Desktop Control Center

Anyone able to run DCC on 874PBZ after updating the BIOS to the latest
version BZ87510A.86A.0083.P18?

http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/software/dcc/


I'm getting "an unexpected error has occurred" when I start up the program.
This used to work fine earlier. As it interfaces with the BIOS, I am
guessing that the latest BIOS is somehow not jiving with this software..

--
Aloke
----
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"Aloke Prasad" wrote in message
...
Anyone able to run DCC on 874PBZ after updating the BIOS to the latest
version BZ87510A.86A.0083.P18?

http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/software/dcc/


I'm getting "an unexpected error has occurred" when I start up the
program.
This used to work fine earlier. As it interfaces with the BIOS, I am
guessing that the latest BIOS is somehow not jiving with this software..

Not only have I been unable to get it to run (same error message you're
receiving with the same board and BIOS) after about an hour or so tinkering
with the Registry and double-checking DLL versions, I now cannot reinstall
Active Monitor. (Part of my troubleshooting procedure for DCC was to
uninstall Active Monitor.) The Active Monitor installation says it can't
install the SM Bus driver and won't go any further. Intel's support site
seems to have no information on how to remedy this or DCC's problem.

Anybody know how to remove all traces of a prior DCC and AM installation
including all the various support files and Registry entries?

"MyndPhlyp" wrote in message
nk.net...

"Aloke Prasad" wrote in message
...
Anyone able to run DCC on 874PBZ after updating the BIOS to the latest
version BZ87510A.86A.0083.P18?

http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/software/dcc/


I'm getting "an unexpected error has occurred" when I start up the
program.
This used to work fine earlier. As it interfaces with the BIOS, I am
guessing that the latest BIOS is somehow not jiving with this software..

Not only have I been unable to get it to run (same error message you're
receiving with the same board and BIOS) after about an hour or so
tinkering
with the Registry and double-checking DLL versions, I now cannot reinstall
Active Monitor. (Part of my troubleshooting procedure for DCC was to
uninstall Active Monitor.) The Active Monitor installation says it can't
install the SM Bus driver and won't go any further. Intel's support site
seems to have no information on how to remedy this or DCC's problem.

Anybody know how to remove all traces of a prior DCC and AM installation
including all the various support files and Registry entries?

The SMBus driver in DCC is newer than that in IAM. The trick is to fully
uninstall the SMBus driver before re-installing IAM.

Download the DCC installation file from Intel web site and open it with
Winzip. There is a directory with SMbus setup, readme and release note.
Hopefully, these will shed some light on how and what it installs.

This installation adds SMBus driver to System Manager in Device Manager from
which, hopefully, it can be uninstalled.
--
Aloke
----
to reply by e-mail remove 123 and change invalid to com

"Aloke Prasad" wrote in message
...

The SMBus driver in DCC is newer than that in IAM. The trick is to fully
uninstall the SMBus driver before re-installing IAM.

Download the DCC installation file from Intel web site and open it with
Winzip. There is a directory with SMbus setup, readme and release note.
Hopefully, these will shed some light on how and what it installs.

This installation adds SMBus driver to System Manager in Device Manager
from
which, hopefully, it can be uninstalled.

I discovered an even better solution after also discovering Active Monitor
uses SMBus 4.0.3.0 and Control Center uses 4.0.4.1.

I had already unzipped the downloads - both of them - and found the SMBUS
directory. Nicely tucked away in there was a README with the command line
switches for SETUP. There's an "-overwrite" switch that forces the
installation regardless of the version.

Active Monitor doesn't like seeing SMBus 4.0.4 - it is really sensitive
about seeing either 4.0.3 or an earlier version it can upgrade.

So ... run the SMBus SETUP from the Active Monitor download with the
"-overwrite" switch to downgrade the SMBus to 4.0.3, reboot and reattempt
the Active Monitor installation.

Then, if you really want to, do the same SETUP -OVERWRITE using the Control
Center's SMBUS installation to bring it up to 4.0.4.1. (Active Monitor seems
to run just fine with the newer SMBus. It just doesn't like to install with
the newer SMBus.)

Control Center is still complaining, though.

I think the problem with Control Center might have to do with SMBIOS. It is
one of the first things Control Center tosses on the machine and it seems to
require some, if not all, of a previous installation in order to continue.

In the process of trying to troubleshoot Control Center, and the eventual
reinstallation of Active Monitor, I located some files in the
\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS directory and the \SYSTEM32 directory that were associated
with SM in one form or another. Specifically:

SYSTEM32\ISMBIOS.DLL
SYSTEM32\ISMBIOSVB.DLL
SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\SMB.SYS
SYSTEM32\SMBIOS.SYS

Part of the trial-and-error troubleshooting involved deleting these files
after uninstalling Active Monitor and Control Center.

After finally forcing Active Monitor back onto the system, I thought I'd
give Control Center another try. It came back and complained:

.... Desktop Control Center can be installed only on Intel desktop boards
that support IDCC. ...

Rather interesting. I specifically recall the D875PBZ was on the list of
supported boards.

Digging through the Recycling Bin, I located the SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\SMBIOS.SYS
and restored it. (The attempted reinstallation of Control Center replaced
the ISMBIOS*.DLL files in the SYSTEM32 directory already.)

Reboot and reattempt. It installed.

Still getting that error from Control Center, though. What a PITA this
little exercise has been.

