PRB: Brooktrout TR114 or Trufax Fax cards fails with "Port BFAX0 busy or not initialised".

ZTN1368

ID: ZTN1368

This Zetafax technical note applies to:

• Zetafax server version 8.0.1 and 9.0

Symptom

The Brooktrout devices fail to initialise when starting the Zetafax server. The server reports error messages similar to the ones below

04-02-27 03:56:02  BFAXINIT   - (S) - Brooktrout driver failed to start

04-02-27 03:56:02  BTROUT-1   - (W) - Port BFAX0 busy or not initialised

04-02-27 03:56:02  BTROUT-1   - (E) - Error COMMUNICATION PORT FAULT initialising device

04-02-27 03:56:02  BTROUT-1   - (I) - Device status now DEVICE ERROR

04-02-27 03:56:02  BTROUT-1   - (I) - Waiting for FAX to recover

Cause

There are four known situations that would cause this behaviour. These are listed below:

Note: This will occur with all TR114 and Trufax ISA cards, but may also occur with some PCI cards.

1. The Zetafax server module Bfaxinit.exe cannot initialise some cards correctly.
2. The settings in the default BTCALL.CFG file shipped with version 9 are invalid for some systems and would cause the issue after installation.
3. There is a mismatch between fax board firmware shipped with the card, and .pex files shipped with Zetafax server.
4. The .pex files shipped with Zetafax can have issues with some Brooktrout cards when installed on windows 2003 server.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, work though the following steps.

ftp://www.equisys.com/pub/Zetafax9/Btrout/ZfBFISA.exe

Start up the Zetafax server; it should initialise the card correctly. If it fails to function then continue to the next steps.

ftp://www.equisys.com/pub/Zetafax9/Btrout/v219PEX.exe

firm16                    v180-16.pex

firmware                 v219-164.pex

firmware_2m          v219-2m.pex

Note: the files names listed should match the downloaded files exactly i.e. in the file names shown above the firm16 file contains a hyphen (-) in the file name whilst the firmware and firmware_2m both contain an underscore (_) in the file name.

1. Download an updated Bfaxinit.exe from the Equisys ftp site using the following link, and follow the instructions included in the self extracting zip file.
2. Browse to the Zfax\server\Btrout\ folder (where Zfax is the location of the Zetafax server files) and locate a file named btcall.cfg and rename it to btcall.old.
3. In the same folder, locate a file named btcall.new and copy and paste it into the same folder so you now have a file named "Copy of btcall.new" then rename it to btcall.cfg.
4. Start up the Zetafax server; it should initialise the card correctly. If it fails to function then continue to the next step.
5. Download the latest pex firmware from the Equisys ftp site using the following link, and extract the files to the Zfax\server\Btrout\ folder.
6. Open the btcall.cfg file in the Zfax\server\Btrout\ folder and under the section headed Firmware files edit the entries so that they reference the updated firmware files.
7. Start up the Zetafax server; it will initialise the card correctly.

Status

This has been identified by Equisys as a problem with the software versions given above

References

ZTN1071-HOWTO: Brooktrout ISDN board ignores calls if channel 0 is set to send only

ZTN1237-HOWTO: Install a Brooktrout TR114 BRI intelligent fax card

ZTN1255-HOWTO: Installing Brooktrout TR1034 Patch

ZTN1297-HOWTO: Setup Zetafax to use Brooktrout Plug'n'Play drivers for TR114 & TruFax

Last updated: 2^nd June 2004 (SV/GR)