PCIe SATA Card not recognised

1st Official Post

    Need help.


    I recently installed a PCIe 2.5Gbps network card to my server. I already had a 8 sata port PCIe card installed and working fine.

    But I've noticed that when I have the 2 cards installed, only the network card is recognised, meaning some drives are not recognised at all in OMV and then facing issues. Any idea how to troubleshoot this?

    some details:

    motherboard: Asrock B360M-HDV

    RAM: 32 GB

    Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-8100 CPU @ 3.60GHz

    multiple SATA drives (x8) - 5 connected to the MB, 3 to the PCIe card

    Network card is an I22x-LAN (intel)

    pretty sure the SATA card is a marvell chip

    Hello.

    Execute lspci and lsblk in a shell and post back the outputs. This will give you the info about the hardware. If you want to see more detailed info you can also use lshw -short. This should give you enough to get the picture regarding your hardware.

    • Official Post
    Quote from elTanqueAU

    Any idea how to troubleshoot this

    TBH I would start with the configuration of the m'board, you don't state in your post what is plugged into where, your board has 1xPCIe x16 slot and 2xPCIe x1. The 2.5Gbps network card is PCIe x1, if this is plugged into one of PCIe x1 slots and the sata card into the other PCIe x1 there could be a conflict, likewise the same if the PCIe x16 slot is being used

    If there is nothing in the manual then the ASRock support forum or a process of elimination of the hardware would be the best way forward


    EDIT: Looking at the images for that board the PCIex1 slots are labelled PCIE1 and PCIE3, that might be relevant

    Raid is not a backup! Would you go skydiving without a parachute?


    OMV 7x amd64 running on an HP N54L Microserver

    Edited once, last by geaves ().

    Thanks for looking at this.


    Network card is plugged to PCIe3 and SATA card to PCIe1. No other card plugged. PCIe2 is free (PCIe x16 is free)

    NVMe drive in use and nothing on SATA3_3 as per manual


    each one independently work fine

    I've tested every combination of pcie lanes, but in summary:

    both cards by themselves work in any PCIe port

    When both cards are plugged together, only the network card works, no matter which lane it's connected.

    Tried looking at the BIOS but couldn't see any setting to guide me. I'll look for an ASRock forum for help

    • Official Post
    Quote from elTanqueAU

    When both cards are plugged together, only the network card works, no matter which lane it's connected

    Then that would suggest the network card is 'hogging' (sorry best way I can explain it) the single lane and the m'board, chipset, cpu has no way of splitting/sharing that single lane between 2 pcie devices.


    My first thought with this was the labelling on the board 'might' reference the boot/bios preference for each slot

    after chatting with GPT - it seems the issue is with the motherboard not been able to allocate enough "space" to the 2 cards. The Network card "hogs" more resources and leaves the SATA card with no available resources. Seems to be a limitation of the chipset and how power/resources are allocated. I'm surprised as I'd expect this board to work with major graphic cards, but I guess those have their own memory and power?

    in any case, didn't get an answer on the ASRock forums and I've given up :(

    What makes you think that GPT-thing is right, but everyone else isn't?

    That's just silly. What when it tells you that you jumping off a cliff will make it work again?

    Hopefully you see the problem here, when dealing with things people don't understand.

    I'm not blindly assuming it's right. But I tried different things and nothing works. It does sounds strange that the board can't handle a SATA card and a network card - both being Gen2 PCIe. For me not knowing enough of this, haven't found a friend who can help me, nor found answers on forums. Google has been the next best thing and trying to check against gpt (actually the other way around) was the best I could do.


    if you think you have any ideas I can try, please let me know as I'm very keen on having this working.

    To me this sounds like some kind of strange chipset incompatibility or a BIOS bug. The x16 slot should work regardless of what is happening between the other two x1 slots, as x16 is designed for a GPU, which normally you would not want to be disabled when another card is inserted. If you had a GPU in there I would suggest it could be PCIE lane starvation, depending on the requirements of the cards, NVME and the lanes supplied by the CPU. Even if the NVME needs 4 lanes from the CPU and the two X1 cards need 1 each, that's only 6 lanes and the CPU should be able to provide 16 (assuming there is no other PCIE controller chip that is offering more lanes for storage an/or the x1 slots).


    First thing I would do is try to use a different NIC with a different chipset since that is the most recent change, to see if the board will indeed operate with more than one card in it. For example, if the card uses a realtek chipset, try one with an intel chipset.


    If it doesn't work with a different card, a deep dive into the BIOS settings may be the next step. There may be some obscure setting that needs to be adjusted. While in there I would make note of the BIOS version and I would check for a BIOS update for the board. While not common, I have seen chipset compatibility issues addressed in BIOS updates, as well as other bugs.


