x8 Remote MXI connection causes conflicts with my PCI slot on my Dell Precision T3600

[blakney]

Hello All,

The easiest thing to say is that I am migrating from a x4 MXI express connection to a x8 MXI express connection and when I do I get an error on the motherboard which fails to load the lone PCI slot.

Error in WIn7 64 bit Device Manager reports  a yellow exclamation point for

Device " Intel(R) 82801 PCI Bridge - 244E Properties"

Error listed in device status box : "This device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device. (Code 31)"

Unfortunately, I need this slot to run a timing card in conjucton with the PXI hardware. There were no faults when I used the x4 connections with practically the same loadout except for a swapping a PXI 5122 (x4 config) to PXIe 5122 (x8 config).

If I leave the PCIe MXI card in but do not not hook up to the PXIe chasis, the PCI slot (and card show up fine.)

If I remove the PCI Card from the slot, the error still occurs.

I have swapped the x8 card and the NVidia Graphics card without success (the only two x16 slots). 

I imaged the drive and removed the Dell H310 PERC RAID card and reloaded the RAID array to the Intel C600 onboard RAID and still no change.

I updated BIOS from A07 to the most current A08.

I updated the Intel Chipset to the most current on Dell's website.

I guess I am just wondering at this point if anybody is able to run a x8 MXI express to a PXIe chassis with a Dell Precision T3600, T5600 or T7600.

PC - Dell Precision T3600

Windows 7 Enterprise 64 bit SP1

3.2 GHz Xeon 6 core (E5-1650) w 16 Gb DDR3

Dell H310 PERC Raid  (x8 PCIe) / Onboard Intel C600 RAID

Nidia Quadro 600

2 x 1 TB SATA drive (mirrored)

PXIe Rack - NI 1082

Slot 1 - PXIe - 8381

Slot 2 - NI  PXIe 5122

Slot 3 - NI PXIe 5442

Slot 4 - NI MXIe x4 8262 to 6 TB NI RAID

Slot 5 - PXI 6733

Slot 6 - PXI 6733

Report from NI MAX is attached as a text file.

[Leah-L]

Hi Blakney,

I appreciate all the leg work you have done on this so far. I want to try running the BIOS compatibility software on your computer, which works around some common BIOS limitations. 

You can find this software here: http://joule.ni.com/nidu/cds/view/p/id/3764/lang/en

When running the BIOS compatibility software, it is very important that you follow all the installation instructions in the readme very carefully. Take note that you will have to flip the DIP switch on your MXI board. 

Also, make sure that your MXI PCI card is not in the slot for the graphics card. 

Let me know whether or not this solves the issue!

[blakney]

I jumped the gun and I am getting help directly from another NI rep. He suggested the BIOS Compatibility package and that didn't quite do the trick. Thanks for the reply though.

One thing about the video card slot, my system has two x16 slots, and then several x4 slots. I end up using one of the x16 slots for the MXI card with the video card residing in the other x16 slot. I have reversed the postion of these cards with no luck.

[Leah-L]

Hi Blakney,

Thanks for letting me know that you have been in contact with another applications engineer. Since we like to avoid having multiple service requests for the same issue, I am going to recommend that you keep working with them as your point of contact. Hopefully we will be able to get this resolved!

[blakney · Accepted solution]

After a lot of work by NI Applications Engineer Kyle K, this issue was resolved.

I will post the solution for this very PC dependent problem here just in case it will help others in a similar predicament.

It seems Dell sometimes uses a pretty restrictive default setting on the number of PCI busses in these (and other) BIOS. By allowing more PCI busses you will be able to enumerate all of the devices at the sacrifice of some available memory for 32 bit OS running on 4GB of RAM. No problem for me as I am running 64 bit OS.

Kudos to Kyle even though he hasn't posted here yet to give him actual Kudos.

Greg

[Leah-L]

Greg,

Thanks for closing the loop on this and posting your solution. I have spoken with Kyle, and we are in the process of creating a Knowledge Base article that addresses MXI issues with the Dell T3600 specifically. Hopefully this will allow us to avoid some of this confusion in the future! 

Glad to hear that we found a solution!

[chall]

I have a T5600, where do you go to change this default setting on the number of busses?  Is that in the BIOS somewhere?

[Leah-L]

Hi chall,

I am not sure if it is the same for Dell T5600s, but for the T3600 you should boot into their BIOS and go to System Configurationoption» PCI Bus Configuration, change the value to 256. This will allow the PCI bus to enumerate more PCI resources.

Let me know if this is the same for the T5600, since this is good information for us to know!

[chall]

It is the same on the T5600!  I have installed the compatibility software, flipped the dip switch, but only three of my twelve cards show up in the chassis, so I must have some other problem.

[Leah-L]

Hey chall,

So you tried using the MXI compatibility software and flipping the DIP switch. Did you try enumerating the busses in the BIOS like they tried for the T3600? This could be what is going on if some of your PXI cards no longer appear.

I would try uninstalling the BIOS compatibility software, boot into the BIOS and go to System Configurationoption» PCI Bus Configuration, change the value to 256. This will hopefully allow the PCI bus to enumerate more PCI resources. Let me know whether or not this works.