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PCCtest 1xx/2xx/3xx Technical Support Questions and Answers

Updated May 19, 2005

The following document contains commonly asked questions regarding the operation of the 16-bit PC Card versions of the PCCtest.

WinCE Issues:

  1. Do any of your 16-bit testers support WinCE?
  2. Does the PCCtest 250/270/273/350/373 Support WinCE?
  3. Why are there two different 16-bit PC Card testers, the PCCtest 170 and PCCtest 172?
  4. Do you have WinCe source code for the PCCtest 172 and CF test 222?
  5. Do you know what socket controllers will require the PCCtest 172 and CF test 222?

PC Based System Issues

  1. We are trying to test the 16-bit portion of a CardBus slot in a docking station. How do we get the test software to recognize the controller in the docking station?
  2. The test times for the PCT250, PCT270 and PCT170 MSDOS software are too long. What can I do about it?
  3. Does Sycard Technology supply any unreleased test software for evaluation?
  4. We are seeing intermittent failures with the PCTxxx software. The failures always occur during the power-up delay or basic operational test.
  5. I'm running the core voltage on the Cirrus(Basis) CL67xx 16-bit PC Card controller at 3.3V. There is a software control bit that specifies which voltage the core is running at. Does your software control this bit?
  1. Do any of your 16-bit testers support WinCE?

    2. Our PCCtest 170/172 and CFtest 220/222 are designed to be used in a WinCE environment. Because of the many different CPU architectures and hardware platforms that support WinCE, Sycard does not supply test executables for a particular system. However, Sycard has contracted with an outside consultant to provide a "generic" WinCE test application. Sycard offers source code for this application at no charge. The source code may be obtained directly from Sycard Technology by returning two signed copies of the following license agreement:

    WinCEnda.pdf - License agreement for the PCCtest 170/CFtest 220 WinCE source code.

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  2. Does the PCCtest 250/270/273/350/373 Support WinCE?

    3. No. There are no plans to support WinCE on these testers.

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  3. Why are there two different 16-bit PC Card testers, the PCCtest 170 and the PCCtest 172?

    4. The PCCtest 170 is our original low cost 16-bit socket tester. It was originally designed to test a full featured PC Card socket based on a Intel compatible socket controller. The Intel based socket controllers allowed 8 or 16 bit I/O and memory windows based on programmable settings. These settings could override the state of the -IOIS16 signal. With many of the lower cost PC Card and CompactFlash implementations found in WinCE platforms, this feature was not available. The access type (8 or 16-bit) is based on the state of the -IOIS16 signal. The PCCtest 170 and the CFtest 220, on power-up, clear the -IOIS16 signal. On the socket controllers that use -IOIS16 to select 8/16 bit mode, only 16-bit transactions can be made unless the state of the -IOIS16 bit is changed. Since the control bit for the -IOIS16 bit is located in an odd byte register (offset 3), the software can never set this bit. One way to fix this problem would be to move the control of the -IOIS16 to an even register. This allows the -IOIS16 bit to be controlled in both 8 and 16-bit modes. Sycard created the PCCtest 172 and the CFtest 222 to solve this problem. Several control bits were moved to facilitate the use by these type of controllers. The PCCtest 172 technical reference manual contains information on the differences between the model 170 and the model 172.

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  4. Do you have WinCE source code for the PCCtest 172 and CFtest 222?

    5. No, we only supply the source code for the CFtest 220/PCCtest 170. The user will need to modify the location of the some of the control bits to support these testers. Details can be found in the technical reference manuals for these products.

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  5. Do you know what socket controllers will require the PCCtest 172 and CFtest 222?

    6. The Intel based SA-11xx series of RISC processor require the CFtest 222 and PCCtest 172. We are not aware of any others.

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  1. We are trying to test the 16-bit portion of a CardBus slot in a docking station. How do we get the test software to recognize the controller in the docking station?

    2. If the controller in the docking station is different than the one in the main computer, simply select it by entering the chip designation with the –bxx switch. If the controller is the same as the one in the main computer, use the –s2 option to select the second instance of the selected controller.

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  2. The test times for PCT250, PCT270 and PCT170 are too long. What can I do about it?

    3. Future versions of these applications will have options to modify certain test and delay parameters on the command line. The following application note describes these changes:

    TIME170.PDF- Application note describing ways to reduce test time with the 16-bit PC Card test software. The updated applications are available in Beta release (see below).

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  3. Does Sycard Technology supply any unreleased test software for evaluation?

    4. Yes, we provide unreleased software through another FTP site at the following URL. Please note that this is unreleased software designed to test new features. Use at your own risk! This software may change at anytime. We do our best to support customer requests. Please send specific results and bug reports to:

    In an effort to spam proof our website, we ask that you type this email address into your email program. Thanks.

    The following are our current unreleased test offerings:

    pct170.EXE v1.04x (2/17/04) - Beta support for new TI and ENE controllers.

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  4. We are seeing intermittent failures with the PCTxxx software. The failures always occur during the power-up delay or basic operational test.

    5. There are several possible problem areas that can cause this problem. We have seen the following:

    1. There is noise on the system’s Card Detect and/or Voltage sense pins. On card insertion, a state machine in the CardBus controller tries to determine what kind of card has been inserted. If there is excessive noise on these lines the card will not be correctly identified. Try adding a -r switch to the command line (software versions 1.17x and later). This will force the CardBus controller to re-inquire the card type prior to running the test.
    2. The voltage switch that controls the power to the slot is not completely turning the power off or there is some leakage onto the slot power bus. When the PCCtest is plugged and slot power off, measure the voltage on the slot power pins. The voltage should be around 0 volts. If not, then the PCCtest may not properly reset.
    3. In most host designs there are several pull-up resistors on the slot signal pins. These pull-up resistors can either pull up the signal to system Vcc or slot Vcc. Card Detect (CD1- and CD2-) and Voltage Sense (VS1, VS2) should be pulled-up to System Vcc, while any other signal should be pulled-up to slot Vcc. If resistors are not connected to the proper power source power-on problems may occur.
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  5. I'm running the core voltage on the Cirrus (Basis) CL67xx 16-bit PC Card controller at 3.3V. There is a software control bit that specifies which voltage the core is running at. Does your software control this bit?

    6. Since our test software can't determine the core voltage, the user must specify this when specifying the Cirrus chip. For example, when running the core voltage at 5.0V, use -b11 to specify the CL/PD6722. If the core voltage is at 3.3V, use -b11a to specify the CL/PD6722.

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Updated May 19, 2005

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