PCIe lanes, usb 3 controller cards, IRQ - troubleshooting
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Issue
I have five USB 3 controller cards that I wish to plug into my PCIe slots, but for some reason my computer won't boot at all (not even BIOS) if I connect card number 3-5. However, when using 2 cards only, it will work. I suspect that this might have something to do with PCIe lane allocation, but I am not sure.Relevant specs
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Mobo: x99-E WS/USB 3.1 (https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/X99E_WSUSB_31/specifications/)
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CPU Xeon E5-1620 v4 3.5 GHz (https://ark.intel.com/products/92991/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-1620-v4-10M-Cache-3_50-GHz)
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Sonnet Allegro USB 3 PRO controller card (http://www.sonnettech.com/product/allegroprousb3pcie.html)
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MSI Radeon rx470 8GB GPU (https://www.msi.com/Graphics-card/Radeon-RX-470-GAMING-X-8G.html#hero-overview)
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@Propagandalf said in PCIe lanes, usb 3 controller cards - troubleshooting:
Issue
I have five USB 3 controller cards that I wish to plug into my PCIe slots, but for some reason my computer won't boot at all (win 10) if I connect card number 3-5. However, when using 2 cards only, it will work. I suspect that this might have something to do with PCIe lane allocation, but I am not sure.Relevant specs
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Mobo: x99-E WS/USB 3.1 (https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/X99E_WSUSB_31/specifications/)
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CPU Xeon E5-1620 v4 3.5 GHz (https://ark.intel.com/products/92991/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-1620-v4-10M-Cache-3_50-GHz)
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Sonnet Allegro USB 3 PRO controller card (http://www.sonnettech.com/product/allegroprousb3pcie.html)
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MSI Radeon rx470 8GB GPU (https://www.msi.com/Graphics-card/Radeon-RX-470-GAMING-X-8G.html#hero-overview)
With the Sonnet Allegro Pro, you only need but the one card. You can run easily 25-30 Hard drives off of it.
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@Focus said in PCIe lanes, usb 3 controller cards - troubleshooting:
With the Sonnet Allegro Pro, you only need but the one card. You can run easily 25-30 Hard drives off of it.
I have 100 HDDs.
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@Propagandalf said in PCIe lanes, usb 3 controller cards - troubleshooting:
@Focus said in PCIe lanes, usb 3 controller cards - troubleshooting:
With the Sonnet Allegro Pro, you only need but the one card. You can run easily 25-30 Hard drives off of it.
I have 100 HDDs.
Ouch, then you are probably going to have to go with an extra computer. Sounds like you are running out of IRQs to address to the cards.
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@Focus Maybe, but would they build a MB with 7 PCIe if it is not possible using them ...
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@luxe said in PCIe lanes, usb 3 controller cards - troubleshooting:
@Focus Maybe, but would they build a MB with 7 PCIe if it is not possible using them ...
We ll that card is a pci-e 3.0 x4 card, so a proper slot would be required. Some of those boards have plenty of x1 slots but only 2 or 3 x16 that can work for that card.
Cascading or putting multiple controllers never really worked well for USB
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@Focus said in PCIe lanes, usb 3 controller cards - troubleshooting:
We ll that card is a pci-e 3.0 x4 card
According to their site it is PCI-e 2.0 x4 and not 3.0
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@Propagandalf my bad
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@Propagandalf said in PCIe lanes, usb 3 controller cards - troubleshooting:
@Focus said in PCIe lanes, usb 3 controller cards - troubleshooting:
With the Sonnet Allegro Pro, you only need but the one card. You can run easily 25-30 Hard drives off of it.
I have 100 HDDs.
Assuming Windows, are you mounting some of them as a sub folder inside other drives to stay within the A-Z drive letter limitation? Would an IRQ limit only be applicable to the A-Z? Not an expert, but I know just enough to ask questions like this :)
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@rds said in PCIe lanes, usb 3 controller cards - troubleshooting:
@Propagandalf said in PCIe lanes, usb 3 controller cards - troubleshooting:
@Focus said in PCIe lanes, usb 3 controller cards - troubleshooting:
With the Sonnet Allegro Pro, you only need but the one card. You can run easily 25-30 Hard drives off of it.
