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Since the CTI-400D is primarily built to run CTI and other telephony applications, we decided to examine it by using it with some other equipment in our labs. After receiving the product through the mail, we booted it up. Unfortunately, the boot-up showed the initial Windows 2000 Server screen and then froze, so we reset the server and got the same result. Then, we completely shut down the industrial computer, waited a few seconds, and started it. The server froze yet again; we shut it down once more thinking that a loose connection might be the culprit. We pulled off the cover after simply removing three screws from the lid. When looking inside, we discovered that the CPU fan was totally detached from the rest of the hardware. This seemed to be the obvious cause of the boot up failure, although we were surprised that the computer didn’t give us an error message, and then shut down when the processor began to get too hot. This rogue fan probably came loose during shipping. No doubt there was other unseen damage as well, so we immediately repackaged it and shipped it back to
Siliconrax-Sliger.
Because the computer was well wrapped and because it was, after all, an industrial computer, we figured that it must have dropped from at least five feet up, bouncing like a 36-pound kickball. When we received a new CTI-400D computer and were able to boot it up, we were going to try our “kickball drop test” but finally decided against it. Instead, we favored placing an Intel D/240PCI-T1 voice board (also reviewed in this issue) in one of the 18 PCI slots.
OPERATIONAL TESTING
We easily placed the Intel T1 board into a PCI slot, connected a line to a Gordon Kapes T1 simulator, added the drivers for the board, and installed the Envox 4.0 software (also reviewed in this issue). All of these applications ran smoothly on the CTI-400D, and we saw the potential for virtually any lab review to be assisted by this industrial computer — with a Portwell ROBO-698 single board computer that is equipped with an Intel PIII 700 MHZ processor, 256 MB of RAM, and a built-in network card.
The CTI-400D also contains a 19 GB hard drive with six drive bays available. The CTI-400D comes with a CD for installing graphics and Ethernet drivers in case it is needed. In addition, we received user manuals for the single board computer and for Portwell’s PBP-19AI Active Backplane (the one used in the CTI-400D we possessed). These manuals discussed the general characteristics of the board/backplane, plus jumper and connector information, BIOS setup for the board, general installation procedure, and some troubleshooting techniques.
CONCLUSION
Besides the ability to have a superstore of telephony applications on one computer, the CTI-400D contains three redundant hot-swappable power supplies, making it unlikely for this computer to fail unless it never booted up in the first place. Although it had no problem as serious as that seen with the first CTI-400D computer we received (we would eventually chalk this up to the idea that the shippers played roller-derby with the package), the second CTI-400D still occasioned one slight concern. We occasionally needed to adjust the front lid a tad when closing it so that it would shut without extra force.
The CTI 400-D industrial computer is built straightforwardly — the slots all in a row; the fans, CD-ROM, hard drive, etc. all in the front; and the CPU positioned on the left side (when looking at it from the front). In many other industrial computers, the CPU is positioned in the middle, making other boards more difficult to place. Overall, the CTI 400-D is built well and can be used for a plethora of communications applications.
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