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BIOS issue affecting operation of certain DekTec PCIe cards Due to an issue in Intel's BIOS reference code for their C602J, C610, C612 and X99 chipsets, some DekTec PCIe cards are recognized but cannot stream any data.
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Affected DekTec Products
- DTA-2135 DVB-T receiver for PCIe
- DTA-2136 Dual QAM receiver for PCIe
- DTA-2137(C) DVB-S2 receiver for PCIe
- DTA-2145 ASI/SDI I/O for PCIe
These DekTec cards contain a PLX PEX811x PCIe-to-PCI bridge chip that is not properly initialized by some BIOS versions.
Known Affected Systems
| System | Fix? |
| HP ProLiant Gen9 | BIOS v1.40 Bug is re-introduced in BIOS v1.50 and later |
| HP Z440, Z640, Z840 | Aug/Sept 2015 |
| Supermicro servers | BIOS versions released in 2015 |
| Supermicro X10 series |
If a BIOS fix is available, upgrade the BIOS on your system and DekTec cards will operate normally again.
It is likely that other systems with Intel C610, C612 or X99 chipset will be affected, too.
Please let us know if you encounter any other having the described issue with DekTec cards.
Problem Description
Due to an issue in Intel's BIOS reference code for their C602J, C610, C612 and X99 (formerly Wellsburg) chipsets, servers and workstations from several vendors may have severe issues running some DekTec cards (see left column).
The PC system will boot normally and the DekTec card will be detected by the DekTec driver and DtInfo application. DekTec applications will also start normally. However, when trying to play out or record a stream, nothing happens: The card does not generate or capture data and the application does not report any progress.
Problem Resolution
As this issue is caused by the system BIOS, it has to be fixed by the system vendor (new BIOS version).
It is not possible to resolve the issue via a firmware upgrade for the DekTec card.
The system vendors have been informed of this issue and they are either working on a solution of have already fixed it in the form of a BIOS update. In the table on the left side we maintain a list of known affected systems and whether a BIOS version fixing the issue is available.
Detailed Analysis
The issue occurs when the BIOS is configuring the Platform Controller Hub (PCH) based on the device capabilities. The affected cards are based on a PLX PEX811x PCIe-to-PCI bridge, which reports a set of capabilities and settings from its PCI Configuration Space to the BIOS.
However, it seems that the BIOS does not correctly interpret these values, as it first tries to write to an incorrect PCIe configuration register address and thereafter sets the maximum payload size in the PCH incorrectly.
The first fault causes the bridge to disable its PCI side, while the second fault causes the bridge to report fatal (non-resolvable) errors and to corrupt the data during transfer. The fact that this is caused by a bug in the BIOS has been confirmed by several sources.
Please feel free to contact DekTec in case you have any questions regarding this issue.
