Can't get all ports on a PCIE-8235 GigE vision board to connect

[parmstrong42]

I am having difficulty in getting all four ports of a PCIE-8235 GigE vision board to connect.  I've set up a few multi-camera GigE acquisition systems in the past and have had trouble getting all ports active.  In two previous systems I have been able to get 2 or 3 cameras to connect and acquire without trouble.  The fourth port I just couldn't get, but we changed around our setup so that only three cameras were needed and I forged ahead without figuring this out.  I just chalked it up to a bad port since it behaved that way in multiple computers.

Now I am setting up a system in which I need all four ports to acquire and I can only get two.  In the Network Connections window I can see all four ports, plus the two that come native on the computer (Dell Precision R5400 running Windows XP Pro SP3).  However, when I connect cameras to first two ports, the Network Connection window perpetually displays "Network Cable Unplugged".  The other two ports show connected and I can acquire images through both MAX and the Prosilica Sample Viewer program.

Each camera is set up on its own subnet that matches the network card.  Lights on both the 8235 card and the camera show that the camera is powered and a cable is attached.  Even if the configuration were wrong on the card or the camera, the typical response when a cable is connected in the Network Connection window is "Acquiring Network Address" if you select "Obtain IP Adresss Automatically" in TCP/IP properties.  The two ports that aren't working always say "Network Cable Unplugged" in that situation.

I have had problems in the past with having six ports on these R5400 computers.  The device manager will state there is insufficient resources for the 8235's four ports plus the Dell's onboard dual ports.  Disabling one of those ports typically fixes the resource problem.  During a call to Dell on a different matter I asked the question as to how many network ports they thought could be supported.  They had stated five (I don't know if my description of the situation biased that answer).  They stated that for more ports I may have to go to a server architecture.  Disabling both of the native integrated ports did not change the behaviour, so I don't think that we are resource limited.  With one integrated port and the 8235's four ports enabled the device manager states that all "devices are working properly".

I just purchased five of these boards (with plans to acquire on 20 cameras over 5 computers) and swapping one board for another has the exact same results (ports 1 & 2 do not work, ports 3 & 4 do).  When you combine this with my previous experience with only three ports working, it makes me believe this is computer specific.  I have another computer to try it out on, but I haven't had a chance to get that all set up yet.

So, has anyone acquired on all four ports?  If you have, what computer hardware are you running?  Are there any suggestions on things I might try?

Thanks in advance for any help you may have.

[BlueCheese]

Hi parmstrong42,

Funny you should mention this, as we just recently opened up support issue with Dell regarding some issues with their motherboards that were causing problems similar to what you are seeing. The PCIe-8235 has 4 ports and each port acts as a completely independent device with its own interrupt. We found a problem that Dell's BIOS is likely not properly mapping some of those interrupts when using a single card that had multiple devices behind it. The symptoms ended up being the same in that no link was detected because the card notifies the system of link changes using interrupts. Interestingly, it only occurred with one particular interrupt assignment (when we replicated it with a Dell T7500) and we were able to work around it by moving it into a different slot and thereby getting a different interrupt assignment.

Here's some things you can try:

- Are you able to move the card into a different PCIe slot? It appears that the R5400 has at least 3 slots capable of using a x4 card. On the T7500 moving to different PCIe slots changed those IRQ assignments (but it is up to the BIOS)

- Can you go to device manager, select "View->Resources By Type" and find the four IRQ assignments listed for the GigE Vision Adapter devices? It should be a numeric value listed in both hex and decimal.

Also, just as an aside, if you are using Vista or later you shouldn't need to change any of the cameras and host ports to use fixed IP addresses in different subnets. You can just let all the ports and cameras use link-local addresses and they will work fine with the IMAQdx driver (prior to Vista the Windows network stack had some known issues that prevented proper usage of multiple link-local addresses simultaneously).

Eric

[parmstrong42]

Eric,

Thanks for the quick response.

In the original slot the IRQ assignements were as follows:

Port 1 (wasn't working) - IRQ 5

Port 2 (wasn't working) - IRQ 10

Port 3 (was working) - IRQ 70

Port 4 (was working) - IRQ 56

I went ahead and moved the board to the other PCIe slot.  The new assignments were as follows:

Port 1 - IRQ 52

Port 2 - IRQ 60

Port 3 - IRQ 68

Port 4 - IRQ 64

They all work great!!  Everything is functioning and behaving as it should.  Thank you for the advice.

Unfortunately, I sort of hesitate to call it solved because this isn't guaranteed to work every time, true?  Could you please keep me informed as to how your service call with Dell proceeds?  I guess we would be looking for a BIOS update that guarantees proper assignement.  Also, is there any way (like in the good ol' days of DOS) to go in and force the assignements of the interrupts for specific devices?  I suppose that would also solve the problem.

Again,  thank you for the response and for helping in getting the system up and functional.  We'll see how the next four installs go.

[BlueCheese]

Hi parmstrong42,

The IRQ assignments *should* remain constant for any given slot configuration. The BIOS is free to assign them any way it likes (since on PCI express there is not a physical signal---it is simply a message) but from my experience the Dells appear to have fixed mappings per slot.

Eric

[parmstrong42]

That does seem to hold true on my second install today.  I installed a different card in to a different computer and had exactly the same results (port 1 & 2 not working, port 3 & 4 worked).

In this instance the IRQ assignments were as follows:

Port 1 - IRQ 5 (didn't work)

Port 2 - IRQ 10 (didn't work)

Port 3 - IRQ 70 (worked)

Port 4 - IRQ 56 (worked)

Once the card was moved to the other PCIe slot the assignments (which all worked) were as follows:

Port 1 - IRQ 52

Port 2 - IRQ 60

Port 3 - IRQ 68

Port 4 - IRQ 64

Thanks again for your help.  If you ever get closure on this with Dell, please post it here!!