I have 100 HDDs.
Assuming Windows, are you mounting some of them as a sub folder inside other drives to stay within the A-Z drive letter limitation? Would an IRQ limit only be applicable to the A-Z? Not an expert, but I know just enough to ask questions like this :)
I believe the issue is more at a hardware level since it won't POST properly
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@rds said in PCIe lanes, usb 3 controller cards - troubleshooting:
@Propagandalf said in PCIe lanes, usb 3 controller cards - troubleshooting:
@Focus said in PCIe lanes, usb 3 controller cards - troubleshooting:
With the Sonnet Allegro Pro, you only need but the one card. You can run easily 25-30 Hard drives off of it.
I have 100 HDDs.
Assuming Windows, are you mounting some of them as a sub folder inside other drives to stay within the A-Z drive letter limitation? Would an IRQ limit only be applicable to the A-Z? Not an expert, but I know just enough to ask questions like this :)
While testing this I do not have any drives connected at all, so that is not part of my problem (yet). =)
I'm flashing BIOS to latest right now, to see if that helps. Thought I had newest, but apparently not.
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@Propagandalf said in PCIe lanes, usb 3 controller cards - troubleshooting:
@rds said in PCIe lanes, usb 3 controller cards - troubleshooting:
@Propagandalf said in PCIe lanes, usb 3 controller cards - troubleshooting:
@Focus said in PCIe lanes, usb 3 controller cards - troubleshooting:
With the Sonnet Allegro Pro, you only need but the one card. You can run easily 25-30 Hard drives off of it.
I have 100 HDDs.
Assuming Windows, are you mounting some of them as a sub folder inside other drives to stay within the A-Z drive letter limitation? Would an IRQ limit only be applicable to the A-Z? Not an expert, but I know just enough to ask questions like this :)
While testing this I do not have any drives connected at all, so that is not part of my problem (yet). =)
I'm flashing BIOS to latest right now, to see if that helps. Thought I had newest, but apparently not.
After that, start adding the cards in one by one and see at what point the computer no longer wants to POST
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@Focus I tried that already before flashing, and it stops posting after installing the third card. I will try again after flashing bios.
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@Propagandalf From memory the X99 boards have 28 PCIe lanes. With the onboard LAN/USB 3.0 taking a few, the Video card another 16, you're probably running out of lanes. Try moving the video card to a 16x physical but 8x/4x electrical slot and see if you can get additional cards up.
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I also just checked one of my miners, I am running 16-20 drives per controller port.
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@haitch CPU has PCIe 3.0 Lanes: 40x ... MB supports that.
MB has seven PCIe 3 -> x16/x8/x8/x8/x8/x8/x8 (some are shared) so i do not see any reason why 5 PCIe 2 x4 should not work ...
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@luxe Shows how good my memory is ..... ;-)
However according to this wikipedia article
The chipset supports 8 PCIe 2.0 lanes. I'd assumed the the PCIe 3.0 lanes could support PCIe 2.0 devices, but maybe this is an incorrect assumption?
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@haitch said in PCIe lanes, usb 3 controller cards - troubleshooting:
@luxe Shows how good my memory is ..... ;-)
However according to this wikipedia article
The chipset supports 8 PCIe 2.0 lanes. I'd assumed the the PCIe 3.0 lanes could support PCIe 2.0 devices, but maybe this is an incorrect assumption?
PCI-e specification will allow the port to work and adjust accordingly, so you can use a pci-e 3.0 card in a 2.0 slot and vice versa
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I have tried removing the CMOS battery for 10 minutes and then replacing it, but it did not help. I also tried changing bios settings for PCIe speed from 'auto' to 'Gen1' and 'Gen2', but no luck there either. I have sent a support e-mail to Sonnet to ask if this is normal behavious when using more than two of their controller cards in one system, but I can't expect an answer from them before earliest on Tuesday.
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@Propagandalf you can run 100 drives off 2 controllers, plus that motherboard has it's own, so 3 controllers



