Powering On the MXI-Express Gen 2 x8 System

Typical PCI Express switches are used to add PCI devices to a PCI hierarchy in which all the bridges and devices are contained within a single chassis. Because of this, BIOSes and operating systems assume that all PCI devices in the entire hierarchy will be available as soon as code execution begins at power-up time. Therefore, you must turn on all of the expansion chassis before turning on the host PC for the BIOS and OS to correctly configure a MXI-Express Gen 2 x8 system.
  1. Power on all of the expansion chassis in any order you choose.
    Note There are no requirements for how expansion chassis are powered up relative to each other, as long as they are all on before the computer is powered on.
  2. Power on the host PC.
    Connected chassis that are controlled by a PXIe-8381 will automatically power on. The PXIe-8381 has a built-in feature that powers on/off the chassis that it is controlling when the host system is powered on/off. This feature can be avoided by manually powering on the downstream chassis prior to the host system.
  3. Check the LED status on the PXIe-8384 and PXI Express board(s).
    properly connected and powered up system should report a valid link and power status on all of these boards once the host PC is powered on. Refer to the PXIe-8384 LED Indicators page linked below for more information.