PCIe lanes, usb 3 controller cards, IRQ - troubleshooting
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@Focus I have a comparable controller-card like that sonnet one, and on every USB3 port i have a external case with 4 drives ... it also depends on drive size ... with 2TB drives it can be some more.
From my point of view @Propagandalf did everything right, to build a USB based storage solution.
But sure you are right it is quite overpowerd, maybe he has some sweet 10TB drives with 220MB/s :-)@Propagandalf you have gpu in first PCIe next to CPU right? Thats the x16 one.
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@luxe
I have a midi tower with extra fans installed,so no space in PCIe slot 1 for GPU(edit: trying to put GPU here now). So, I have it in PCIe slot 7 instead, and have tried the controller cards in PCIe slot 1-5 (6 is blocked by GPU). Each slot is x16 on this mobo, according to the manual.
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@Propagandalf
7 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (single x16 or dual x16/x16 or triple x16/x16/x16 or quad x16/x16/x16/x16 or seven x16/x8/x8/x8/x8/x8/x8)
You have to put GPU in slot 1, to get full speed! (if remaining 5 are used)

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@Propagandalf it could be you are drawing too much power from the PSU when the third card is installed. Try the 3 cards with a more powerful PSU to see if that works.
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I now have GPU in slot 1, and two controller cards in slot 6 and 7. That works, but again when I plug another controller card into slot 5, it won't boot. This might be of interest: The Dr debug error code I get is "96", which apparently means "PCI bus assign resources". The signs still point to some kind of non-optimal resource assignment for the PCIe slots. Maybe there are other ways I can tweak the settings?
My PSU is 650W, so I don't think that I'm drawing too much power with these cards, unfortunately I don't have a more powerful PSU to test it with.
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@Propagandalf if the motherboard has a on board gpu, remove the extra GPU to draw less power or else use a less power hungry GPU card if you have one available. If either works then you know for sure its a power issue.
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@iKnow0 I don't have either of those alternatives, unfortunately.
Edit: I think the rx470 uses about 130W during heavy load, which isn't all that bad.
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@Propagandalf borrow a more powerful psu or old GPU, most gamers will have both spare.
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@Propagandalf you could also work it out using math and the specifications for each device.
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@iKnow0
I could do that of course, but this system was built by professionals at a local IT shop, so I find it strange if the PSU is not powerful enough.I did a rough calculation a few weeks ago and came to the conclusion that I'm using quite a bit less than what the PSU supports.
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@Propagandalf do you have any other psu's?
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@iKnow0 Not currently, but I might be able to get hold of one in a few days.
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@iKnow0
OK, so I got hold of a 750W PSU, but when I replaced it, I can't even turn the machine on, there's no action whatsoever unlike before. The PSU worked on my friend's computer, so not sure what is going on.I re-used the cables from the old PSU on the new PSU to save time and fiddling about, was this maybe a bad idea? Are cables universal between different makes of PSUs? If this is the issue I will try again tomorrow with the "correct" cables, but I have run out of time for tonight.
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@Propagandalf double check all cables are secure
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Your problem is not the PSU, you POST fine with 2 cards but not with 3, the 3rd card pulls milliamps at best. You have an interrupt problem, hence your code 96
Go into BIOS, make sure Graphics adapter is set to PCIe, make sure to disable onboard graphics, disable whatever you can that you are not using such as legacy USB, lpt or com ports, etc...
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I think @Focus is right about the PSU, but for what it's worth, cables are not always compatible between different PSUs, even if they have the same connectors. Be careful, don't fry your motherboard or components!
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@zyzzyva said in PCIe lanes, usb 3 controller cards - troubleshooting:
I think @Focus is right about the PSU, but for what it's worth, cables are not always compatible between different PSUs, even if they have the same connectors. Be careful, don't fry your motherboard or components!
Especially with a board like that $700 ouch
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Thanks for the answers. I have tried 3 controller cards on another system (B), and it works fine. That rules out any general incompatibility issues on the producer's side when using more than 2 cards.
I decided not to test with original cables and fire up the 750W PSU on the original system (A), as it would mean ruining the existing cable management inside the case. Instead, I ran a PSU calculator based on all the components I use, and it tells me that I will draw 371W and I have a 650W PSU from before, so power should definitely not be an issue when installing these cards that draw very little additional power.
I am a bit scared to reconnect the original PSU on system A now, in case I destroyed any components yesterday when I used the unoriginal cables! The question remains: Why do 3 cards work on system B, when system A won't get through POST with 3? I will try to figure out how I can disable stuff I don't need in Bios as the next step in my troubleshooting, like @Focus suggested.
Update 1:
System A was not damaged yesterday!Update 2: I disabled several items in BIOS, and now I am able to get 3 cards working on system A! Fourth card gets same error, so I will try to disable more stuff if I can, just need to make sure I don't disable anything vital.
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I have now disabled just about everything I can disable, and I have installed the producer's drivers instead of the generic Windows drivers, but to no avail. I tried swapping slots again too. I'm still learning about IRQ, but I suspect that I somehow need to find out which channels are free, and also somehow manually assign free channels to controller card number 4 and 5. This is no easy task, and my BIOS apparently does not have any settings for this. To me it seems strange why there are such limitations, but what do I know.
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@Propagandalf glad to see you are making some progress. To see what IRQ devices are using
right+click my computer-> Manage -> Device Manager
Then from the view menu choose "Resources by connection"
There you will see a tree view for IRQ which shows the IRQ info.p.s. Also check that you have the most up to date BIOS on the motherboard, this can be checked on the manufactures web site.

