I’m not really sure if I’m in the right place to ask about my issue, if I’m not, apologies.
I have an issue with my ConnectX-4 NIC, paired with a 10G sfp+ module base T.
This NIC works fine on 2 of my motherboards : Z790 Apex Encore & Z890 Apex. No issue at all, it just works. Unfortunately, these aren’t suitable for daily system and that’s where my issue is.
I had 2 motherboards for my daily system : an ASUS X870E StrixE and a MSI X870E Carbon Wifi. The first one was sent to RMA because the Realtek 5G NIC would crash when loaded and my ConnectX-4 wouldn’t work. The shop asked me if I wanted a swap to the MSI. I said sure.
The problem is that while the internal NIC works fine on this one, my ConnectX-4 still doesn’t work.
There is no light at all (right next to the SFP+) indicating if there is a link or not.
The NIC is detected on Windows 11, I can see both ports in the device manager, however it seems like it doesn’t power on my SFP. It is not being detected it seems.
I did test to plug the NIC on chipset PCIe lanes or CPU, it mades no difference.
I’m a bit clueless now, are there people with X870 motherboard with Mellanox NIC that works ?
A few extra informations : the card is flashed to the latest available firmware and isn’t vendor lock.
I tried using CSM instead of UEFI but same thing. The issue happens before Windows, in BIOS it doesn’t even have the link status ON, while if I plug the card on my Intel system, in BIOS the LED is already ON.
I tried forcing the PCIe speed to 3.0 but doesn’t work any better.
I tried installing the latest drivers yes, but doesn’t do anything, the SFP+ doesn’t show up. The card itself shows up OK, no question mark in device manager.
I’m leaning towards power issue not powering on the SFP at this point.
Haven’t tried an other OS as from my understanding the issue happens before any OS if my z790 plateform is any exemple (in z790 bios, the LED Status is active).
On X870E, at no point at all during the boot process the LED status turn on.
I just tried on my X670E Gene, the card works there, with LED Status being green from the moment the system is being turned ON. So it is limited to X870E chipset
UEFI only for my Z890 system as CSM isn’t there anymore, works.
On X870E, I tried with CSM and UEFI, same thing, doesn’t work.
No bifurcation. Also tried without fast boot.
Yeah I’m sure, I tried using different PCIe slot, even the main GPU one. Same exact result.
Also important to note that it happens on 2 different X870E boards, from 2 manufacturers (ASUS/MSI)
.
I tried all 3 slots, same story every time.
When I was on the ASUS, I made sure to be careful of that, not using M2 slots that would cut the PCIe lanes.
Yes this is very frustrating as I can see it working just fine on 3 others platform but not the one I want it to be. I guess I could contact MSI support.
SFP28 is supposedly backwards compatible with both SFP+ and SFP. I understand compatibility in general between cards and transceivers is a bit so-so though. But in theory, an SFP+ transceiver should at least have a chance at working in a ConnectX-4 card.
