MXI connection issue

[henryquarlong]

I'm using PCI-8331 and PXI-8331 to connect one PC which is running RT and one PXI chassis. The PXI chassis is powered on firstly and then the PC is powered on. The strange thing is that the LNK Led at neither the PC nor the PXI chassis never blinks. So none of the boards installed in the PXI chassis can be found. Does anybody know what is the root cause? Thanks in advance!

[AmandaYi]

Would you please describe you problem in detail? Does the power led on PCI-8331 and PXI-8331 light normally when you powered them on? Did you use the standard  MXI-4 cable? Making your own cables could cause communication errors like you are seeing. Have you installed the drivers required for MXI-4 (PCI-PCI Bridge and MXI connector monitor)? Information for the drivers is shown in the following link:

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/6E8F66D201130C5A862575CF004D10DF

In addition, you can eliminate that cable as a source of error by either getting a new MXI-4 cable or using this custom cable on another MXI-4 PXI setup and verifying normal operation.

[henryquarlong]

Hi AmandaYi, Thanks for your reply. When the PXI chassis (PXI-1031) and the PC are powered on, the power led on both PCI-8331 and PXI-8331 light normally. With regarding to the MXI-4 cable, i have tried the same PCI-8831, PXI-8831 and MXI-4 on another PXI chassis (PXI-1042) and another PC, everything works quite well. So it's not likely that MXI-4 cable is the root cause. As for the driver, I didn't install it. Actually, I'm not sure if the driver is still necessary since the PCI-8831 works under labVIEW RT environment.

[Robert__R]

Are any other LEDs lit (Rx, Tx)?  Usually one is lit when it's trying to link but can't, like when the cable is bad.

Some motherboards don't provide 3.3V to PCI slots, which the PCI-8331 requires.  On 2004/2005-era hardware (189051A-01, 189051B-01) the power good LED circuitry had a flaw which caused it to light up when 3.3V wasn't present.  Is your PCI card one of those numbers?

Also, the drivers for MXI-4 don't affect linking.

- Robert