Hi everyone,

 

I just bought a 10Gbe Mellanox Connectx-3 CX311A NIC for my Unraid server, and I’m incapable of detecting the card. 
 

It doesn’t appear in the BIOS, lspci doesn’t list the card either. I’ve tried multiple PCIe slots with no luck (Gigabyte Z390M, PCIe 3.0). 
 

Would anybody have any clue of what could be going on (apart from a faulty card)?

 

Thanks

PCIe slot disabled due to forcing another slot to be x16 instead of "auto" or x8 which has the effect of disabling another slot that has shared bandwidth?

1 hour ago, Squid said:

PCIe slot disabled due to forcing another slot to be x16 instead of "auto" or x8 which has the effect of disabling another slot that has shared bandwidth?

You should at least see it post on boot and in the bios. My first thought is the same as Squids. You probably have a disabled pcie slot due to either using a bunch of nvme drives that replace some slots or from some setting in the bios that disables it. First thing to do is consult your motherboard manual.

If that isn't it, do you have another pc to put it in? It is possible the hardware has failed but unlikely

 

I'm running a mellanox connect x-3 341A 10GB sfp+ without issues on unraid so it should be supported once you get it figured out

"Ethernet controller: Mellanox Technologies MT27500 Family [ConnectX-3]"

Edited April 26, 20224 yr by BlinkerFluid
adding nic info

2 hours ago, BlinkerFluid said:

You should at least see it post on boot and in the bios. My first thought is the same as Squids. You probably have a disabled pcie slot due to either using a bunch of nvme drives that replace some slots or from some setting in the bios that disables it. First thing to do is consult your motherboard manual.

If that isn't it, do you have another pc to put it in? It is possible the hardware has failed but unlikely

 

I'm running a mellanox connect x-3 341A 10GB sfp+ without issues on unraid so it should be supported once you get it figured out

"Ethernet controller: Mellanox Technologies MT27500 Family [ConnectX-3]"

That was the first thing I checked when I saw that it was not working, even though it’s the only expansion card I’m plugging at this moment, apart from 2 x nvme and 6 x sata 3. 
 

I removed one of the nvme drives to free 4 lanes and checked again in all the slots of the MB with the same result. 
 

In one of my multiple reboots I’ve managed (but lost it again in another reboot, aaarrhggg), I’ve managed to see the Mellanox card in lspci, but it was not detected as a NIC. Can’t remember the whole text, but it was sth like “Memory Controller: Mellanox Technologies MT27500 Family [ConnectX-3]…” and then “Recovery mode”. My thought now is that I might need to flash the FW, but I can’t think how if I can’t find it again. 

yeah I'm not sure. I'd definitely try it in a totally different pc even if i had to use my main windows box and see if you can see it post. Have you updated your bios on your motherboard to the most recent one? Sometimes that can have an impact with an older board especially with UIFI stuff but that would be a board about 7 years old

Unfortunately, I don't have any alternative PC around me to test the card in a different HW just in case . So I've ordered another NIC from another vendor to see if I have a different outcome.

 

I thought on updating the BIOS too, but the outcome has been the same. MB has a Z390 chipset, so it´s 3-4 years old.

 

I'll let you guys know once I receive the other NIC later this week, and see what happens.

 

Thanks for your support.

Second identical CX311A just arrived. It works like a charm. 0 problems whatsoever. My MB & Unraid has detected it on the first boot. There was definitely something wrong with the first card.

 

Thanks everyone for your support.