PCI-8335 not working in several PCs

[Ted H.]

The card I've been using in a Dell 670 didn't work in other Dell platforms, with the other PCs not booting completely.  It appeared as if the circuit board was pulling down one of the bus power voltages, for lack of a better explanation.  Now, the original Dell 670 won't boot any more with the card installed.  Is there something that might be an easy check to see what is going on?

Also, there's one jumper position on the 8335 card.  What would the jumper do if installed?

[Ted H.]

Some additional information:  The PC wouldn't boot only if the fiber optic cable was plugged in.  This led to swapping the PXI-8335 card on the other side of the link, and then, the interface worked.

[Simran_K]

Hi Ted,

Can you please provide more information about your last post? Is everything working now and you have narrowed down the problem to a specific slot?

Thank you, 

[Ted H. · Accepted solution]

Simran,

     Thanks for responding. I think the issue is solved for now (the card replacement that fixed it was the PXI-8335, not the PCI-8335), but it would be nice to better understand the reasons for the symptoms.

     To repair, the PXI-8335 didn't get moved to a different slot within the PXI chassis. Instead, a different PXI-8335 card was put in the same PXI-1000B slot, and then the fiber optic link worked. For some reason, the original PXI-8335 card which did work at one time, no longer works.

     I am curious as to the failure mode of the PXI-8335 that was replaced. Was it a gradual deterioration, or did something suddenly fail? I am also puzzled as to why the heat sinks get so warm when driving a fiber optic link. If the link deteriorates, does the card drive the LED at a higher level to compensate?

     These are hardware questions beyond the scope of my immediate need, which was to get the fiber link back online. Now that's accomplished!

Thanks for reading, and if you have other insights let me know.

Best Regards, Ted

[Simran_K]

Hi Ted,

Thanks for letting me know that your system is working. It is possible that your first 8335 module is broken. If you want, you can call in for further troubleshooting or possible RMA. You can create a service request at ni.com/ask.

Regards,