The issue you're experiencing, where a PCI 8433/2 card shows up with a varying PXI number in the device manager and NI MAX, could be attributed to a few potential causes. Based on similar cases, this behaviour might be related to a driver issue or a hardware misconfiguration rather than an outright card failure.
It's possible that the driver is not correctly identifying the card due to an incorrect or corrupted driver installation. Ensuring that you have the latest drivers installed for your PCI 8433/2 card from the National Instruments website might resolve this issue. Check if the NI-Serial software version is up-to-date, as outdated or mismatched driver versions can cause identification problems.
Sometimes, issues with the PCI bus configuration can lead to incorrect device identification. This can be due to BIOS settings or how the PCI bus resources are allocated. Rebooting the system might temporarily resolve the issue, as you noted, but if the underlying configuration is unstable, the problem could reoccur.
If there's a conflict in how resources are allocated, such as interrupts (IRQ), it could cause the system to misidentify the card. Checking for resource conflicts in the device manager and resolving them might help stabilize the card's identification.
I recommend starting with the driver update and checking for any resource conflicts. If these steps do not resolve the issue, testing the card in a different slot or another PC could help determine if the card or the original slot is at fault.
Let me know if any of these helps you or not.
