MIP10 Family Frequently Asked Questions

PDF Manuals, Data Sheets, and Press Releases can be found in the MPL Documentation area of this homepage.


Question #325: How can I reset the BIOS settings to factory defaults?
Answer: There is a special menu entry in the BIOS setup screen, which will reset all BIOS settings to their factory defaults.
If entering the BIOS setup screen is not possible, the recommended way is to switch off the CMOS backup power (either by removing the CMOS battery completely from its holder or by using the corresponding DIP switch as described in the product "User Manual"). That way, the BIOS settings are gone and the default ones are loaded at next system boot. After the system has booted successfully, don't forget to connect/switch on the CMOS backup power again.

Question #351: Since I updated to Linux Kernel 2.6.30 or higher, all I2C peripherals (like temperature sensors or EEPROM) are not working any longer. With an older kernel, everything is working fine.
Answer: Is there a message similar to:
  • "ACPI: I/O resource ... conflicts with ACPI region SMB0"
  • "ACPI Warning: SystemIO range ... conflicts with OpRegion ... (\_SB.PCI0.SBUS.SMBI) "
 present in the kernel log?

If yes, please add "acpi_enforce_resources=lax" to the kernel command line.

Question #406: The BIOS update process for your SBC products seems to be floppy based. But I don't have access to a floppy and/or a floppy drive. Is there an alternative way to update the BIOS?
Answer: For MPL systems with USB boot capability, please follow the steps below:
  1. Create a bootable FreeDOS USB stick (either manually or with a tool like "Rufus").
  2. Verify that the BIOS settings of your MPL SBC are correctly set up for USB booting. Check the corresponding BIOS manual for details.
  3. Verify that the freshly created USB stick boots on your MPL SBC. If it does not, go back to step 1.
  4. Start the MPL provided BIOS Update Image EXE file.
  5. In the program's main dialog, deselect the "Writing on Drive" and select the "File extration" checkbox. Adjust the "File extraction" path to a suitable place on your local hard drive.
  6. Copy all the extracted files onto the previously created USB stick. Make sure NOT to overwrite the existing "KERNEL.SYS" file on the USB stick!
  7. Boot your MPL SBC from the USB stick and follow the instructions on the screen.

Question #381:
  • Does the PIP10 / MIP10 platform support Win7?
  • Where do I find a Win7 graphics driver for my PIP10 / MIP10 based SBC?
Answer: Most of the PIP10 / MIP10 hardware is supported by Win7 out-of-the-box. One of the exceptions is the graphics part for which Intel does not provide a full-featured WDDM driver as documented here: Running Windows 7 on older Intel graphics products

Depending on the actual graphics requirements of your application, the use of the "Standard-VGA" driver of Win7 or the old Intel XPDM driver for WinXP may be a possible option.

If there is a need for graphics to be fully supported by Win7, the upgrade path, depending on your other system requirements (like PC/104 or IDE), would be a member of the PIP20 or PIP30 family.

Question #340: I observe power-up problems or sudden, unmotivated resets of the MIP board during normal operation. It seems to get worse if an additional add-on card is installed and/or the CPU and/or GPU load is increased.
Answer: Chances are that this is a power supply problem. In contrast to the PIP boards, the MIP boards expect their 5V system input voltage to be provided in a "suitable, clean" form, especially relating to short power transients. Please check the following points:

  • make sure there is a low impedance connection between the external power supply and the MIP board (wire length as short as possible / wire cross section as wide as possible).
  • supply 5.25V  instead of 5V to the system.
  • use a better power supply.
  • solder the power supply wires directly to the pads of the power supply connector on the MIP board.

Question #291: I would like to "communicate" with a PC104 card installed on a MPL SBC, but it does not work.
Answer: First, please check what ISA resources (MEM, IO, IRQ) the PC104 card supports and/or uses at the moment. Read the "BIOS User's Manual" carefully and use the information therein about available ISA resources on the system to figure out a conflict free set of values for the various ISA resources. Make the necessary adjustments to the card configuration and / or the BIOS settings. The "BIOS User's Manual" suitable for your MPL SBC can be downloaded from the "Documentation area on the MPL homepage".

