PCI-8335 (MXI-3) when the optical fiber is connected to the card PCI8335 -> PC freezes

[Patrick.FIETIER@Valeo.com]

When I connect the optical fiber on the PCI8335 card, the PC DELL Vostro 220 Mini Tower Desktop freezes (software, keyboard, mouse)
If during startup, the fiber is not connected, the PC starts and everything works normally (with the exeption of communication and National Instruments application because the fiber is not connected)
If I plug the fiber when the PC is completely started, the 2 LEDs light; then when I run the MX-3 application, the PC freezes.
Does the PCI-8335 card is down or is it another problem? Thank you in advance for your help.

[Robert__R]

Questions:

- Have you tried with the PXI chassis empty (except for the PXI-8335 in slot 1)?

- What are the LEDs doing when the chassis is connected?

- Was this working before, or has something changed?

The PCI card essentially resets itself when there's no cable present, so booting without a cable doesn't tell you much.

Plugging the cable in after it's booted isn't expected to work.  It's probably freezing for the same reason the PC freezes when booting (though I don't know the root cause).

What usually causes a hang/freeze like this is a PCI cycle that doesn't complete.  So the host issues (for example) a read that gets a "retry" response (from the MXI bridge), which is normal.  The PC reattempts the transaction until it gets a completion instead of a retry, but if that never happens then the PC hangs waiting for it.

The question is why the cycle doesn't get completed.  In this case I suspect that one of the 8335 boards (or cable) is broken.  It could also be a broken card in the PXI chassis.  The 8335 is responding with "retry" on the PC side while it issues the cycle on the chassis side.  If the cycle doesn't complete in the chassis, the 8335 won't complete the cycle on the PC side.

If you're not getting PWR and LINK lights on both 8335 cards then the link is down.  There's a problem with the cable, one of the cards, or the chassis power.

- Robert

[Patrick.FIETIER@Valeo.com]

Hello Robert,

and thank you for your help

There was no change on the equipment.

When the optic fiber is connected, the 2 LED lights PWR and LINK on both 8335 cards are light up even when the PC is hanged / frozen.

I just manage to restart the equipment.

To finalise my diagnosis, I rebooted the PC connected with optic fiber but with PXI-1010 chassis off power

The PC has started and I got the error message "MXI-3 Interface Not Found. A MXI-3 interface was not detected in your system. Please verify power and link status and try again."

I handed the PXI-1010 chassis on and I raised the application Optimized MXI-3, there is always the error "MXI-3 Interface Not Found ...."

To be sure that the chassis has well started, I pressed the On / off switches "SCXI POWER" then "PXI POWER"

I restarted the application "Optimized MXI-3", there is always the error "MXI-3 Interface Not Found ...."

I stopped the PC (without switching off the PXI-1010 chassis)

Then I restarted the PC and everything works normally

What happened? I resettle PXI-1010 chassis? Is it luck? Is the 8335 card in error on PXI-1010 chassis?

[Patrick.FIETIER@Valeo.com · Accepted solution]

Hello everyone,

The installation still works since my repair of 10 September 2015. After analysis with National Instruments France, the probable cause of the failure is that during a power outage (storm or stop due to fire detection device) the deportee PXI chassis stopped but not the PC because it's on inverter.

/!\ The PXI / PCI chassis should always be started before the PC; the order to actuate the 2 switches of the chassis does not matter.

So during my last intervention (Sept. 10th), I reset the chassis and restart the PC after the chassis (ie in the right order) and since everything works. It was the solution.

If this tutorial can be useful to others ...