Encounter issues with SFP+ NIC?
Encounter issues with SFP+ NIC?
Hey there! I just purchased a few Mellanox connectx-3 10GbE SFP+ cards at a discount. I tested them on a Linux server to see if any would fail, but all of them are working perfectly in Unraid. However, when I try to use the same cards on a Windows 10 PC, they don’t appear in the BIOS or Device Manager. At first I wondered if they weren’t compatible, but I found drivers for my specific Windows 10 version on the Mellanox driver page. Any advice or explanations for this issue would be super helpful!
If the NIC initialization screen isn't appearing during POST, it might mean the motherboard isn't recognizing the device. Have you tried using another W10 machine to confirm it's not a Windows problem? Did you try plugging in/replacing the cable, using a different slot, or switching to newer Mellanox ConnectX-2 cards? The older ones worked fine on Windows.
Attempted to disconnect and reconnect, first tried swapping the card from slot 3 to 5, but it doesn’t fit in the bottom slot because the heatsink is blocking some internal PCIe connectors. It might be a problem with the PCIe slot itself. The motherboard is new, so finding a dead slot would be unexpected but not impossible.
When I want to confirm it's not a Windows problem, I might switch to another system to rule out hardware support issues. You could also attempt to boot a Linux distribution and check if it appears as a connected device. If it doesn't, the issue likely lies with hardware settings or compatibility.