MXI-3 Bridge and NT4 & Win2k

[Ian Jones]

I am currently encountering multiple probs when using a Dell Precision
420 PC and the MXI-3 bridge cards to link PCI to PXI chassis.

The problems are occuring with Win NT & 2k, has anyone had any
experience with this setup?

[markwysong]

I have done such a setup. What problems are you having?

Mark

[Ian Jones]

What is your exact setup, you apparently must be using Dell Precision
420 PC.

The problem is that the PC keeps breaking link to the chassis, this
causes an error 11 on the win 2k event log, it occurs every
10secs-5mins! On Win NT the problem is less obvious but still present.

What is your setup, any probs?

I've tried the MXI-3 card in all the PCI slots, same prob, I have also
got 2 identical PC's and NI hardware setups, both show the same probs!

Any help Welcomed!



markwysong wrote:
>
> I have done such a setup. What problems are you having?
>
> Mark

[markwysong]

Okay. I haven't noticed these problems, but here's step-by-step of what I did. (By the way, mine was a MXI-3 connected to a PXI-1011, so I also had SCXI to worry about)

Mine was installed on the Dell running Windows 2000. I was having problems with the MXI-3 recognizing hardware in the PXI chassis, so here are the step-by-step notes that I took. Hopefully something in here will fix the problem, but since that didn't happen to me, I don't know....but you can certainly give it a try.

Notes

Setting up a MXI-3 card with a PXI/SCXI chassis:

1) Remove MXI-3 software from the PC. Cycle power on the machine (the MXI-3 hardware should already be installed). Let it come up, and run MAX. Check out the properties of the PXI cards. Note the PXI bus number and the Device # of each board; you'll need this for the pxisys.ini file. If the cards are not listed in the Devices directory, select View->refresh.

2) Load a pxisys.ini file to the computer in the c:\windows or c:\winnt directory. For a PXI-1011, delete the last four slot information. Change all PCI BusNumbers to the bus number that MAX showed for the cards in step 1. Change the slot 4 SecondaryBusInterface to SCXI. Change the PCIDeviceNumber to match the device number that MAX showed for the cards in step 1. The PCI device numbers increment as the slot numbers decrement. Slot 1 has no PCI device number, since that's where the controller would reside; it should be set to NONE. Save the file. The slots you have defined in this file should now match the PCI devices MAX found. When a PXI-1010 or PXI-1011 is now setup in MAX, this file will now define the device in the rightmost slot to be the SCXI controller, so the SCXI modules can be automatically detected.

3) Run MXI-3 software from floppy to install it. Cycle the power. MXI-3 software shoud see the board, and displays a few messages. Bring up MAX. Make sure the PXI cards are still in the devices list. Run tests on them. Change device ID if needed. Highlight devices, and right click to add a device. Select PXI-1010 or PXI-1011, depending on the chassis. Select autodetect modules. Select the PXI/PCI device which is in the rightmost PCI slot from the list. The SCXI modules should now be found.

5/17/01

Mark

[Ian Jones]

Many thanks for the reply, however this doesn't seem to be the quite the
same problem, I can see out to the chassis and all cards are recognised
and can be tested OK using Max, however the actual link drops out for a
second and then the PC reestablishes the link, within a couple of
seconds. If in Max you get the properties for each card and the test
(as opposed to going to test panel) the cards will generally check OK
but sometimes the error message appears that the cards have not responed
to their BASE IRQ address, press test a few seconds latter and they
check out OK!

Anymore ideas welcomed.

PS what time zone are you on?

[markwysong]

Eastern Daylight (Cincinnati, OH). IT sounds as if it might be something in the BIOS. Have you checked that?

Mark

[Ian Jones]

It's good to know when to expect replies! I'm in the UK.
NI in the US recon it is a prob with the Dell 420, having seen many
probs with this beast, often being caused by noise from the power
supply!

I am continuing to investigate but am hoping that Dell will take the
PC's back and exchange for the new 530 model, but that'll be another
uphill struggle!

Cheers for the help, if you get anyother ideas please share them, I am
unsure as to what to fiddle with in the BIOS which might help.

Catch ya later



markwysong wrote:
>
> Eastern Daylight (Cincinnati, OH). IT sounds as if it might be
> something in the BIOS. Have you checked that?
>
> Mark

[markwysong]

Interesting, Ian. What part of the UK? I am in Cardiff all this week...

Mark

[nguyen]

I have the same problems. If the PXI chasis is power up first, the computer won't boot (it will run right away after I power off the PXI chasis). I use Dell computer model GX1 and winnt 4.0. I know from Dell that my computer supports PCI to PCI bridge. I have tried different slots as suggest from "MXI-3 troubleshooting guide". My MXI-3 card is in slot #1. I also try to remove all cards except the MXI-3 card in the PXI chasis.

All those things done, it won't work. Does anybody have the same problems I wonder?

[Richard E. Cooke]

Need more details.

I have a ASUS PIII-1000 board with MXI-3 and Win2000 Pro that freezes when running LabView VIs, but, no MAX.

Other support documents lead me to think it is a IRQ conflict - in System info most all PCI cards are on IRQ9!

Now, if only there was a document/procedure for fixing it...


Rich.