DL380 G5 PCI-E 8x device in a 16x slot ??

[Jonathan Aldred]

After reading sever articles on the internet i understand that PCI-E devices are backwards compatible.
I have installed a HP StorageWorks 81Q PCI-e 8x FC HBA adaptor in a 16x slot of my DL380 G5 server.
I was happy to see it showing as expected during boot. (I can enter the CTRL+Q option)
When windows boots, the device driver installs but doesn't install successfully. Its giving Error Code 39. Its also not assigning any resources to the device.
Should i be able to use this card in a 16x slot or do i need to send it back and search for a 16x HBA card ?

[juan quesada · Accepted solution]

Your HBA part AK344A has automatic host bus sensing, meaning that it operates in either PCIe Gen2 (x4 lanes) or PCIe Gen1 (x8 lanes) speed (this is normally called backwards compability) but do not confuse Connector Width with Bus Width.

Your DL380 G5 PCIe Riser cage/board has two x16 Connector Width slots but hey are actually x8 Bus Width slots, meaning that it have the x16 slots on it just for Connector compatibility (physicall compatibility)
but they really operates at a max of x8.

checked compatibility between the server and the HBA and it is ok, HP supports your configuration. BTW, HP do not have x16 QLogic fiber HBAs for the server.

So, I recommned you to start with the basiscs, BIOS flash, HBA FW flash, Swap the card between slot 3 and 4, check for IRQ within the BIOS, make sure you are using the correct drivers... so on so forth

sources:
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12477_na/12477_na.html

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12907_div/12907_div.html#Technical%20Specifications

[Jonathan Aldred]

I just shut down an identicle server which has the same HBA etc and moved that servers HBA card over to a x16 port and it works fine.

One thing different between the 2x machines is the one I am having difficulty with also has 2x 4port 1gbit LAN adaptors in it taking up the 2x x8 PCI-e ports.
Could the OS have a problem with all the devices or should it be able to support the all ?

[Jonathan Aldred]

device manager screen dump 1

[Jonathan Aldred]

device manager screen dump 2

[Jonathan Aldred]

Problem solved with a BIOS update.
Thanks Juan!

[Jonathan Aldred]

Problem solved with BIOS update!