Field Notice: New 7204VXR and 7206VXR Chassis are Incompatible with Older PA-4B-U Port Adapters

May 12, 2004

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Products Affected

Product	Top Assembly		Printed Circuit Assembly		Comments
	Part Number	Rev.	Part Number	Rev.
PA-4B-U	800-02061-02 and earlier	C0 and earlier	73-2195-02 and earlier	B and earlier	All PA-4B-U shipped prior to May 31, 2004 when installed in 720xVXR chassis shipped after January 25, 2004. The chassis version must be 800-04766-11 for the 7204VXR or 800-04667-11 for the 7206VXR or later versions for this failure to happen.

Problem Description

Due to an end of sales of a vendor's PCI Bridge component on the 7204VXR and 7206VXR mid-plane, Cisco must use another vendor's component. The new component causes the existing (older) PA-4B-U to fail to boot up in newer 7204VXR and 7206VXR chassis bearing the new component.

Background

The new PCI Bridge component is compatible with the older component and affects very few Port Adapters.

The incompatibility between the older PA-4B-U and the newer 7204VXR or 7206VXR chassis was due to a change implmented in January, 2004 on PCN E077947, which implemented the newer PCI Bridge device on the 7204VXR and the 7206VXR.

The versions of 7204VXR or 7206VXR chassis that are affected are 800-04766-11 for the 7204VXR or 800-04667-11 for the 7206VXR or later versions of these chassis.

Problem Symptoms

The symptom will be that the older PA-4B-U will not boot up in either the 7204VXR or 7206VXR chassis shipped after January 25, 2004.

Workaround/Solution

WorkAround:

None.

Solution:

If the PA-4B-U fails to boot up in the 7204VXR or 7206VXR chassis, replace it using the RMA process. See below for additional information.

Note that if your PA-4B-U is already functioning in the 7204VXR or 7206VXR chassis, no action need be taken as your PA-4B-U is not affected.

RMA Information:

Cisco recommends a fix-on-fail strategy for this problem. If the PA-4B-U is functioning properly, no action should be taken.

As of approximately June 1, 2004, new PA-4B-U that were manufactured under Engineering Change Order (ECO) E077947 are guaranteed to be free of this problem. Refer to How to Identify Hardware Levels section below for instructions on how to view the version of the PA-4B-U. Product shipped from Service Logistics may still exhibit this problem. Coding RMAs as shown below guarantees a replacement which is not affected by this problem:

Service Level: Mfg New - 3rd Bus Day NON BILLABLE

Failure Class: Administrative Request

Failure Code: Field Notice Alert

Note that service level agreements do not apply to RMAs coded as shown above.

How To Identify Hardware Levels

The nature of this problem (failure to boot up) results in the user not being able to view the failed board's diagnostic information via the command line interface.

If you suspect that the your PA-4B-U is failing because of this incompatibility, look for the 800 assembly label. The versions of 800 numbers that are subject to this problem are 800-02061-01 and 800-02061-02. 800-02061-03 has the firmware fix to resolve the incompatibility with new 7204VXR and 7206VXR chassis. In order to view the PA-4B-U 800 number label, it must be removed form the chassis. Removing this port adapter should be done only if it is not booting up. Observe proper Electro-Static Discharge procedures.

Related Field Notices

7204VXR and 7206VXR Chassis are Incompatible with Older PA-8B-S/T Published 30-Apr-2004

Field Repair Strategy

Cisco recommends a fix-on-fail strategy for this problem.

As of approximately June 2004, new products that were manufactured under Engineering Change Order (ECO) E077947 are guaranteed to be free of this problem. Refer to How to Identify Hardware Levels above for instructions on how to view the version of in-service product. Product shipped from Service Logistics may still exhibit this problem. Coding RMAs as shown below guarantees a replacement which is not affected by this problem:

Service Level: Mfg New - 3rd Bus Day NON BILLABLE Failure

Class: Administrative Request Failure

Code: Field Notice Alert

Note that service level agreements do not apply to RMAs coded as shown above. Until August 30, 2004, RMAs must be requested as new product from Manufacturing because the Service Depots will not have updated PA-4B-U in stock. After August 30, 2004, Service Depots will have versions of PA-4B-U that are not subject to this incompatibility.

For More Information

If you require further assistance, or if you have any further questions regarding this field notice, please contact the Cisco Systems Technical Assistance Center (TAC) by one of the following methods:

• Open a service request on Cisco.com
• By email
• By telephone

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