Hello and merry Xmas/favoured equivalent holiday. I am rebuilding and expanding an old P45 machine, and have discovered a mysterious problem.
Let's start with the basics:
1. There are 2 PCIe slots (one x16, one x8) attached to the P45. I am using a GPU in the x16 slot and would prefer to avoid using the x8 slot (since it forces the x16 slot to run in x8 mode.)
2. There are 4 PCIe slots (one x4, three x1) connected through the ICH10R; when any x1 slot is in use, the x4 slot changes to x1 speed.
3. One of the x1 slots (PCIEX1_2) is blocked by the GPU cooler, leaving the x4 slot and two x1 slots.
4. I have three x1 cards I would like to use (Intel NIC, Creative X-Fi, Syba ASMedia AS1061-based SATA controller), so there are just enough slots accessible.
5. Only the SATA card will fit in the top slot (PCIEX1_1); due to their length the others are blocked by the P45's heatsink.
To make this easier to visualize, here's the layout diagram from the manual with the approximate sizes of the cards added:
The problem:
The SATA card will not work in the top slot (PCIEX1_1) or the next accessible one (PCIEX1_3.) In those slots, attached drives are not detected, the OROM splash-screen is not displayed, and Windows does not see the card at all.
However. When the card is in the top slot, it does have power and appears to be active. If I connect a 4-disk eSATA enclosure to the card, the enclosure's LED for disk 1 turns on (which indicates the card is using command-based port-multiplier mode like Windows' default drivers do - if FIS mode is enabled then all disk LEDs are lit.) Additionally, the card has an activity LED passthrough, so activity from connected drives are also shown by the case HDD LED - this is working normally, but it could be a passive circuit. The first time I booted Windows with the card in the top position, a "New Hardware Found..." notification starting with "Intel PCI Express" came up, so I believe the slot itself is recognized.
As far as troubleshooting, I can only think of two tests which don't require additional hardware or the removal of the P45 heatsink (which is a pain because of the heatpipes):
- Moving the GPU to the x8 slot so PCIEX1_2 is exposed for testing. This should show whether it's just the top slot, but won't identify if it's a BIOS issue or something else. Depending on which waterblock gets put on the GPU I may have access to this slot later.
- Trying an older BIOS. Undesirable as a solution because it means losing AHCI 1.20e (unless I manage to mod it back in - and I have NOT had good luck with modded BIOS on these boards.)
If anyone has seen this behaviour, knows if the PCIe slots have to be filled in some sort of order for them to work, or has any theories I'd love to hear them... Thanks for reading and all the best to you and yours,
mushymush!
Let's start with the basics:
1. There are 2 PCIe slots (one x16, one x8) attached to the P45. I am using a GPU in the x16 slot and would prefer to avoid using the x8 slot (since it forces the x16 slot to run in x8 mode.)
2. There are 4 PCIe slots (one x4, three x1) connected through the ICH10R; when any x1 slot is in use, the x4 slot changes to x1 speed.
3. One of the x1 slots (PCIEX1_2) is blocked by the GPU cooler, leaving the x4 slot and two x1 slots.
4. I have three x1 cards I would like to use (Intel NIC, Creative X-Fi, Syba ASMedia AS1061-based SATA controller), so there are just enough slots accessible.
5. Only the SATA card will fit in the top slot (PCIEX1_1); due to their length the others are blocked by the P45's heatsink.
To make this easier to visualize, here's the layout diagram from the manual with the approximate sizes of the cards added:
The problem:
The SATA card will not work in the top slot (PCIEX1_1) or the next accessible one (PCIEX1_3.) In those slots, attached drives are not detected, the OROM splash-screen is not displayed, and Windows does not see the card at all.
However. When the card is in the top slot, it does have power and appears to be active. If I connect a 4-disk eSATA enclosure to the card, the enclosure's LED for disk 1 turns on (which indicates the card is using command-based port-multiplier mode like Windows' default drivers do - if FIS mode is enabled then all disk LEDs are lit.) Additionally, the card has an activity LED passthrough, so activity from connected drives are also shown by the case HDD LED - this is working normally, but it could be a passive circuit. The first time I booted Windows with the card in the top position, a "New Hardware Found..." notification starting with "Intel PCI Express" came up, so I believe the slot itself is recognized.
As far as troubleshooting, I can only think of two tests which don't require additional hardware or the removal of the P45 heatsink (which is a pain because of the heatpipes):
- Moving the GPU to the x8 slot so PCIEX1_2 is exposed for testing. This should show whether it's just the top slot, but won't identify if it's a BIOS issue or something else. Depending on which waterblock gets put on the GPU I may have access to this slot later.
- Trying an older BIOS. Undesirable as a solution because it means losing AHCI 1.20e (unless I manage to mod it back in - and I have NOT had good luck with modded BIOS on these boards.)
If anyone has seen this behaviour, knows if the PCIe slots have to be filled in some sort of order for them to work, or has any theories I'd love to hear them... Thanks for reading and all the best to you and yours,
mushymush!
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