Question #290: My MPL SBC does not boot from CD-ROM. What I am doing wrong?
Answer: First, please verify that the hardware (SBC, drive, cables) is in working condition and the CD/DVD you are trying to boot from is really bootable. If the problem still persists, then most probably some BIOS settings are not correct. Please read the corresponding chapter(s) in the "BIOS User's Manual" carefully and make the necessary adjustments. The "BIOS User's Manual" suitable for your MPL SBC can be downloaded from the "Documentation area on the MPL homepage".

Question #345: I'm having trouble to get an USB device to work with one of your SBC. Either the USB device is not working reliable (or not at all) or the MPL SBC is even being reset if I insert the plug into the USB port or if the device is activated. The same USB device works without problem if I connect it to my laptop/desktop.
Answer: Is the USB device powered from the USB port only (no external power supply is being used)? If yes, your USB device most probably needs more power than it is allowed to do. The USB standard specifies that an USB device must not consume more than 500mA for USB2.0 / 900mA for USB3.0 (even not more than 100mA before being successfully initialized). For all USB peripherals with higher power requirements than the values mentioned above, the use of an external power supply is mandatory.
So please make sure that you use an external power supply or try to find another, standard conforming USB device.

Please note that the use of an "Y" shaped USB cable to "steal" power from a second, unused USB port is NOT a solution!

Question #350: Since I updated to Linux Kernel 2.6.29 or higher, the on-board ethernet is not working any longer. The correct driver is loaded and there are no error messages, but no packets are received or transmitted.
Answer: Is there a message in the kernel log about "boot interrupt" being disabled? If yes, please add "pci=noioapicquirk" to the kernel command line. On some kernels/distributions, "pci=noioapicreroute" may work as well. Alternatively, you can disable the "CONFIG_X86_REROUTE_FOR_BROKEN_BOOT_IRQS" compile time option and recompile the kernel.

Question #341: I am using one of your SBC and try to run an application on a RTOS, but I am facing some strange problems like missed hardware interrupts, increased variance of interrupt latency, ... . Is the SBC faulty?
Answer: Chances are that you are facing a problem with "System Management Mode (SMM)".
If you wish to use a RTOS or an application with some (hard) real time constrains, it is recommended to disable SMM (or one of the features depending on SMM) in the BIOS setup.
For more information about SMM, please check the corresponding chapter in the "BIOS Users Manual" for your MPL product.

Question #336: I'm using Linux and after a (mostly short) random period of time, the on-board ethernet port stops working. In the kernel log, there is a message about "irq 9: nobody cared". How can I fix this?
Answer: Is ACPI activated in the BIOS? If yes, is ACPI also active under Linux? Please check the ACPI related messages in the kernel log ("dmesg | fgrep -i acpi").
  • If ACPI support is completely missing in the kernel, either use an ACPI enabled kernel or disable ACPI in the BIOS.
  • If ACPI is supported by the kernel, but disabled (for whatever reason), adding "acpi=force" to the kernel command line may help. As an alternative, you may try to disable ACPI in the BIOS, but this is not recommended.

Question #331: I have a problem while receiving data from some external device through the serial line(s) of your SBC. Everything works flawless at slow baud rates but if I switch to a faster baud rate, the data received becomes corrupt. And it gets even worse the higher the baud rate is.
Answer: First, please check that your cabling is correct and within specification. If the cabling is correct, chances are that you are facing an UART "Overrun Error" problem.
Please try the following points:
  1. Make sure that the Rx FIFO is enabled by the SW driver.
  2. Reduce the Rx FIFO trigger level.
  3. Disable "USB Mass Storage" support in the BIOS. Please check the corresponding BIOS manual for details.
  4. Disable "System Management Mode (SMM)" in the BIOS. Please check the corresponding BIOS manual for details.
  5. Reduce the baud rate.

