If it is necessary to replace a CIFX card, because of a hardware defect, the new card will not work until it is added to the driver configuration by selecting a firmware and a configuration which should be downloaded to the hardware.
It is the task of the CIFX Windows driver to re-load a CIFX card with their specified firmware and configuration after a hardware reset or power-up sequence. Therefore the driver has to know which cards are are available, which files must be loaded to the hardware and the files must be available (stored) in the file system.
Driver Configuration Settings
The driver has to make sure to always load the correct firmware and configuration files to the hardware. Therefore he has to be able to uniqueliy identify the CIFX cards. This can be don in 2 ways.
CIFX card identification by Device Number / Serial Number Each CIFX hardware has a device number, specfiying the type of hardware, and a serial number (e.g. 1250400 / 20087). This information is also printed on the sticker located on the hardware.
CIFX card identification by Slotnumber switch Standard PCI / PCIe CIFX50 cards are offereing a so-called Slotnumber switch. If the switch is set to a number unequal to 0, the switch number is used to identify the hardware (o is identical to switch not available and the Device/Serial number is use).
Driver card configuration entries
Using the Device / Serial number identification The driver stores the card configuration in the registry under: HKLM\CurrentControlSet\Services\CifxDrv\DeviceConfig\<Device Number>\<Serial Number> and the files are expected in the installation directory under: .\Program Files\CIFX Device Driver\<Device Number>_<Serial number>
Using the Slotnumber switch identification The driver stores the card configuration in the registry under: HKLM\CurrentControlSet\Services\CifxDrv\DeviceConfig\<Slot n> and the files are expected in the installation directory under: .\Program Files\CIFX Device Driver\<Slot n>
Setting-up CIFX card with a firmware and configuration file
This can be done in different ways.
CIFX Setup Program This program comes with the CIFX driver (installed in the control panel of WIndows) and allows to asigne a the firmware file and configuration files for the hardware
SYCON.net Offers a firmware and configuration download to a specific CIFX card
In both cases, the necessary entries for the driver are generated in the registry entries of the driver and the files are automatically stored in the installation directory of the driver (".\Program Files\cifX Device Driver").