Magma ExpressBox2 EB2 User Manual Download

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PCIe Expansion System
User's Manual

ExpressBox

PCI Express® to PCI Express® Expansion

Model: EB2

Model: EB2R

Summary of Contents for ExpressBox2 EB2

Page 1: ...PCIe Expansion System User s Manual ExpressBox2 PCI Express to PCI Express Expansion Model EB2 Model EB2R...

Page 2: ...lectro magnetic mechanical optical or otherwise in whole or in part without prior written consent from Magma Limitation of Liability Information presented by Magma in this guide is believed to be accu...

Page 3: ...rting Up 11 Software Installation Optional for ExpressCard 12 Shutting Down 15 Rack Installations for the EB2R model 15 Add Screws to Rack Post 15 Attach Slide Rail to Rack 16 Attach Chassis to Slide...

Page 4: ...CHAPTER 6 HOW TO GET MORE HELP 51 Frequently Asked Questions FAQ 51 Contacting Technical Support 51 Magma Debug Utility 52 PCIScope Software Utility 53 Returning Merchandise to MAGMA 55 APPENDIX A NEE...

Page 5: ...mportant piece of information or special tip to help you CAUTION Used to indicate and prevent the following procedure or step from causing damage to the equipment WARNING Used to indicate and prevent...

Page 6: ...ts Refer to the installation instructions in this manual for precautions and procedures If you have any questions please contact Magma Technical Support WARNING High voltages are present inside the ex...

Page 7: ...ischarge Electrostatic Discharge ESD Warning Electrostatic Discharge ESD is the enemy of semiconductor devices You should always take precautions to eliminate any electrostatic charge from your body a...

Page 8: ...Flow Installation of the equipment in a rack should be such that the amount of air flow required for safe operation of the equipment is not compromised Mechanical Loading Mounting of the equipment in...

Page 9: ...o 4 or more by chaining chases Enclosure 1U Rack mount Dimensions 14 26 W x 1 735 H x 16 41 D Weight 5 2lbs or 2 40 kg Standard Cable Length 3 meter iPass cable PCI Express Bus Specification Revision...

Page 10: ...anual PartsList The following parts are provided in the EB2 model The EB2R model includes a rack installation kit as well Item Qty Item 1 EB2 Magma expansion chassis 1 3 meter shielded iPass cable 1 L...

Page 11: ...wer on off switch does not remove power to components High voltage is still present CAUTION Before touching anything inside the enclosure move to an ESD station and follow proper ESD procedures Failur...

Page 12: ...rd is a half height x8 capable PCIe card mounted to a full height bracket as shown below For low profile case applications you may need to change the mounting bracket to the low profile bracket that s...

Page 13: ...aging the PCI Express host card if you insert it into a PCI slot Please ensure that your host computer has PCI Express slots and install the host card only into a PCI Express slot For more information...

Page 14: ...the host PC is x4 AttachPowerandExpansionCables Carefully position the expansion chassis so that the supplied expansion cable will conveniently reach from the host computer to the connectors on the ba...

Page 15: ...rge and noise suppression circuitry built into it Laptop Installation optional In addition to interfacing the EB2 expansion system to a PC you can now add additional PCI Express slots to your laptop b...

Page 16: ...f the chassis In spite of the standardized design of the TDP interface it is not impossible to connect the male and female connectors upside down In order to avoid that please note the proper and impr...

Page 17: ...slots NOTE If your laptop s ExpressCard slot is spring loaded be sure that your ExpressCard is inserted correctly It is very easy for this style slot to partially release a card if touched slightly F...

Page 18: ...not trip in time to fully protect a device that has been improperly connected or whose power cable has been damaged CAUTION This product is provided with a power supply that automatically adjusts to...

Page 19: ...tus Verify that the green power indicator is ON after pressing the button Windows Start Up As your Windows computer starts up you will see a small message box pop up in the lower right corner of the s...

