PXIe-8301 in PXIe-1078 thunderbolt problem

[DrOnline82]

Hi,

We've built a brand new desktop computer whose motherboard has a thunderbolt 4 header which goes into a thunderbolt expansion card. 

Motherboard: ASUS Probe Z690-P

Thunderbolt expansion board: ThunderboltEX 4

If I connect a portable hard drive to the ports, it will work just fine. I do realize that is not Thunderbolt, just USB-C.

ChassI: NI PXIe-1078

PXI slot 1: PXIe-8301 USB-C controller board

PXI slot 2: PXIe-2525 Multiplexer board

PXI slot 6: PXI-4065 DMM

I've installed PXI Platform Services 2022 Q3. The PWR/LINK LED on the PXIe-8301 lights green. In MAX the Chassis shows up, and it contains a working controller board, but the other two boards do not show up correctly, and it says "Windows does not have a driver associated with your device."

Any help over the weekend would be highly, highly appreciated. If we cannot resolve this I will have to order a new motherboard with on-board Thunderbolt support (no expansion), but that will cost like 700$, so I wanted to give it a last shot. That other motherboard might not even work either, so...

[Robert__R]

Hi DrOnline82,

It sounds like the motherboard is fine but you don't have the drivers installed for the modules. You'll need NI-DMM and NI-SWITCH, which you can find on ni.com.

- Robert

[OlaMelien]

Thanks a lot, Robert_R. That definitely brought me one step closer, and NI-DMM enabled the DMM PXI module, which is confirmed to be working.

But I get a blue screen every time I try to install NI-SWITCH. noca4_driver.sys problem. It happens every time on the first package install. Going to google this hard. Please let me know if you, or anybody else, has any idea what's going on there.

EDIT: Must be another error, noca4_driver.sys gives zero hits on google, let me reproduce error and see what it really says.

[DrOnline82]

Accidentally replied with my boss's account. The file is nica4_driver.sys, and I'll look into that error.

[DrOnline82]

...I know I'm in trouble when a search for "nica4_driver.sys" only yields two hits, both to the same site with super suspicious download links...

[DrOnline82]

In the end I decided to do a clean sweep, and reinstall Windows.

Now the result is very strange indeed. This time, when I installed LabVIEW 2020 (the one we're using at the office), with NI-DMM and NI-SWITCH, plus PXI support, MAX detects the PXI USB card, and the PXI MUX, and they both work fine, but for some reason the PXI DMM wasn't detected properly.

So I reinstall NI-DMM, and now I get a bluescreen, with the same exact error, ~10sec after plugging in the PXI to the computer. Before, that was caused by the PXIe-2525, now it's caused by the NI-4065.

I'm going to try using the PXI chassis with all the modules on another computer. If every module works fine, and it doesn't crash, I'm convinced the issue is caused by the thunderbolt support on the motherboard, and I will simply buy a new top of the line motherboard for this critical system.

[santo_13]

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@DrOnline82 wrote:

In the end I decided to do a clean sweep, and reinstall Windows.

Now the result is very strange indeed. This time, when I installed LabVIEW 2020 (the one we're using at the office), with NI-DMM and NI-SWITCH, plus PXI support, MAX detects the PXI USB card, and the PXI MUX, and they both work fine, but for some reason the PXI DMM wasn't detected properly.

So I reinstall NI-DMM, and now I get a bluescreen, with the same exact error, ~10sec after plugging in the PXI to the computer. Before, that was caused by the PXIe-2525, now it's caused by the NI-4065.

I'm going to try using the PXI chassis with all the modules on another computer. If every module works fine, and it doesn't crash, I'm convinced the issue is caused by the thunderbolt support on the motherboard, and I will simply buy a new top of the line motherboard for this critical system.

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If you're buying a new motherboard, choosing one with an inbuilt thunderbolt port will work better than an expansion card. BTW, a top-of-the-line motherboard does not guarantee that the PCIe bus addresses, Thunderbolt functionality and the BIOS will be compatible with PXIe8301

[DrOnline82]

Thank you for your reply, santo_13. I agree that having inbuilt thunderbolt increases the chances it will work properly. If this new board does not work I will have to return it. We've got many ThinkPad P51's and P52's that simply will not work with PXIe-8301, and we've probably lost weeks of work hours to this issue, it's absolutely terrible. We've tried everything. And those are expensive engineering laptops. So I do agree the price isn't what matters, but now I've ordered that board so I'll report back how it went, if for nothing else to perhaps help somebody else having this problem in the future.

[santo_13]

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@DrOnline82 wrote:

Thank you for your reply, santo_13. I agree that having inbuilt thunderbolt increases the chances it will work properly. If this new board does not work I will have to return it. We've got many ThinkPad P51's and P52's that simply will not work with PXIe-8301, and we've probably lost weeks of work hours to this issue, it's absolutely terrible. We've tried everything. And those are expensive engineering laptops. So I do agree the price isn't what matters, but now I've ordered that board so I'll report back how it went, if for nothing else to perhaps help somebody else having this problem in the future.

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Probably the most reliable and proven option is using an embedded controller than juggling motherboards and laptops to find the right one with a supported Thunderbolt3 port.

Some key requirements for the Thunderbolt3 port are,

• A sufficient number of PCIe root buses and addresses are available to enumerate all the slots in the PXIe chassis
• BIOS has options to disable some of the security features that restrict some essential low-level features for PXIe

Both of the above items are not explicitly known when buying a motherboard or laptop and hence one has to bet that the one bought works with fingers crossed.

[DrOnline82]

Well this is the reason we're in this mess to begin with. I insisted we not buy the embedded controllers because they are outrageously obsolete. The PXIe-8840 costs ~7000$ and comes with a Intel Core i5 4400E CPU and 4GB RAM. NI charges through the nose for the 8GB RAM upgrade, which is still competitive, and that CPU was released in Q3 2013. I understand it's very expensive for NI to develop updated versions, because I believe the form factor of the PXIe controllers are unique, but for us to pay that much for such an old system didn't seem right to me. The computer we built is an absolute monster, and costs less than half. Of course, it doesn't work...but if this new motherboard works fine I will be justified and if not I guess we have to go back to the drawing table.

The other option we're discussing is changing over to Keysight 34980A Multifunction Switch / Measure Unit.