PCI-8331 MXI-4 Interface stops PC from booting

[sender]

Hello

I’ve recently purchased a NI PCI-8331 MXI-4 Interface card and have installed it in a PC. The PC boots OK and the card and drivers seem to be OK. If I then attach it to a PXI rack, the PC no longer boots. Some details:

PC is a Dell Optiplex380
PC OS is Windows XP Pro v2002 Service Pack 2
I am powering up the PXI rack prior to the PC
The Pw and Lk lights on the PCI card light
 

I’ve tried the PCI-8331 card in another PC and it seems to work OK and connects to the PXI rack. Both PCs have been configured in a similar manner. Anyone come across this before?

Thanks

Stuart

[gsussman]

I have had this issue previously on Dell computers and the MXI-3 interface cards.

If the computer never makes it past the BIOS screens then you have a hardware conflict with something in the PXI chassis and one of the resources on the motherboard of the computer.

1) Power down and remove all PXI cards from the chassis (leave the MXI-4 cards connected at both ends)

2) Reboot and ensure the system will boot.

3) Power down and install the first PXI card.

4) Repeat step 2 and 3 for all cards in the chassis.

I found that when you connect a loaded PXI chassis, the computer seems to have a bit of a mental breakdown and often times fails to boot. Adding the cards one at a time has resolved this issue for me in the past. It is a real pain to continually have to install, boot, shutdown, install boot, shutdown.......

If you find that you can't get the system to boot using this procedure, move the MXI card to another PCI slot within the computer and start adding cards over again. If I recall correctly, moving the card further out on the PCI slots may resolve the issue as it may put the card on the other side of one of PCI bridges on the motherboard.

[sender]

I'll try the procedure that you mentioned. Unfortunately the Dell PC has only the one PCI slot so I am tied to that. Thanks for the suggestions gsussman.

[sender]

After lengthy email ping-pong the conclusion from NI Support was (quoting from Support email):

Reference#1607083

I have received a response back from R&D and I have some unfortunate news.
After troubleshooting, we have determined that this desktop, and the Optiplex series in general, is incompatible with MXI-4. So the only resolution to this problem is to migrate to a MXI Express device or to another model of desktop. MXI Express has software improvements that make it more universal, such as device hiding, which tricks the BIOS to thinking there is not a bus extension connected. But I have to warn you that we have seen some incompatibility issues with these Optiplex models and MXIe as well.

So based on this, we must recommend that you try another desktop, specifically the Dell Precision T3500, 5500, or 7500 models

Hopefully this may save someone else some time.