NC523SFP Network adapter not being detected by motherboard

[OrangeX]

I bought this cheap old (in 2008 high end) network adapter from eBay with the listing saying that it's supported by Windows 10 (I also found a reddit post stating this). When I got it I removed the backplate (half height by default) and plugged it into a PCIe 4x 2.0 slot on my motherboard (manual says it's 2.0, but in BIOS you can set it to 3.0???) and although the system booted into Windows 10 after three times boot recovery, the network adapter did not show up. I then plugged it into a PCIe 8x 3.0 slot (meant for SLI) and the system booted first try without detecting the network adapter. After setting the PCIe 8x slot to PCIe 8x 2.0, the system behaved like it was with the PCIe 4x 2.0 slot. What I get from this is that either my version of Windows doesn't like it or my motherboard doesn't like it.

 

Specs:

Network adapter: HP NC523SFP (BR3242 driver on QLogic's Website, legacy) (Compatible with PCIe 2.0 8x and 4x but not 3.0 or 1.x)

Motherboard: X470 AORUS ULTRA GAMING rev 1.0

CPU: R7 2700X

RAM: Corsair LPX DDR4-3200 (at base speed)

 

Help would be appreciated!

[Guest]

The board doesn't like it. I'm guessing it has something to do with UEFI support which this card probably doesn't have.

 

Pretty sure the onboard NIC is much faster than the card any ways, I suppose you need the expansion? 

[OrangeX]

20 hours ago, ShrimpBrime said:

The board doesn't like it. I'm guessing it has something to do with UEFI support which this card probably doesn't have.

 

Pretty sure the onboard NIC is much faster than the card any ways, I suppose you need the expansion? 

Actually, it isn't the onboard NIC is gigabit and the network adapter is 2x10gbit but it works perfectly with a H310 board.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, OrangeX said:

Actually, it isn't the onboard NIC is gigabit and the network adapter is 2x10gbit but it works perfectly with a H310 board.

Oh, should have looked up the specs. My bad.

 

Are you using m.2 drives? Have you tried with them removed?

 

 

[OrangeX]

2 hours ago, ShrimpBrime said:

Oh, should have looked up the specs. My bad.

 

Are you using m.2 drives? Have you tried with them removed?

 

 

Good idea, will try.

[Guest]

13 minutes ago, OrangeX said:

Good idea, will try.

I'm not sure if the board supports x4 pcie - I forget the term used for when the Pcie lanes are split up. 

Didn't see much on a search. Looks like one person managed to get the Nic card to work, but didn't explain how.

Here's the thread I found. It's over a year old, not sure if you could contact the original poster.

 

https://forum.level1techs.com/t/10gbps-setup-problems-hpnc523sfp-cisco-fibre-transceiver/139242

[OrangeX]

1 hour ago, ShrimpBrime said:

Looks like one person managed to get the Nic card to work

He specified that yeah, it does show up but it does not connect. For me it doesn't even show up in network adapters or device manager. I will try to get a Linux install on a USB HDD and if that does not work, I'll try it with my dad's PC. I also tried putting it in the 16x Slot (in 2.0 mode) with a GT610 in the 8x Slot but it did not show up.

[Guest]

14 minutes ago, OrangeX said:

He specified that yeah, it does show up but it does not connect. For me it doesn't even show up in network adapters or device manager. I will try to get a Linux install on a USB HDD and if that does not work, I'll try it with my dad's PC. I also tried putting it in the 16x Slot (in 2.0 mode) with a GT610 in the 8x Slot but it did not show up.

Looks like the card is native 8x or 4x Pcie 2.0. So you may have already tried setting up the Pcie lanes manually, cause it didn't auto detect.

 

For reference, I'll drop the specs link here for you and other readers.

https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docId=emr_na-c02694717

[OrangeX]

Today my suspicions were confirmed when I tried it with my dad's Windows 10 system. It worked perfectly and showed up in Device Manager, seemingly only needing a driver to function normally. That must mean that I either set the setting in the BIOS wrong or my chipset/specific mobo is just not compatible. Linux also did not work, with the card not showing up in hwinfo (with the M.2 ssd removed). Since we have time until all of the other shipments arrive, I'll still look into getting this thing to work with my mobo. I have some spare PCIe 1x 2.0 cards that I could use to test compatibility with legacy hardware.

[OrangeX]

I will mark this as resolved because Q-Logic SFP NICs are not even compatible with Windows 10 anyways and I just made the wrong buying decision.

[drag3nis]

@OrangeX

Hi, 

I was able to use this network card in Windows Server 2022:

using cp028936 (driver for server 2012R2).

Only thing I had to do it set pci-e mode manually for x4, not higher. This card cannot negociate number of lanes.