PXIe-1083 not connecting to thunderbolt expansion card

[hillmj]

I am unable to connect my National instruments PXIe-1083 chasis through thunderbolt to my computer (with PXIE 6396 card in chasis). It displays the amber light (indicating proper power, but no thunderbolt connection). 

I am using a thunderbolt expansion card (ASUS ThunderboltEX 4) with my thunderbolt compatible motherboard (ASUS PRIME Z790-P WIFI D4). I believe I installed my thunderbolt expansion card properly, but do not have another device to verify this. I installed the expansion card in the PCIEx16 (G4)_3 slot as described in the motherboard user manual (E20550_PRIME_Z790-P_WIFI_D4_UM_WEB.pdf (asus.com)). Additionally, I enabled all Thunderbolt settings in the BIOS, enabled PCIE tunneling, and enabled IOMU (something like that in BIOS settings as found in a post elsewhere).

System info:

• Motherboard - ASUS PRIME Z790-P WIFI D4 (has thunderbolt headers)

• CPU - l13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-13700F

• GPU - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060

• OS - Windows 11 Home

• Expansion card for Thunderbolt - ASUS ThunderboltEX 4 expansion card

I can see two ports in the thunderbolt control center and have PCIE tunneling enabled

I have also tried turning on the chasis before I start the computer. Does anyone have any other ideas? Thanks so much!

[santo_13]

Looks like there is another user with Asus expansion card issues - https://forums.ni.com/t5/PXI/PXIe-8301-in-PXIe-1078-thunderbolt-problem/td-p/4255640/page/2

See if upgrading to Windows 11 helps. I am curious why you are using the Win 11 home edition at work.

[hillmj]

Hello,

Thank you for the response! I saw that post, but I am running the newest version of Windows 11 (23H2). I know that person used 22H2, but rolling back to a prior Windows 11 version seems like it wouldn't fix the issue, right? I imagine the fix in Windows 11 22H2 would also carry forward to Windows 11 23H2, no?

I did not install the Windows on this machine so I'm not sure why we are running the home version (we are at a university and have license for the other versions as well). Do you think I should try to install the Education or Enterprise version instead?

Thanks!

[hillmj]

I fixed the issue! As I mentioned, I confirmed the thunderbolt port was working fine so that was not the issue. It turns out that the power button on the front of the chasis doesn't actually power off the chasis. Thus, when I thought the chasis was off, it was actually just in standby mode. I unplugged the power cord (for a few minutes) then plugged it back in and it worked! I guess powering the chasis down somehow fixed the connection issues, although I'm not sure why. 

Happy to elaborate if anyone else has any issues. 

[tstay]

Hi, we are having a similar issue to you with our PXIe-1083 connection. The LINK light is amber and the STAT light is red. However, the Chassis appears connected to our computer under device manager. Do you have any suggestions?

[PeVe]

Bump.

Also having same the same problem.

Obviously an issue with this PXIe-1083 chassis.

Can some one in the tech department deal with this please?

Thanks 

[santo_13]

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@PeVe wrote:

Bump.

Also having same the same problem.

Obviously an issue with this PXIe-1083 chassis.

Can some one in the tech department deal with this please?

Thanks 

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Since NI does not guarantee that their Thunderbolt chassis or controller cards work with expansion cards, beyond the published troubleshooting guides, unfortunately, you will be on your own to find a suitable PC with a native Thunderbolt port that works with the chassis.