    I run a Asrock B450M Pro4 with an Intel Arc380, a dual port 1Gbe intel NIC, and a PCIE SATA card. I know it's not the same board, but it does illustrate that you should be able to do what you are trying. I did however have to update my BIOS from the original version when I purchased the board to get my Ryzen 5600G to work, so it isn't unheard of to have a new board come with an outdated BIOS that may be several versions behind the current release that may address requirements for newer hardware and BIOS bugs.


    Thanks BerH,

    I think there's something wrong with the board too. As you mentioned, I assumed the x16 lane would work but it didn't.

    I had an issue earlier (when I bought the board 2nd hand) where one RAM slot wasn't recognised. Resolved by re-sitting the CPU.

    I'm wondering if there's an issue with a CPU pin or something like that. I've check the BIOS version and it's the latest. I've dived into the settings but couldn't see much other than following google and gpt suggestions. I'll try a few more things soon.

    Plugged in devices usually access some of the PC's resources to work and to be able to communicate on the bus. By default they get "stuff" assigned to them, they can use. There could be a conflict, but that would be the first time in "modern" time I have heard of that.

    About 30 years ago, this was done manually, so back then, you could not use a device if it had no access configured. Usually it was the interrupt for access to the bus. One interrupt for a device was needed and PC's had about 16 to offer, of which some were already shared with onboard devices. But one could configure it vie BIOS.

    There can be a strange coincidence, that those 2 devices somehow hug the same resources and can't be run together. If there are no other solutions to be found, that would only mean that people have no such cases to report.

    Most of the help I get from the internet is based on the exact same issues others have had. Easy solution as others have made the research and have found a solution.

    If you have a second PC you could check both cards, that would be good to see if it happens again. I would start with that first. You can boot up a live-linux and check if the devices do play nicely with each other or not. If they do, it's probably your mobo, if not the cards have issues then.

    Quote from bermuda

    Plugged in devices usually access some of the PC's resources to work and to be able to communicate on the bus. By default they get "stuff" assigned to them, they can use. There could be a conflict, but that would be the first time in "modern" time I have heard of that.

    About 30 years ago, this was done manually, so back then, you could not use a device if it had no access configured. Usually it was the interrupt for access to the bus. One interrupt for a device was needed and PC's had about 16 to offer, of which some were already shared with onboard devices. But one could configure it vie BIOS.

    There can be a strange coincidence, that those 2 devices somehow hug the same resources and can't be run together. If there are no other solutions to be found, that would only mean that people have no such cases to report.

    Most of the help I get from the internet is based on the exact same issues others have had. Easy solution as others have made the research and have found a solution.

    If you have a second PC you could check both cards, that would be good to see if it happens again. I would start with that first. You can boot up a live-linux and check if the devices do play nicely with each other or not. If they do, it's probably your mobo, if not the cards have issues then.

    Been at this for almost 40 years myself. I don't miss the days of the IRQ concerns.


    That said I don't think the cards are a problem, as the OP said either one will work independently, which is why I was suggesting a different chipset NIC as a test to rule out chipset conflicts between the cards, and if that doesn't work it points blame to the board. Testing the cards together in another system is not a bad idea if the blame seems to be pointing to the board, just to confirm they will work together, but ideally it should be the same motherboard unless the OP is up to change the system motherboard/ram/cpu as a potential fix as it doesn't rule out a deffective motherboard if the motherboard is different, and it doesn't confirm an odd "motherboard/card combination" conflict.

    Quote from elTanqueAU

    I've tested both cards at the same time on a different MB. Both work together.

    I think i need to accept the fact it's not going to work where I wanted to.

    well, if you are willing to concede defeat, that's, sometimes it's the only logical choice, it if you are still wanting to find the reason for the issue, think we have come back to my first suggestion if trying a different chipset NIC, since it is the only recent change,

    would love to try a different chipset nic, but that means buying one and I wasn't intending to. I think I may already have a different SATA card (maybe a 4 port) that I could throw in the test but won't change the nic one.

    I did test with a 2.5Gbps usb to ethernet adapter. that worked.

    I do have a small M.2 (I think A key) that I bought for another miniPC to replace the wifi card, only to realise too late the wifi port is not compatible.

    and during my "play around" I did something and some smoke came out, so I think it's cooked.

    Quote from elTanqueAU

    would love to try a different chipset nic, but that means buying one and I wasn't intending to. I think I may already have a different SATA card (maybe a 4 port) that I could throw in the test but won't change the nic one.

    I did test with a 2.5Gbps usb to ethernet adapter. that worked.

    I do have a small M.2 (I think A key) that I bought for another miniPC to replace the wifi card, only to realise too late the wifi port is not compatible.

    and during my "play around" I did something and some smoke came out, so I think it's cooked.

    Yeah, I wouldn't buy one just for a test either, but if the sata card uses a different chipset it would serve the same purpose to confirm if the motherboard is not allowing 2 cards to work for some reason, with the chipset change hither pointing to the motherboard having a serious problem (still not working), or there being some odd three way chipset compatibility issue between the motherboard and the two cards (working with a different chipset on one card)


    I only suggested the NIC as it was the most recent change.

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