Intel PCI-E 4x Quad port NIC issues in Desktop board 16x slot (z68)

[Herngaard]

Hi,

I'm having some very strange issues with my brand new Intel Desktop Board DZ68BC (newest BIOS) paired with a Intel PRO/1000 PT Quad-Port Server Adapter (newest ROM) (NIC card ID: 39Y6136 PCIE GEN2)
Every now and then after a restart or cold boot, the card won't be getting ANY power from the PCI-E 16x port. I tried to move it from the top one to the bottom one, but the behavior is the same. Another restart or two gets the card going again. This happens with two different cards, and with both tested in the two different ports. But very randomly.

These NIC's worked fine in a HP G7 ESX server for a year without any issues.

My RAID controller works flawlessly in either 16x slot btw...

I know it's a real server part and that my "server" is nothing more than a fancy PC, so maybe i'm just asking for trouble here...and getting it!

But have anyone here experienced this, or maybe have an idea on how to fix this. Maybe recommend me another board than the intel DZ68BC, i can find another purpose for it, i just liked it because of the onboard video....and the fact that it's an intel, and i didnt really need a overly expensive ASUS ROG Extreme ++.

my setup:

intel i7 2600K CPU
Intel Desktop Board DZ68BC
32768 MB DDR3 1600Mhz RAM

IBM ServeRAID M5015 controller with 512mb cache and IBBU08 BBU
Intel Pro/1000 PT Quad Port Server adapter

8x WD RE4 7200Rpm 2TB SATA drives in RAID5 (WD2003FYYS)
3x OCZ SSD's running off the motherboards onboard controllers

Fractal Design Define R4 midi-tower
Corsair H100i CPU watercooler (exausts from case through 2x 120mm fans in top)
3x Corsair AP140 Quiet 140mm case fans (two intakes in front, one exaust)
Corsair AX750W Gold PSU

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Right now im using two Intel Gigabit CT Desktop Adapter´s Teamed (LACP), and it's not the worst setup, but i really like those quad NIC's, and i got them for free.

- Herngaard

 

[mrkrad]

have you tried another power supply? I don't see this problem with the $99 used quad intel's or the triple's (silicom pegi 6 port gigabit).

Heck I had a raid and 3 dual port 10gbe then swapped out two of the 10gbe qlogic for some screaming XR997 rev 0 82598eb nic's and no problem.

This is an ancient Z400 with xeon and two x16 (i think one is only x8 though) and two x4 and a x1 or pci for video. Use it to test cards and flash them up before going into a server since it can pretty much take anything hp and boot it.

There are options on the slots for COMPUTE or IO and disable the bios but I doubt that has it.

You might see if you have a power supply issue or bios issue. I've had a lot of problems with core desktop motherboards i'm not sure if the PCI is run the same as the xeon workstation/servers and I'm positive the power supplies are far weaker.

Also watch out for those fancy PFC 94% platinum power supplies, they have an odd ability to quash a square wave ups without current limiting. We have a desktop that dies instantly with a crappy BE350 and one that corrupts ram instantly on battery power. Moving them to a pure-sine wave or highly modified square wave (cyberpower puresine) solves the problem. It's a pita to spend alot of money for these or true double online models but i've seen really crazy stuff happen. I actually will run prime95 and push the new servers to test mode or on-battery and check for stability. With the line-interactive modified square wave boxes I get epic fails. It makes you wonder if this is a cheap/bad design power supply as many folks rock line interactive (LARGE) SMT/SUA2200's and i've never had a problem with the HP power supplies in servers or workstations just the desktops.

Reminds me of my old sempron mobo that would boot 1 out of 20 times and dead hang the other 19 times searching for the drive. ended up chucking the whole box in the garbage and was the END of my white boxing days. but we all know cheaper desktops just use the same fox/pegatron motherboards and cheap delta power supplies nowadays.

You can pick up a pair of dl3x0 G4/G5 power supplies (dual) with backplane that puts out a standard motherboard pin-out and fire that up to your motherboard, a pair of 750watts can eliminate any questionable power sources.