PCI Express Product Troubleshooting

Symptom

Dialogic products with the PCI Express (PCIe) form factor (these products contain an 'E' in the product name; Examples: Dialogic D/480JCT2T1EW and D/600JCT2E1120EW boards) sometimes have issues working in certain systems. The issues can be exhibited in different ways, ranging from ’Blue screen of Death’, failure to start Dialogic services, or failure to detect the product.

Reason for the issue

An issue can occur due to incorrect configuration, or if the system specifications do not meet the requirements.

Fix / Solution

The user should review the troubleshooting steps outlined below, as Dialogic has recorded these steps from issues brought to its attention. Note: Many of the steps are not PCI-E specific, and thus can be applied to non-PCI-E Dialogic products as well.

Troubleshooting Steps

1. The user should check troubleshooting steps on Detection and Starting issues.

2. Change Power Budgeting Jumper Pins -- The default setting is for the jumper to be in pins 2-3 (adheres to power budgeting values set by system). Switch the jumper to pins 1-2 (ignore system power budgeting) to see if that makes a difference. If the jumper was initially in pins 1-2, then switch it to 2-3. 

3. Upgrade BIOS -- There are known performance issues related to the BIOS version on multi-processor systems with PCI-E boards. 

4. Verify that the Operating System supports the configuration -- For example, Windows Server® 2003 Standard Edition only supports up to 4x processors. Windows Server® 2003 Enterprise Edition supports up to 8x processors. Also be aware that a “twin dual core system with hyper-threading” is similar to an 8x processor system. 

5. Reduce Memory -- On systems with 2 GB RAM or more, try reducing this as a test (not necessarily as a permanent fix). Configure boot.ini for 1 GB RAM with a /MAXMEM=1000 change in the boot.ini file. Note: User needs to have system configured to view all system and hidden files to be able to edit the boot.ini file. 

6. Reduce Processors -- On systems with more than 1 processor, try reducing this as a test (not necessarily as a permanent fix). Configure boot.ini for 1 processor with a /NUMPROC=1 change in the boot.ini file. Note: User needs to have system configured to view all system and hidden files to be able to edit the boot.ini file. 

7. Disable Physical Address Extension -- If you are using Windows Server® 2003, and your system has 2 GB RAM or more, try (as a test) disabling PAE (with /NOPAE and /EXECUTE set in boot.ini). Note: User needs to have system configured to view all system and hidden files to be able to edit the boot.ini file. User should also combine all suggested boot.ini tests as well … reduce memory, reduce processors, disable PAE. 

8. Analyze Blue Screen of Death-- Enable the Complete Memory Dump in Windows System Properties and review the dump using the Microsoft® WinDbg tool (you can work through your Dialogic support channel for analysis)

Glossary of Acronyms / Terms

PCI-E, also abbreviated as PCIe, stands for the PCI Express form factor.