PCI-324 card not recognized in Intel DG965WH motherboard?

[tranceporter]

I have a 24i+2408mkii connected to a PCI-324, which works fine in an ABit IC7-G motherboard. When I plug the PCI-324 card into an Intel DG965WH motherboard with Core2Duo 2.4Ghz processor & 2GB RAM, it is not recognized. I have a friend with an almost identical setup, and his PCI-324 also is not recognized when plugged into a DG965WH motherboard. There is only one other PCI card plugged into the system, an Intel Pro/100+ ethernet card.

I've tried plugging the card into every PCI slot in the system. I've tried disabling the 2nd core on the processor, disabling almost all motherboard devices (including onboard sound device, parallel, serial, etc), all to no avail.

I called MOTU tech support, they said that they had not heard about any such problem. I'm a registered MOTU owner, so can upgrade to a PCI-424e for $295, but would really like to know why the PCI card is not working in a system where it should be working. It's the first time ever where I've seen a PCI card work properly in one system not be recognized at all in another more modern system.

The motherboard documentation claims that it supports both 3.3V and 5V PCI cards, so almost certain that is NOT the problem.

We're stumped. We're both very experienced at building PCs.

If anybody here has found newer PCs (e.g., anything Intel Core2Duo based) where regular PCI versions of a PCI-324 or PCI-424 card does not work, it would be interesting to know which motherboards are incompatible.

I'm mostly posting so that anybody else having this same type of problem can know that they are not alone, and hopefully somebody who has any other bits of related information can help others solve similar issues. I was not able to find anything by Googling about this problem before I posted.

[Hard2Hear]

The controller architecture of the 965 chipset is odd. For example, there is no actual ata controller, it rides virtually on the sata. This in itself causes problems for that chipset. The southbridge is crowded because of this layout and makes for inconsistant voltages sometimes over PCI, also. I dont know why it was made this way, I just know through testing of the boards its problematic sometimes. The Intel 975xbx or 975xbx2 are much more consistant choices and both perform great with MOTU in my testing. I personally don't like the 965's, but some people just want to save money over performance and reliability.

[TonyBy]

aaah .. interesting .. I have been hoping to find a thread like this one somewhere .. I had some odd problems with the PCI bus when building my latest PC - on a 965 board - but have been unable to find much info as to what was going on.
Long story short, I have been using 2 Yamaha DSPFactory PCI cards for years in 4 different PC's without a single problem.
For low latency I had a Steinberg VSL-2020 linked via adat to the DSPF's in the last 2 pc's .. so 3 PCI soundcards all running at the same time .. and they worked for years without a hiccup.
Time to go core-duo, and liking Giga-byte boards (I've never used anything else) the GA 965P DS3 seemed like a good choice (everything I read said so).
Built the PC - eveything great - except the DSPFactory cards had huge (2 second) regular gaps in the audio.
The VSL-2020 played better - but with some clicks.
An old Audiophile 2496 was the only soundcard I tried that worked OK.

I could find no info - but I guessed the PCI bus was "taking a back seat" to the new Pci-e bus.

So I decided to give in with the DSP Factories (at last !!) and bought a MOTU 828 mk II Firewire.
I found a Pci-e (siig) TI firewire card - and the Motu has been flawless (so far).
Nothing at all on the Pci slots anymore.

Glad to see an explanation as to what was going on !!
Wish I'd known that the 965 boards were duff Pci wise when I bought the bits !!!

Anyhow - I love my new 828 so I guess all is well now.

[josecoria]

Que tal! From Argentine. Tengo un problema similar. Una Motu 2048 PCI 324 Card y no es detectada en un sistema PIV 2.8 Dual Core - Motherboard Intel 946gh Sata 2 - 512mb DDR2. Conecto la placa, y ni siquiera es detectada cuando entra a Windows XP SP2. Podría alguien darme alguna solucion por favor? Muchas gracias.

I have a 24i+2408mkii connected to a PCI-324, which works fine in an ABit IC7-G motherboard. When I plug the PCI-324 card into an Intel DG965WH motherboard with Core2Duo 2.4Ghz processor & 2GB RAM, it is not recognized. I have a friend with an almost identical setup, and his PCI-324 also is not recognized when plugged into a DG965WH motherboard. There is only one other PCI card plugged into the system, an Intel Pro/100+ ethernet card.

I've tried plugging the card into every PCI slot in the system. I've tried disabling the 2nd core on the processor, disabling almost all motherboard devices (including onboard sound device, parallel, serial, etc), all to no avail.

I called MOTU tech support, they said that they had not heard about any such problem. I'm a registered MOTU owner, so can upgrade to a PCI-424e for $295, but would really like to know why the PCI card is not working in a system where it should be working. It's the first time ever where I've seen a PCI card work properly in one system not be recognized at all in another more modern system.

The motherboard documentation claims that it supports both 3.3V and 5V PCI cards, so almost certain that is NOT the problem.

We're stumped. We're both very experienced at building PCs.

If anybody here has found newer PCs (e.g., anything Intel Core2Duo based) where regular PCI versions of a PCI-324 or PCI-424 card does not work, it would be interesting to know which motherboards are incompatible.

I'm mostly posting so that anybody else having this same type of problem can know that they are not alone, and hopefully somebody who has any other bits of related information can help others solve similar issues. I was not able to find anything by Googling about this problem before I posted.

[harryw]

Think it must be the 965 chipset.
Ridiculous timewasting exercise - really looking forward to the new core duo etc etc and 6 SATA looks good.
Nice as a desk top PC probably but I cnat afford the time trying to get XP to recognise the hardware. Pn P indeed!!!???