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MXI-Express in a NVIDIA ExpressCard expansion slot not working.

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I'm trying to get a DELL Latitude E6400 to connect to the PXI-8360 controller. I'm using Windows 7 64-bit. I think the problem may be that my DELL ExpressCard slot is actually a NVIDIA ExpressCard expansion slot and therefore not directly controlled by the BIOS (I assume). I am using LabVIEW 8.6.1f1 with as much current software that I can find, in particular MAX 4.6.2 and the PXI Platform Services 2.5.3, and Device Drivers Nov09. I have been searching through the forums and have tried as many solutions as I can find. The DELL BIOS has been updated to A19, I tried the MXI-Express BIOS Compatibility 1.2 software but I can't install it because the installer complains that my system is not 32-bit. I'm about to update the NVIDIA driver but I have doubts about that working. My suspicion is that because the ExpressCard slot is an expansion slot on the NVIDIA card it is going to be difficult if not impossible to find a workaround.

 

Any thoughts?

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I forgot to mention that when I plug in the 8360 express card it shows up in the "safely remove hardware and eject media" system tray icon as pci-to-pci bridge but in the device manager nothing shows up. No new devices, question marks, or exclamation marks. The pxi-8360 in the pxi-1042 chassis has the 'power' and 'link' lights green.
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matomic,

 

This sounds like a setup that should work.  If your ExpressCard part number starts with 198266 then it will show up in device manager as 2 PCI bridges under system devices (I think the text will be "PCI standard PCI-to-PCI bridge").  If the ExpressCard number starts with something else then it won't show up at all without a chassis connected.  The PXI-8360 will add 2 more bridges. 

 

Can you explain what you mean by "not working"?  Do you have cards in the chassis that don't show up in device manager or MAX?  What happens when you hot-plug the ExpressCard?  (I'd expect some bridges to show up in dev mgr, but it probably won't show all of them.)  Which ExpressCard do you have?

 

- Robert 

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I'll have to hot-plug it in and see what the device manager shows.

 

By "not working" I mean nothing shows up in MAX and nothing shows up in the device manger as being "NI" hardware. The pxi-8360 controller, the pxi-1042 chassis, and the other modules all do not show up under MAX. I'm using the express 8360 card that comes with the pxi-8360 controller.

 

Thanks

Matt

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It is ExpressCard-8360, part No. 198266A-01L and under 'system devices' it shows up as 1 'PCI standard PCI to PCI Bridge' but that's it as far as I can tell. Hot-plugging doesn't change anything. MAX still doesn't not recognize any hardware. It is connected to a PXI-1042 chassis. I updated the NIVIDIA drivers and the DELL chipset drivers but still no luck. I realized the PXI-8310 drivers were installed so I uninstalled them because some forums had suggested it causes problems with the 8360 but that didn't change anything either.
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Solution
Accepted by topic author matomic

If there's only 1 bridge that's showing up, the card is probably in compatibility mode, which requires the driver.  

 

Try plugging it (ExpressCard only) into a system with the driver installed, then run the config utility (All programs -> National Instruments -> MXI-Express -> ExpressCard-8360 Configuration) and disable compatibility mode.  Then it should work in your other system.

 

- Robert 

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Yep, that got everything working! Thanks!

 

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