NTW5 Beta 1 Networking woes (Digital EtherWORKS DE203, DE450)

[Wayne Myles]

G'day folks,

The trouble with trying to stay on the "bleeding edge" is that one tends to
do a lot of haemorrhaging :-( I've tried installing NT5 W (Beta 1) on two of
my systems, and both are decidedly unhappy with me. Both run W95 and NT4 very
happily.

The second system at least runs and boots; I am in great need of an NT 5
compatible driver for a

Digital EtherWORKS 3 Turbo (DE203)

in order to get one system operating. Yet again, this card is unsupported in
the base OS. The wizard will not accept the NT3.51/NT4 EW3 drivers (due to
the new driver model, I suppose). I checked the usual Digital site
(ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/DEC/adapters/ethernet/ewrk3/) but it doesn't look
promising.

The first system is much worse; the bootstrap installer runs to completion,
but the very first kernel load (and every subsequent one) ends in the infamous
"Blue Screen of Death." Apparently in NDIS.DLL. This system has a

Digital EtherWORKS Turbo PCI 10 (DE450).

I tried many times (and ways) to get this machine to boot, but the closest I
could get was the VGA mode boot, under which the last line displayed before the
BSoD was NDIS.DLL. The installer recognised the card properly in the first
phases. Every boot ended with a STOP x79 (x4,xAC31,x0,x0).

If Digital or Microsoft are listening, I'll be pleased to work through it
with them. I've recorded the details for reference. After all, this is the
point of beta testing, no?

Thanks in advance,

Wayne