PXI-8360 (MXI-Express) + PCI-8361 + Dell OptiPlex 9020 = "Device not cannot start. (Code 10)"

[JKSH]

Hello,

I have a PXI-1050 chassis, conencted to a Dell OptiPlex 9020 via a PXI-8360 and a PCI-8361 (identified as 199392B-01L). It's running Windows 7 64-bit. I can boot Windows fine, but, MAX does not see any of my PXI gear. Device Manager also has 2 "PCI standard PCI-to-PCI bridge" entries with exclamation marks.

I placed an old FireWire PCI card in the same slot and the PC recognized it. So, the slot itself is fine.

I transferred the PCI-8361 to an older PC which contains much older drivers, and it recognized all my PXI gear. So, the PXI gear work fine.

What could the problem be? Here is a screenshot of my installed NI software. I believe I've installed all the drivers I need. I checked NI Update Service; there are no Critcal Updates, and the only Upgrades and Service Packs listed are LabVIEW 2013 and TestStand 2013.

[Michael5000Watts]

Hi JKSH,

I would start by upgrading your PXI Platform Services driver to the most recent version (currently 4.0). You can find this download here. After restarting your computer, please check Windows Device Manager and check to see if your "PCI Standard PCI-to-PCI Bridge," which is your MXI connection, drivers load correctly.

Also, please make sure that your PXI chassis is powered on before you start your computer. 

If these suggestions do not change the status of your PXI system, please respond with any new or additional details to help us troubleshoot further. Specifically, it would be helpful to know if this is a system that was working, and then stopped suddenly. Or, is this a brand new system?

[JKSH]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your assistance. Unfortunately, installing PXI Platform Services 4.0 and then rebooting did not help. Here are screenshots of my Device Manager when I installed an old PCI-6023e for testing (which loaded successfully), and when I installed the PCI-8361 (which failed to load):

More details:

• It's a brand new system, not one which worked before. The PC was purchased for the sole purpose of running the PXI system.
• The PXI and SCXI power supplies were turned on for 15 s before the PC was turned on.
• The PXI-8360's "Link" LED goes green when the PC is turned on.
• The PCI-8361 bears the stamp "199881A-01 REV 1"
• In the BIOS, the PCI-8361 is correctly identified as "PCI Bridge". The BIOS entry says "{Empty}" when it was booted without the PCI-8361 present.
• The BIOS is booting in Legacy mode, even though UEFI is available.
• I did not install the NI MXI-Express BIOS Compatibility Software and I left the PCI-8361's "BIOS Compat Mode" DIP switch on the default value ("OFF") because my PC is booting successfully. The other DIP switches were left in their default positions too (as the manual said they are unused).

Any other ideas?

[JKSH]

Update:

• I tried flipping the BIOS Compat Mode DIP switch to "ON" without installing the MXI-Express BIOS Compatibility Software, but the "Link" LED didn't come on at all.
• I reverted the DIP switch to its original position and decided to install the MXI-Express BIOS Compatibility Software. It gave a warning:
• "Warning - Limited bus number range detected: A setting in your system BIOS has limited the range of bus numbers you can assign. The amount of hardware you can attach to the MXI-Express system is confined to this limit. If the limit is exceeded, some devices may not be detected or initialized properly. If the bus number limit is reached, the error is reported in the Windows Event Viewer system log. If any devices are not detected or do not function properly, check the Windows Event Viewer system log to determine whether your system BIOS prevented the devices from being initialized. For more information, refer to the readme."
• The readme said to look for events that have nipximxk or nipxirfk as the source. I searched the everything in the Event Viewer, and couldn't find any that match this criteria.
• Even after installing the MXI-Express BIOS Compatibility Software and flipping the BIOS Compat Mode DIP switch to "ON", I still get Code 10 in Device Manager.
• My PXI system consists of:
• PXI-1050 (chassis)
• PXI-8360 (MXI-Express controller)
• PXI-8513 (CAN interface)
• PXI-8516 (LIN interface)
• PXI-6229 (M-series Multifunction DAQ)
• PXI-6723 (32-channel AO module)
• PXI-2530B (128-channel matrix switch)
• SCXI-1104C (32-channel multiplexer)

[Michael5000Watts]

Hi JKSH,

First, can you confirm that the chassis is connected via MXI-Express cable and that you power on the chassis before powering on the computer? I mentioned this earlier, but I did not see any acknowledgement, so I want to be absolutely sure.