Here's where it gets interesting, and might support my suspicion that SM
BIOS needs to be forcefully upgraded:

The SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\SMBIOS.SYS is version 1.0.0.1

Located in the Control Center directory is SMBIOS.SY_ (curious, yes?) and is
version 1.0.0.14.

There is also a duplicated ISMBIOS.DLL. In Control Center's directory, it is
version 1.0.0.14 and in the SYSTEM32 directory, it is 1.1.9.143. The
copyright on the supposedly newer (SYSTEM32) version is 2000 while the
copyright for the one in the Control Center directory is 2000-2003.

Just to confuse matters even more (as if they aren't confused enough
already), also in the Control Center directory is something called
ISMBIOSDLL.DLL. Same description and copyright as ISMBIOS.DLL in Control
Center's directory, but version 1.1.1.2 and its "original filename" is
actually ISMBIOSDLL.DLL hinting that this is intentional.

Now, if I can just get my hands on a standalone installation of SMBIOS, we
might have a chance.

"MyndPhlyp" wrote in message
hlink.net...

"Aloke Prasad" wrote in message
...

The SMBus driver in DCC is newer than that in IAM. The trick is to
fully
uninstall the SMBus driver before re-installing IAM.

Download the DCC installation file from Intel web site and open it with
Winzip. There is a directory with SMbus setup, readme and release note.
Hopefully, these will shed some light on how and what it installs.

This installation adds SMBus driver to System Manager in Device Manager
from
which, hopefully, it can be uninstalled.

I discovered an even better solution after also discovering Active Monitor
uses SMBus 4.0.3.0 and Control Center uses 4.0.4.1.

I had already unzipped the downloads - both of them - and found the SMBUS
directory. Nicely tucked away in there was a README with the command line
switches for SETUP. There's an "-overwrite" switch that forces the
installation regardless of the version.

Active Monitor doesn't like seeing SMBus 4.0.4 - it is really sensitive
about seeing either 4.0.3 or an earlier version it can upgrade.

Useful information.

In any case, until I flashed to the P18 Bios, both programs worked on my
system with latest SMBus 4.0.4.1 (with IAM installed first and then DCC
installed next).

So, if the only relevant change was the BIOS upgrade, then DCC will never
work.

At least IAM works on my system..

Feel like reporting all this to Intel (since you have done most of the
troubleshooting..)?
--
Aloke
----
to reply by e-mail remove 123 and change invalid to com

"Aloke Prasad" wrote in message
...

Feel like reporting all this to Intel (since you have done most of the
troubleshooting..)?

ROFL ... already did. Chances are that I'll get a tech that (1) knows less
about the product than I do, (2) will never understand, or will completely
misunderstand, the problem, (3) will take me through all the recipe card
steps such as uninstall/reinstall, and (4) doesn't speak English as a
primary language (if he/she speaks English at all). To top it all off,
considering my very optimistic view of the future, the tech will most likely
hit a brick wall, refuse to escalate the problem, and say the product isn't
supported on Win2K.

While I was noodling around, I also managed to find a proper way to get SM
BIOS upgraded (hee hee hee). There is an SMBIOS.INF file in the installed
IDCC directory.

In Win2K's Device Manager, expand the System Devices branch. Probably the
3rd one down the branch is the Intel System Management BIOS Driver. Mine was
at v1.0.

Wrong-click it and select Properties off the pop-up menu.

Click the Driver tab. (note the version)

Click the Update Driver button. Let it show you a list of compatible
drivers, and then ...

Click Have Disk.

Surf on over to the installed IDCC directory and locate the SMBIOS.INF file.
Select it, OK your way back, install and reboot.

Go back and check your version - it's now v1.13.

"MyndPhlyp" wrote in message
link.net...

"Aloke Prasad" wrote in message
...

Feel like reporting all this to Intel (since you have done most of the
troubleshooting..)?

ROFL ... already did. Chances are that I'll get a tech that (1) knows less
about the product than I do, (2) will never understand, or will completely
misunderstand, the problem, (3) will take me through all the recipe card
steps such as uninstall/reinstall, and (4) doesn't speak English as a
primary language (if he/she speaks English at all). To top it all off,
considering my very optimistic view of the future, the tech will most
likely
hit a brick wall, refuse to escalate the problem, and say the product
isn't
supported on Win2K.

At least they can add it to the database and alert the developers that this
needs fixing..

While I was noodling around, I also managed to find a proper way to get SM
BIOS upgraded (hee hee hee). There is an SMBIOS.INF file in the installed
IDCC directory.

In Win2K's Device Manager, expand the System Devices branch. Probably the
3rd one down the branch is the Intel System Management BIOS Driver. Mine
was
at v1.0.

That's what I had in mind in my last post (about the Device Manager).

Go back and check your version - it's now v1.13.

Mine already was/is at 1.13. There's also ICH5/ICH5-M SMBUus Controller -
24D3 (Intel SMBus 2.0 Driver) already there at version 4.0.4.0

My system (XP Pro) has the latest drivers but I think DCC will need to be
updated by Intel to work with this BIOS (or maybe the BIOS needs to be fixed
in some way ..).
--
Aloke
----
to reply by e-mail remove 123 and change invalid to com

"Aloke Prasad" wrote in message
...

My system (XP Pro) has the latest drivers but I think DCC will need to be
updated by Intel to work with this BIOS (or maybe the BIOS needs to be
fixed
in some way ..).


The BIOS needs to be fixed? Again? We'll be up to a 3-digit number in the
BIOS version if this keeps up. They'll have to patch the BIOS just to
display the BIOS rev!