Windows 10 failed to initialise Mellanox MCX311A-XCAT :(

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xaster

New Member
Feb 21, 2021
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@faxxe71
yes intel chipset ( i use Z490 ) oder Windows issue.
May we have a chance by upgrade to win11 or we get a new intel driver oder MB bios.....
the support is a real shame for a enterprice network solution o_O
 
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xaster

New Member
Feb 21, 2021
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some good news for this board.
I installed the last Intel Chipset Driver 10.1.18634.8254 & Intel Management Engine 2110.15.0.2210 at my MSI Z490 Board and the problem is gone since over two weeks :D
 

clcorbin

Member
Feb 15, 2014
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Thanks... not good to hear .... i use a Asus Prime Z390-A
Seems a problem with the Intel Chipset.
If i power on the PC, Win10 never detect the LAN card. I have to "reset network" and reboot and it work
Annoying. I'll probably throw the card out again
That is the same MB I use on my Win 10 desktop with a HP 649281-B21//Mellanox MCX354A-FCBT. I'm happy to say I haven't had any issues yet. Of course, I have only been using this for a few days, so not a lot of data to go on at this point. I DO tend to keep drivers and firmware pretty up to date, so you might want to see what is available on asus' website.
 

stefan45219

New Member
Jun 14, 2022
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Hi all,
I spent the better half of the day finding out how to get my Mellanox ConnectX-3 MCX311A with latest firmware to be recognized in Windows 10 (also latest updates installed, incl. Intel Chipset Drivers. Mainbord is an Asus ROG Strix z390 Gaming-F, also with latest Bios. I have a RTX 3080 (which takes 16 PCI-E lanes from the CPU) and an M.2 NVME Samsung 970 EVO, which takes 4 lanes from the Chipset. Other than that, all peripherals except the USB ports and audio chipset are turned off in the Bios to save on PCI-E lanes. SATA ports completely disabled.

The GPU is in PCE-E x16 slot 1, slot 2 is vacant, slot 3 is housing the mellanox. I don't want any card near the GPU for thermal reasons and not sacrifice x8 lanes.

So in theory there should be enough lanes to spare for the Mellanox...but: It is not recognized properly in Win 10 with the well known error code 43, all the time with no exception.

The solution that seems to run stable is: Switch the PCI-E x16_3 slot from x4 lanes to x2 lanes. This seemed to eliminated the problem, and i verified with HWINFO that the settings in the BIOS have an effect on the actual lane usage of the Mellanox. I will continue testing and edit this post, if this really solved the issue long term.
 

Hresna

New Member
Aug 9, 2022
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My inaugural post in these forums…

Also running STRIX z390 (e-gaming) board and have intermittent fails of the card (I have not found this error code 43 but will look for it in device manager). The solution that worked for me initially was the same: switching slot3 bandwidth to x2 from x4 (which is the only slot I can do that for in my bios, and weirdly, the only one of the full-size slots I can’t assign the PCIe generation to specifically).

Anyway, that worked until another reboot and then it didn’t work. Seems I need to go into bios and tweak the PCI setting back and forth between reboots and then it will come back fine. Once it’s registered and loaded, seems to stay fine in Win10 until another reboot. Annoying.

I’m using a dell-coded copper Ethernet sfp+ module. But this happens even with the module removed.
 

stefan45219

New Member
Jun 14, 2022
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Once it’s registered and loaded, seems to stay fine in Win10 until another reboot. Annoying.
Funny that you mention this, i've experienced it a little differently. I had to switch 4x to 2x only once and it stuck. Now i can switch it back to 4x and it still works. Somehow, the issue has been solved by itself. I don't know why.
 

Hresna

New Member
Aug 9, 2022
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Yeah I’ve had it work in both 2x and 4x but it seems if it boots bad one time, there’s no way to snap it out of its funk other than tweaking bios settings until I get a good boot. It’s pretty obnoxious.

I will try it in a proper full 8x slot next time, even though it will be blocking gpu fan a bit, just for troubleshooting purposes. And there’s a slightly more recent chipset firmware for my board but I’m not hopeful that will do anything, and I’m not inclined to try different firmwares on the card itself… the procedure sounds a bit finicky.