Lenovo W540 & Expresscard 8360

[pita]

I am currently trying to get PXIe 1073 to work on my Lenovo W540 laptop. Out of the box, the laptop doesn't seem to work well with the 8630 card with Code31 error. I then installed the compatibility software and that did not eliminate the erro and the event view is giving me an Event ID 12320 sating: PCI Host Bridge: No PCI bus numbers available,  status = -313564   

- System

- Provider

[ Name] nipxirfk

- EventID 12320

[ Qualifiers] 52992

Level 2

Task 0

Keywords 0x80000000000000

- TimeCreated

[ SystemTime] 2016-03-24T06:22:03.780800500Z

EventRecordID 18992

Channel System

Computer pita-ThinkPad

Security

- EventData

-313564

PCI Host Bridge:
000000000400300000000000203000CF000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Binary data:

In Words

0000: 00000000 00300004 00000000 CF003020
0008: 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
0010: 00000000 00000000

In Bytes

0000: 00 00 00 00 04 00 30 00 ......0.
0008: 00 00 00 00 20 30 00 CF .... 0.Ï
0010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0018: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........

What can I do to make it work? Thanks! 

[GiantDeathRobot]

Hi pita,

Sorry to hear you are having this issue. Unfortunately our MXI cards aren't compatible with every manufacturer's BIOS, or even certain products in their lineups. The Lenovo W540 is one models known to have issues with our ExpressCard 8630 with no known workaround. This is filed under CAR 225895, in case you would like to check on any progress towards a fix in the future. I will note that you have had this issue on that CAR, since that helps our R&D department judge the impact and priority of a CAR.

We do recommend testing all MXI equipment before purchase because we cannot guarantee it will work. This is again because we do not write the BIOS for the individual motherboards. (And, conversely, why we provide PXIe embedded controllers that are guaranteed to work.) You could check with the community to find a laptop that is known to work with the 8630, or you can talk to your account representative about your options moving forward.

Regards,

William R.

National Instruments

[pita]

Thank you so much for your response. Would desktop pcie interfaces have less compatibility issues then? coz I might eventually purchase a 8361/8362 in the future. 

[GiantDeathRobot]

Of course, we're glad to help where we can! As a general rule of thumb, I would expect to see higher bus limits on desktop motherboards, making them more likely to work with our PCIe cards. But again, that is a general rule. We can only guarantee controllers will work if we have control of the BIOS and motherboard design- which is why we make embedded controllers. Your best bet to ensure compatibility is to check with your account representative to see if there is a way to test the PCIe controller card before purchasing.

[Nabillionairee]

Did this issue get addressed? I am having similar issues with the 8630 and Lenovo W541?