder if my scope is fine, and I just need to use the correct login?

@AlbertR, I wonder what user you have defined in your XP install of your dual boot?

@Converter-What do you make of this? On the one hand, I could call it a day since I no longer get the message, on the other hand, I really don't know if my calibration is ok, and on the 3rd hand, for the kind of work I do, the degree of calibration in those files might be really negligible so maybe I just should not care?

Eugene
« Last Edit: March 30, 2017, 11:34:20 pm by w2hx »
 

Offline albertr

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Re: Upgrading Mainboard in Lecroy DDA-3000 (aka WavePro 7300a?)
« Reply #144 on: March 31, 2017, 02:01:07 am »
Quite surprisingly I'm using "albertr" account, no mysterious LeCroyUser user for me  :-DD

It's not the user, I'm pretty sure that's some settings XStream software creates. If they are stored under user's registry settings or inside user directory, then it will explain your findings.

How do you like your new HDO 4024? Looks like it has a PC motherboard inside too, so it might be some possibilities for upgrades...

-albertr
« Last Edit: March 31, 2017, 02:04:15 am by albertr »
 

Offline w2hx

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Re: Upgrading Mainboard in Lecroy DDA-3000 (aka WavePro 7300a?)
« Reply #145 on: March 31, 2017, 02:27:37 am »
@AlbertR - if you have nothing better to do, I would be curious if you created a user in XP called LeCroyUser and see if it can run DSO without error. Just curious.

I've been through the registry twice, one for administrator and once for lecroyuser and I cannot find anything related. Barely anything at all, actually. I also took a brief look through "c:\documents and settings\user\etc." I don't remember what the folders are, but the ones that are specific to the user. And I found nothing there too. It wasn't exhaustive research, but nothing jumped out at me.

I just received the HDO tonight (it was a day late). Very nice! I might consider making a thread on it. Not really a review, per se, because I am simply not knowledgeable enough to do it justice.  But I worry such a thread might devolved into a "LeCroy vs Agilent vs Tektronix vs R&S vs Rigol vs Siglent vs Owon" cage match smack down.

Eugene
 

Offline Converter

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Re: Upgrading Mainboard in Lecroy DDA-3000 (aka WavePro 7300a?)
« Reply #146 on: March 31, 2017, 11:35:08 pm »
Hello!
I added new user and logged in using his, but it works just as well as LeCroyUser. However, this is only if you give him administrator rights.
Later I deleted the folders: d:\Calibration\Compensation\c1, c2, c3, c4, but I still do not get any error messages while loading X-Stream. I went even further and cleaned the entire folder  d:\calibration . However, this also does not lead to the appearance of your error!
And finally, when I completely deleted this folder "Calibration" I was able see for the first time the same message, just like you.

After a single launch, X-Stream restores all files and folders except: c1, c2, c3, c4. However, now this message continues to appear whenever I load X-Stream. This continues despite the fact that I have returned all the saved original folders and files. Until then, until I cancel repeat this warning.

I think that the system remembers that at some point in the downloading process, there were no calibration data and suggested that you contact LeCroy service for this. If you have calibration data in folders c1, c2, c3, c4, and after canceling this message, it does not reappear, you can worry about nothing.

To test this idea, I suggest saving the entire contents of the d:\calibration folder and inserting it on the disk manually after a new installation of X-Stream. This must be done necessarily before the first launch of the X-Stream after its clean installation.. It seems to me that in this case you will no longer see any reports of the need for calibration.
« Last Edit: April 03, 2017, 11:02:50 pm by Converter »
 

Offline w2hx

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Re: Upgrading Mainboard in Lecroy DDA-3000 (aka WavePro 7300a?)
« Reply #147 on: April 06, 2017, 01:26:50 am »
Hello Converter, et., al.

Some various final thoughts, observations and comments...

Thank you for going through that procedure to find the behavior of the scope as pertains to the calibration data.  I think you are onto something here with your theory of the calibration data. Let me explain. When I installed the OS and Xstream, I did it all under a user called Administrator (with admin permissions as you would expect). I naturally had to run xstream before attempting to restore the the critical files. As I noted before, this administrator user always gives me the cal data error. 

