PCIe card not appearing when in slot #2 on a certain brand of Dell machines

[shimi]

2012/1/24 Shachar Shemesh <shachar at shemesh.biz>

>  I know, the subject is strange, but the truth is that the actual problem
> is also strange.
>
> At work, we have a batch of Dell machines. We also, regularly, use a
> certain type of PCI-express x1 card for video capture and playback.
> Strangely, on those machines, if we insert the card into slot 2 of the
> machine, the card is not visible to the kernel. It does not appear on
> lspci, and obviously, the driver is not loaded and does not work. Moving
> the card to a different slot resolves all of the above problems. The
> machine's BIOS has an option to enumerate all cards, and does see the card
> without a problem.
>
> The problem happens with Fedora Core 15, and happened on at least three
> different machines, so we can rule out a machine failure.
>
> I am at a loss as to how to even begin to debug this problem.
>
>

Before debugging it, try verifying it's not a known "HW" bug. Upgrade the
BIOS to the latest stable.

-- Shimi
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