Question #329: I have attached a PC/104 or PC/104-Plus card to the [PIP | MIP] and I am sure that the card is configured correctly both from the hardware and the software side. Nevertheless the card does not work as expected, but shows erratic behaviour.
Answer: Does the card need +12V, -12V or -5V from the PC104/PC104-Plus bus? If the answer is yes, chances are that the I/O drivers and/or some A/D or D/A circuitry are not properly powered.
By default the [PIP | MIP] does NOT provide the voltages mentioned above on the PC/104 or PC/104-Plus bus.
Please check the corresponding "User Manual" and/or "Technical Reference Manual" for details.

Question #372:
  • If QNX is booted with PnP enabled in the BIOS, starting of the Photon GUI fails with the following error message: "io-display is not running"
    If QNX is booted with PnP disabled, the Photon GUI works. What's wrong?

  • If QNX is booted with PnP enabled in the BIOS, QNX does recognize (according to the QNX "pci" tool) the ethernet controller(s), but the network does not work correctly.
    If QNX is booted with PnP disabled, network is working. What's wrong?
Answer: The PnP enumerator of QNX seems to handle PCI bridges with sub-type "PCI (4)" only, but completely ignoring sub-type "HOST (0)".

Add the following line (below the existing "device(pnpbios, ...)") to the "/etc/system/enum/devices/bridge" file:
 device(pnpbios, .type=$(PNPBIOS_TYPE_BRIDGE), .subtype=$(PNPBIOS_BRIDGE_HOST))

Question #328: I'm trying to install [Windows NT | Windows 2K | Windows XP] on a CF card, but the installation fails or the OS does not work as expected. Does the PIP/MIP/IDE2CF not support this application?
Answer: Please make sure that you use a CF card which is configured to report itself as "fixed disk" device to the host system.
Basically there are two "different kind" of CF cards. Most CF cards for the "consumer market" report themselves as "removable" devices, while CF cards for the "industrial market" are normally configured to report a "fixed disk" device.
Although a successful installation of [Windows NT | Windows 2K | Windows XP] is theoretically possible on both kind of CF cards, there may be some tricky problems when using a "removable" CF card.
Our recommendation is to use "fixed disk" CF cards for this purpose.

Question #312: The BIOS POST screen is not displayed after the system is powered. All I get is a blinking cursor in the upper, left corner of the screen, but nothing more. There is also no reaction to keyboard input.
Answer: Most probably, "Console Redirection" is activated in the BIOS Setup. Please check the corresponding chapter in the "BIOS User's Manual" for your MPL product, which is downloadable from the Documentation area on the MPL homepage.

Question #302: After a change to some BIOS settings or a BIOS update, my Windows [200x | XP] installation does not work any longer. The system hangs or resets during startup.
Answer: Please check the ACPI setting in the BIOS setup and make sure the setting is the same as at the time the OS was installed. Once Windows [200x | XP] is installed with ACPI support enabled, it will normally no longer work on a non-ACPI system.

Question #286: After installing Windows on my [PIP | MIP], I get no video output anymore. After the startup screen is shown, the monitor gets blank.
Answer: The [PIP | MIP] SBC with DVI interface support various display combinations. If the type of display (analog, digital) connected to the DVI-I interface changes between consecutive Windows boots, the graphics driver does not necessarily detect the new display device as it still tries to use the last known working combination. This can result in a blank screen after the graphics driver has been loaded in Windows.
In this case, try and use one of the following hot key combinations (depending on the display device) to get a display output:
Monitor Type Connection Key combination
Analog Monitor DVI-I <CTRL><ALT><F1>
Digital Monitor DVI-I <CTRL><ALT><F4>
LVDS Panel Internally <CTRL><ALT><F3>

Please also note that the Intel Graphics Driver Control Applet has to be running for the hot keys to work!
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