But the first time I ever ran xstream under the LeCroyUser, I had already restored the critical files to the D: drives while doing it as the Administrator user. Also recall that I never get this error when running xstream under LeCroyUser. So I think your theory is correct. If the files are not there the first time a given user runs xstream, then the error will appear and it does not reset itself automatically. It must be reset manually by dismissing the error message.

This tells me that somewhere in the user-specific folders of XP this "state" is stored. The state being "no files found upon first run" or "yes, files found upon first launch."  It would be interesting for me to compare the folder structure of the admin user to the lecroyuser to see what is different.

Of course, that is all academic. The real question is whether the cal data actually restores and is loaded and used by the scope.  If I understood the c1, c2, c3, c4 "response.txt" files (assuming the response.txt files contain the cal constants per channel, I am not sure) then I could set up a test to stress those cal constants and do a "before" and "after" test.

For example, if I knew that there was a calibration entry saying that at 1GHz, the channel is off by 10mV (or whatever), then I could generate a 1 GHz signal and measure it on the scope with and without the calibration files in place. If I see a difference when changing that file, then I know the scope is successfully loading and using the cal constants.  My problem is, I don't know how to interpret these response files and I don't even know if they are the calibration files.

Based on all of this, I believe you are correct. Now that I have restored those files, I believe if I were to reinstall xstream under admin, the error would go away. But I don't think I care enough at this point to go through all of that. I have to install 6.5.0.5 and then 8.1.0.1 more work than I think I would like to invest at this point in time.

Some other possibly interesting (to very few people) thing I discovered. While exploring my new LeCroy HDO 4024 scope, I looked at their partitions and here is what I found...



The interesting part is that the D: drive partition is actually a "Primary" partition, not an extended/logical partition.  Based on the conclusion I have reached along with Converter's analysis, I don't think the partition type actually plays a part in all of this, but I thought I would mention it.

One other small point, the DVD I used to replace the CD (when I thought I was going to be able to install Win7) had the wrong front plastic face. I discovered that unfortunately, not all of these are interchangeable. The replacement "flat" plastic piece unfortunately doesn't fit...



You can see much of the geometry of this plastic piece is the same. But some detail on the edge is different. I gave up trying to make it fit and am now resigned to use the ugly plastic piece that came with the dvd drive. Oh well.

I did enable Hyperthreading in the BIOS. Interestingly, as soon as I did that and launched XP it recognized that the CPU had "changed" and seemed to make whatever changes were necessary to support the second virtual core (not the right terminology, but you know what I mean). The Task Manager now properly shows two CPUs (one for each thread) and the scope is really fast.

All in all, I am very, very happy with the results. The scope is super-responsive, boots very quickly and is a pleasure to operate.  CPU is massively lower. Prior to the upgrades, CPU was always at 100% while the xstream was running and triggering. Now the scope loafs along at 6%!!! A massive difference.

I think now, I will consider this upgrade complete. I have begun to play around with my new HDO 4024 12bit scope. It is quite beautiful. But now I am thinking of possibly doing some upgrades on it. I might start a new thread for that. Fact is, I feel a little bad about having hijacked this thread on the DDA-3000 for my WR6100 project.   But I have learned so much from all of you and the results of this upgrade have really emboldened me to upgrade the HDO. The big question will be how easily it can be taken apart to get to the parts to upgrade them.

Thanks everyone!
73 Eugene W2HX
« Last Edit: April 06, 2017, 01:33:37 am by w2hx »
 

Offline lukier

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Re: Upgrading Mainboard in Lecroy DDA-3000 (aka WavePro 7300a?)
« Reply #148 on: April 06, 2017, 09:17:02 am »
Just a quick question for the WavePro 7K owners about typical protocol decoders.

The datasheet mentions options like WP7K-SPIbus TD, but it seems only decode is available on WP7K, not triggering - is that true?

Or maybe it's just the old datasheet, and the later XStream software lifted this limitation (if not then it is a bit off-putting that such high end scope cannot do such basic stuff).
 

Offline w2hx

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Re: Upgrading Mainboard in Lecroy DDA-3000 (aka WavePro 7300a?)
« Reply #149 on: April 06, 2017, 01:22:02 pm »
I don't have the exact answer for your question, but my understanding is that TD means Triggering and Decoding, I would just contact lecroy support and ask them. They're support seems extremely responsive (so far).
Good luck
 


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