Intelliport boards are a mystery

[Chip Salzenberg]

[Aside:  I apologize for cross-posting this query; but I want to be sure
 that all current and potential purchasers of Intelliport serial boards
 read this article.]

Humorously appropriate quote:
   "By the time their number had dwindled from fifty to eight, the other
    dwarves had begun to suspect Hungry."

We at A T Engineering have been using the Intelliport-6 smart serial board
with SCO Xenix/386 and Everex Step 386/20 motherboards.  Our in-house use of
these boards has been relatively trouble-free.  Our customers, on the other
hand, have had big problems, and we're mystified as to the cause.

The primary symptom of trouble is that the board will stop working after
hours or days of continous operation.  The flashing LED's on the board
freeze.  A puzzling item: if the system is rebooted, the driver CAN'T FIND
THE BOARD.

At first, we thought it was a bad board or three.  But now that it's
happened at at least six different sites, and at some problem sites three
times in a row with three different boards, we are beginning to suspect
that there is some problem intrinsic in the system configuration.

But here's the best part:  When we swap new boards for the ones that stopped
working, and try them in-house, many of them work without problems.  This
odd behavior has made the search for the problem's cause rather difficult.

There are only two differences between the customers' machines and ours:
  1.  Some of our customers have Rev E motherboards instead of Rev G.
  2.  We usually run our main Everex with the cover off.

So, what's the verdict?  Have YOU had similar problems?  Have you used
Intelliport-6 board without problems?  In either case, please E-Mail your
comments; I will summarize to the net.
-- 
Chip Salzenberg             <chip at ateng.com> or <uunet!ateng!chip>
A T Engineering             Me?  Speak for my company?  Surely you jest!
	  "It's no good.  They're tapping the lines."