Second, we should perform a repair installation of NI-PAL. This driver installs with NI-488.2, NI-VISA, and most driver disks that ship with NI products. In order to perform the repair installation, select "National Instruments Software" from the Windows Uninstall Software menu. Then, find and select "NI-488.2" on the list. Finally, choose the option to repair the installation and follow the prompts. Alternatively, you could perform a repair installation on NI-VISA.

Next, we can check the BIOS version of the computer itself, updating to the most recent version. This often fixes similar issues.

If we are still not successful, our next step will probably be to try a separate computer all together. Please let me know how it goes.

[JKSH]

Hi Mike,

The chassis is connected via MXI-Express cable, and BOTH the chassis and SCXI power supplies were switched on, for 15 seconds, before the PC was switched on. The PXI-8360's "Link" LED goes green when the PC is switched on.

Before I started trying to connect the PXI chassis, the PC BIOS was already at the latest version, which was released last month (September 2013).

I ran the repair operation on NI-VISA, which did not change anything either with or without the compatibility software (I removed the compativility software in Safe Mode)

An old PC running Windows 7 32-bit + PXI Platform Services 3.2.3 was able to detect the chassis and modules.

What could the problem be? I'd still need to get a working system for the customer. Is there a list of NI-tested commercial PCs that are known to work well with PXI systems?

[Michael5000Watts]

We do not keep a white list of computers that are compatible. Typically, if there is a particular computer model or BIOS version that has known issues, we will keep an internal document with additional details. This does not seem to be the case for the Dell OptiPlex 9020.

I am glad that it seems to be running correctly on a separate computer, which confirms that hardware does not seem to be the issue. Can you confirm that the PCI MXI-Express card is the same card that you are trying to use with the new Dell OptiPlex 9020?

Our next step is to confirm that the correct required services are running. Here is a list of services that I recommend checking:

• NI Device Loader
• NI Configuration Manager
• NI PXI Resource Manager

Please let me know if each of these services are set to startup automatically and if the status is "started."

[Robert__R]

JKSH,

Since the bridges are showing up with code 10 in device manager it's very unlikely to be a driver problem.  Since the bios compatibility software doesn't fix the problem (and the harware is functional) I suspect it's an interaction between the PCI card, the BIOS, and the OS.

Do you have a PCIe slot available? an NI PCIe-8361 is a better option than the PCI version.  It gives you better performance (both latency and throughput) and should fix your compatibility problem.  Do you have access to one to try out?  The PCI version is really better suited to old systems without PCIe slots.

- Robert

[JKSH]

Mike,

Yes, I transferred the same PCI-8361 card from the OptiPlex 9020 into my other PC. I did not move cards in the PXI chassis in any way.

And yes, all 3 services that you mentioned were set to startup automatically, and all have the "started" status (as seen in the Windows Services screen).

Robert,

Thank you for your insight. Yes, there is a PCIe slot on the motherboard. We have placed an order for the NI PCIe-8361. I'll update this thread when it arrives and we get the chance to try it.

[Robert__R · Accepted solution]

JKSH,

I've been looking into this some more and think I now know enough to be dangerous. 

The BIOS is enabling PCI Express Native Control mode in Windows.  Native PCIe mode doesn't like some of the architecture when using the PCI version of the card, so it disables the bridges on the PXI card.  I can tell your OS is in native PCIe mode because it lists one of the ports as "PCI standard PCI Express to PCI/PCI-X Bridge" in the device manager image you posted.

I found that you can disable PCIe native mode if you want to try it (though in general using the PCIe card is a better option).  Here are the steps:

- Open the start menu and type "cmd" in the search box; right-click on "cmd.exe" and run as administrator.  

- In the command window, type "bcdedit /set pciexpress forcedisable".  

- Reboot.

I don't think this will break anything (it didn't on a system I tried).  If you want to reverse it, the command is "bcdedit /set pciexpress default"

- Robert