FAQ: EyeLink II: How do I fix a “reading EEPROM” error when booting the Host PC?

[Sam]

* This FAQ only applies to the EyeLink II systems *

The EyeLink II EEPROM error is often a hardware-related problem, but can sometimes be fixed programmatically by taking the following steps:

1. Make sure that the EyeLink PCI card is not loose in the host PC. Please power down the computer, remove the power cable, take out the EyeLink PCI card, and then put it back to the same PCI slot where you removed it from. Finally, plug the Host PC back in and restart the system to check if this solved the problem.
   
   
2. If that does not help, please repeat step one and try putting the card back in a different PCI slot to see if the issue is related to faulty PCI slot on the motherboard.
   
   
3. If the above two steps do not help, get the latest version of the C:\EYELINK2\EXE\ directory Host PC software.
   
   IMPORTANT: We suggest you first make a complete backup of your existing \EYELINK2\EXE\ directory so that the DATA.INI, FINAL.INI, and PHYSICIAL.INI files can be re-used.
   
   After overwriting the old EXE directory with the new EXE directory, please open PREINIT.INI file and try out different settings with 'eeprom_read_timing'.
   
   
   Code:

   // Computer-specific tweak to EEPROM read timing
// 3 args: RLOW, RDELAY, RRECOV
// Defaults are 3, 3, and 100
// Increasing first 2 (range=2..10) might improve stability.
eeprom_read_timing = 3, 3, 100
   
   
4. Try the following parameter:
   
   
   Code:

   eeprom_read_timing = 10, 10, 100
   
   From the command prompt, type eyelink2.exe to run the tracker several times to see if the issue replicates.
   
   
5. If that does not help. Please download the attached fixeep.zip file. 
   
     fixeep.zip (Size: 54.91 KB / Downloads: 10)
   
   Unzip the files contained within and copy them to your C:\EYELINK2\EXE\ directory of the host PC.
   
   Next restart the Host PC in the EyeLink partition and then in the command prompt, from the C:\EYELINK2\EXE\ directory, type "fix_eep" to run the program. Once it finishes running, try to run eyelink2.exe. You may also need to try different settings of "eeprom_read_timing" described above to get things to work properly.
   
   If you see a "cannot open file 'eyelink.eep'" message when performing the above step 4) to reprogram the card with the "fix_eep" utility, please copy the attached eyelink.eep file to C:\EYELINK2\EXE\ folder and re-run the "fix_eep" utility.
   
   
6. If this does not work immediately, can you turn off the computer and retry the fix_eep command several times.
   
   
7. If the above step works fine, please delete the three copied files (deeprom.exe, defpci.eep, and fix_eep.bat files) from the directory as they may be harmful to the card if run many times.
   
   
8. If the problem persists, please send the eye.log files that are located at C:\EYELINK2\EXE\ directory of the host computer to support@sr-research.com.