[PCR-1000] Maybe XP can inadvertently corrupt the PCR1000 EEPROM

[Jerry Flanders]

I recently ran my TalkPCR verify utility and discovered 109 errors in the 
EEPROM. Strange - I don't run any hairy-wild software here. No big deal - I 
had a good backup EEPROM copy, so I restored it and noticed signal levels 
come back up OK. But I was wondering what could have caused the EEPROM 
corruption.

So I started thinking.

Not long ago, I upgraded to XP here, and I remember seeing XP doing tricks 
with the serial port at startup. I did a google to see what XP could be 
doing, and discovered it is looking for a serial mouse. There is actually a 
command to add to the BOOT.INI file to disable this query

"

/fastdetect:comnumber

This switch turns off serial and bus mouse detection in the Ntdetect.com 
file for the specified port. Use this switch if you have a component other 
than a mouse that is attached to a serial port during the startup process."

The above is from: 
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;833721

So Microsoft ways that, at startup, XP somehow pulses or queries the serial 
ports to see if a serial mouse is attached there.

Perhaps your PCR1000 is at risk of EEPROM corruption when that query is 
sent out on the port.  The above reference tells us how to kill the serial 
port query, if we need to. I am going to leave mine as it is now and see if 
anything happens in the future. I mostly leave the present PCR1000 computer 
running 24/7, so have few startups to test, but still may see something 
happen. (The PCR1000 was on a different XP machine until recently, with 
normal startups/shutdowns.)

We have had several cases of EEPROM corruption reported here. Does this 
possible XP connection ring a bell with anyone?

Jerry W4UK