PXIe-1073 link LED off and chassis not seen by computer

[bburan-ohsu]

Yesterday, the PXIe-1073 was able to connect to our computer just fine and appeared in NI MAX. However, after installing some updates and rebooting the computer, the PXIe-1073 no longer shows up in NI MAX. The PCIe-8361 does appear
in MAX though. The link LED On the PXI chassis is off.  The PXI was powered on before turning on the computer. I tried moving the PCIe card to a different slot, but that did not solve the issue.

Note that there's an unrecognized device in the Device Manager called "SM Bus controller". A Google search implies it *may* be associated with the PXI controller, but I could not find any information about how to download the driver for this. Windows update cannot find the driver.

I verified that all cables are connected properly.

[Robert__R]

If you look at the SMBus controller in device manager, go to the details tab and select the "Hardware IDs" property.  Part of the values will say "VEN_1093" if it's an NI SMBus controller, because NI's PCI ID is 0x1093.  If the "VEN_????" is something other than 1093 then it's probably on your motherboard.

If the link LED isn't lit then you probably don't have a link and the chassis isn't connected.  Check the BIOS compat switch on the PCIe card.  If it's set and the software isn't installed then you won't see the chassis.  Also look closely at connectors on the cable and card.  Look carefully at the orientation of the cable connector.  Some old cables could be plugged in upside down with a little extra force, and it became easier after the first time.

- Robert

[bburan-ohsu]

The string says VEN_8086, so it's not a NI controller. I'll strike that from the list of possibilities.

I have not touched the BIOS compat switch on the PCIe card at all (the link was working just fine before the NI software update).  Could the software update have caused something that requires me to toggle one of the DP switches?

I carefully checked orientation fo the cable connectors. They are correct.

[bburan-ohsu]

I verified that the BIOS compatibility switch was set to OFF. Since the PXI was still not showing up in MAX and the link light was off, I toggled the BIOS compatibility switch to ON and installed the MXI express compatibility software. That did not solve the problem. The device is still missing from MAX and the link light is off.

[Robert__R]

If the BIOS compatibility switch is off then you should be getting a link light.  Without any drivers (even without a hard drive) the cards should link.

So if they're not then there's something wrong with the hardware.  Conceivably a BIOS could disable a slot by asserting reset or shutting off the clock.  Aside from that (or a bad LED) then you have a hardware problem breaking the link.  I can't say whether it's the card, cable, or chassis, though.

- Robert