About PCI-Express compatibility issues
Posted: Fri Apr 19, 2013 3:00 pmEdited: it applies to some other TBS PCIe products
Hello TBS users
Thank you for using TBS products, especially the classic one - TBS 6981 DVB-S2 dual tuner card!
Unfortunately, there are rumors spreading in some forums and maybe also some B2C platforms, we’d like to provide some information based on our tests & investigation, so that you won’t be misled by the wrong information or rumors.
“TBS 6981 has critical PCI-Express compatibility issues with many motherboards, but similar products from other brands don’t have such problems.”
This is not true, according to our current tests, there are only a few motherboards that have PCI-Express compatibility problem with the TBS 6981, of course if the problem is caused by our hardware or software, we try to fix it, please check the list below:
* Dell PowerEdge R720 server
tested, not working, Dell support refuse to help
* SuperMicro
tested, just 2 of their motherboard models not working
we have provided samples to them, and according to SuperMicro, they continue to look at it, the issue is due to "PCIe reverse lane and polarity inversion", i.e.
SuperMicro is very supportive and can offer any solution at the moment, so it is kindly recommended you contact SuperMicro and us once you have problems using SuperMicro motherboards with TBS products.
* other motherboard makers
ASRock latest motherboards are confirmed, there are 6 latest models motherboards from ASRock that were tested, they all have PCIe slots v2.0 or v3.0 and all of them works perfectly fine with all TBS cards.
- the only issue is with CX23885-13Z on motherboards with latest AMD chipsets, but CX23885-15Z is fine on those same motherboard, as well SAA716x is fine. ASRock are part of Asus and if their motherboards are fine, all Asus motherboard should be fine too.
Gigabyte was the first company when the old BIOS bug appeared, we sent samples and they are all fine since then. More or less that are all major manufacturers, as well all motherboard manufacturers use the same BIOS cores.
In fact, all PCIe interfaces we use are PCI-SIG certified, which is a fact that can be checked here:
http://www.pcisig.com/developers/compliance_program/integrators_list/pcie/
Before reporting any compatibility issue, it is very important to check if the BIOS of the motherboard you are using are up-to-date, since we have a bunch of cases where the problem was easily solved just by updating the BIOS.
PCIe specification requires mandatory backward compatibility, which means any PCIe slot v2.x or v3.x needs to support PCIe v1.x, which actually makes TBS cards the most compatible since they work in any PCIe slot.
If you are experience such issues, please do let us know, we will be glad to help and it’ll be much appreciated that you share the experience with other users here when the problem is sorted out
Thank you for your attention!
Hello TBS users
Thank you for using TBS products, especially the classic one - TBS 6981 DVB-S2 dual tuner card!
Unfortunately, there are rumors spreading in some forums and maybe also some B2C platforms, we’d like to provide some information based on our tests & investigation, so that you won’t be misled by the wrong information or rumors.
“TBS 6981 has critical PCI-Express compatibility issues with many motherboards, but similar products from other brands don’t have such problems.”
This is not true, according to our current tests, there are only a few motherboards that have PCI-Express compatibility problem with the TBS 6981, of course if the problem is caused by our hardware or software, we try to fix it, please check the list below:
* Dell PowerEdge R720 server
tested, not working, Dell support refuse to help
* SuperMicro
tested, just 2 of their motherboard models not working
we have provided samples to them, and according to SuperMicro, they continue to look at it, the issue is due to "PCIe reverse lane and polarity inversion", i.e.
SuperMicro is very supportive and can offer any solution at the moment, so it is kindly recommended you contact SuperMicro and us once you have problems using SuperMicro motherboards with TBS products.
* other motherboard makers
ASRock latest motherboards are confirmed, there are 6 latest models motherboards from ASRock that were tested, they all have PCIe slots v2.0 or v3.0 and all of them works perfectly fine with all TBS cards.
- the only issue is with CX23885-13Z on motherboards with latest AMD chipsets, but CX23885-15Z is fine on those same motherboard, as well SAA716x is fine. ASRock are part of Asus and if their motherboards are fine, all Asus motherboard should be fine too.
Gigabyte was the first company when the old BIOS bug appeared, we sent samples and they are all fine since then. More or less that are all major manufacturers, as well all motherboard manufacturers use the same BIOS cores.
In fact, all PCIe interfaces we use are PCI-SIG certified, which is a fact that can be checked here:
http://www.pcisig.com/developers/compliance_program/integrators_list/pcie/
Before reporting any compatibility issue, it is very important to check if the BIOS of the motherboard you are using are up-to-date, since we have a bunch of cases where the problem was easily solved just by updating the BIOS.
PCIe specification requires mandatory backward compatibility, which means any PCIe slot v2.x or v3.x needs to support PCIe v1.x, which actually makes TBS cards the most compatible since they work in any PCIe slot.
If you are experience such issues, please do let us know, we will be glad to help and it’ll be much appreciated that you share the experience with other users here when the problem is sorted out
Thank you for your attention!