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Intel PRO1000/PT network card not showing up on PCIe bus one certain systems

JVaes
Beginner
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I also posted this message on the motherboard manufacturers forum. If this is not the right place to put it, my apologies.

So I got myself an intel pro 1000/pt quad port network card, but it doesn't get detected by my motherboard. Here is a nice list of the what I've done, and what I've found:

When I say "it doesn't get detected" I mean the following: First time I installed it, and booted into windows 10 enterprise, it didn't show up in device manager (I also selected the "Show hidden devices" under "view" in device manager).

I didn't quite know what was going on then, so I grabbed a debian jessie live USB, booted into that. Neither "lspci" or "dmesg" mentions anything about seeing the device (so not even something like "failed to start" or other error conditions).

So finally I went into my bios "hardware monitor" thing, and it didn't show the PCIe slot it was in as containing anything.

 

Every time from now on I try something and it doesn't help, it means I went though the above three steps.

 

I've tested the network card in 2 other systems where it was fine: A supermicro server (Debian jessie, 2 xeon's - socket 1366, 64 gb ram, ...) and an Lenovo/emc storcenter (core2duo iirc, don't ask me what OS, it's something debian based). In both of these systems the card works just fine (well, I did only test debian on those systems since they can only suffer short periods of downtime, and I'm not in the mood to try and get windows running on either). The card thus works.

I've repeated this test a few times just to see that the card didn't die along the way, but it still works fine in those.

So here are the things I tried to fix it:

-Installed newest bios version (1.B) from the motherboards support page.

-Tried different PCIe slots - First I tried it in PCI_e3 according to the motherboards manual. After that, I tried every other slot that wasn't 1x.

-Swapped the GPU with the card (so, I put the gpu in PCI_e3, and the NIC in PCI_e1)

-Manually forced the PCIe gen of the slot the card was in to gen1 and gen2

-set the pci latency timed to 64 instead of 32 (while I've never, ever had to manually play with those (and I've built hundreds of systems), I was getting quite desperate at this point).

-I then tried all of the above shuffling around with system wake on PCIe device turned on

-Tried all the above with the intel onboard network adapter forcefully disabled

-Tried 2 other RAID controller cards, which all just work fine first-time (this to rule out something stupid going on with my CPU not wanting to do /any/ other pci device).

Oh, and all of this is without any overclock, the first thing I do when anything is acting up is set the overclock settings to default.

System specs:

Board: x99s SLI PLUS

BIOS: 1.B, as per the latest on the motherboards webpage

VGA: AMD R9 280x

PSU: Corsair RM1000

CPU: i7 5820k, default clocks

MEM: 4x8gb Crucial DDR4 (nothing fancy, if you really need it I'll go look for model numbers) - running stock speeds and all that  

HDD/SSD: 2 Adata SSD's

OS: Windows 10 64bit enterprise, Debian Jessie

Anything else you guys suggest trying? If I can't get it fixed, I'll get a replacement board. My main worry is that it has nothing to do with my board specifically, but something like an odd compatability-clash between this board model and that card, in which case that will be to no avail, and I'm also not willing to shell out /even more/ for a newer model network card and risk that one not working either.

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idata
Employee
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Hi TheUnnamedNewbie,

 

 

The Intel PRO 1000/PT Server Adapter support PCI Express 1.0a. It may be incompatible with some higher PCIe versions. Another possible cause for not detection is adapter is defective. You may test this on another motherboard to see if it can be detected. If still not detected, please contact our http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/contact-support.html# @10 technical support center or your place of purchase for warranty replacement.

 

 

 

We look forward to your test results.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

Sandy
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JVaes
Beginner
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Hi Sandy,

I have indeed already confirmed the card is in fact functional in two other motherboards - both of them are older (socket LGA775 and socket LGA1366). Other places have also started to point in the direction of a PCIe version incompatibility, the motherboard manufacturer is now looking into this, and I'm hoping simply using a BIOS fix that sets the PCIe generation of that slot to 1.0a will allow the card to work. Otherwise, I will have to look at another solution. Is the PRO/1000 PT series the only adapter to have these PCIe generation negotiate issues? I am reluctant to invest even more money in a different model card, fearing that card too will have compatibility issues in my target system.

I will provide an update once I hear back from the motherboard manufacturer.

TheUnnamedNewbie

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idata
Employee
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Hi TheUnnamedNewbie,

 

 

I see. I had a look at the specifications of your motherboard - https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/X99S-SLI-PLUS.html# hero-specification x99s SLI PLUS*** it is supporting Gen3 (v3.0) PCIe. I was able to find the board's https://www.msi.com/file/test_report/TR9_3241.pdf List of Tested Network Adapter***.

 

*** This link will take you off of the Intel website. Intel does not control the content of the destination website.

 

 

1. Pro/1000 PT Dual Port (Intel 82571GB) PCI-E x4 Gen1

 

2. Ethernet Server Adapter I350-T2 (Intel I350) PCI-E x4 Gen2

 

 

It appears that the board is able to support only the single and dual port Pro/1000 PT Adapter Series, but not the Quad port model.

 

 

Base on the tested list, I would recommend using Ethernet Server Adapter I350-T2. However, this model has been replaced with a 2nd Generation - I350-T2V2. Please check with the motherboard manufacturer if this model is also tested.

 

 

Hope this is helpful.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

Sandy
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JVaes
Beginner
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So, I heard back from the motherboard manufacturer a while ago, but decided to put the results here too for any people stumbeling upon this post with similar issues.

The motherboard manufacturer claims there is an incompatibility at a hardware level, and they cannot do anything about it. I will likely be upgrading to 10Gbe this summer, and for now am using a USB-to-ethernet adapter. I sure hope I'm not going to be running into similar issues with the 10Gbe card.

Kind regards,

Joren

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idata
Employee
3,448 Views

Hi Joren,

 

 

Thanks for sharing the manufacturer's remarks with us. This will be helpful for other users encountering similar issue.

 

 

Again, thank you for contacting Intel.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

Sandy
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