Page 20: ...Windows XP manual to learn how to set a new Restore Point You should ensure that all data files are closed and that you have a current backup STOP Before installing drivers you should ensure that you...

Page 21: ...to close WinZip 6 Go to the C ExpressBox folder and double click on the Setup exe file to start the driver installation 7 Follow instructions on the screen during the installation 8 Reboot your comput...

Page 22: ...e click Yes to continue If you do not agree click No to exit Rather than restarting your computer it is recommended that you click No I will restart my computer later and then click Finish You will be...

Page 23: ...as shown below Measure the rack from front to back so you can confirm how long the rail must be to fit properly Next assemble the Slide piece with the end bracket as shown and secure with 2 Panhead sc...

Page 24: ...unting kit be installed on one side of the chassis in order for the chassis to fit widthwise in a standard rack The extender brackets should be attached in between the Bar Nut and the Panhead screws a...

Page 25: ...the half of the rack slide you just mounted to the rack you must first fold the hinged mounting brackets to a forward position as shown Rack slide Next insert the chassis into the rack slide and press...

Page 26: ...vice Manager in the leftmost Computer Management window Finally click on the View Menu and select View Devices by Connection Open ACPI BIOS Open PCI Bus Click the sign several times until your reach a...

Page 27: ...are needed The operating system should automatically recognize the Magma host card and expansion chassis Expansion Slot Utility The following screen may be displayed the first time you turn on your co...

Page 28: ...a PCI Express profile you can locate this utility under System Library CoreServices Expansion Slot Utility app AppleSystemProfiler When using Mac OS X no additional software or drivers are needed As...

Page 29: ...5 x If any of these devices are not displayed as shown above you should shut down your system computer first then the expansion chassis and reconnect the cables and the PCIe expansion host card to ens...

Page 30: ...I bridge Intel Corporation 82945G GZ P PL PCI Express Root Port rev 02 00 1b 0 Audio device Intel Corporation 82801G ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller rev 01 00 1c 0 PCI bridge Intel Corpor...

Page 31: ...PCI bridge Integrated Device Technology Inc Unknown device 802f rev 0d 02 02 0 PCI bridge Integrated Device Technology Inc Unknown device 802f rev 0d 02 03 0 PCI bridge Integrated Device Technology I...

Page 32: ...ollow the manufacturer s instructions for installing their card or hard drive on a desktop computer IMPORTANT We will provide reasonable technical support with 3 rd Party PCIe cards or hard drives How...

Page 33: ...n Usually that is determined by accessibility and heat dissipation considerations as may be specified by the card manufacturer Install the PCIe peripheral cards following the card manufacturer s recom...

Page 34: ...guard to pivot hole as shown and remove it Next rotate the slot guard 180 and reinsert it Finally adjust the card slot guard to fit the card s length IMPORTANT The sheer number of PCIe cards and devi...

Page 35: ...into the lower PCIe slot and be sure to connect the appropriate auxiliary power connector to the card as follows IMPORTANT Double wide video cards require proper air circulation in order to remain co...

Page 36: ...brackets on which they will be installed A pair of brackets should be preinstalled in the chassis while a second pair should be provided separately from the chassis as shown below Once identified mou...

Page 37: ...zone 2 below Zone 1 2 5 3 5 drive Unrestricted Zone 2 2 5 3 5 drive PCIe card Length limit Use these holes to mount a 3 5 drive instead of the 2 5 shown Both zones feature six holes in the base of th...

Page 38: ...ards contains a exclamation mark you have a problem with that card Refer to Chapter 5 Troubleshooting for further guidance FinishingTouches Once your system is working properly replace the host comput...

Page 39: ...rs on the new card in coordination with the PC s operating system By default the EB2 ships with this feature turned on IMPORTANT There are cases in which you would wish to turn off this feature especi...

Page 40: ...rocedure for hot un plugging a PCIe plug in card 1 Given a stable Windows based system booted with the Magma chassis an applet on the right hand side of the start menu bar should appear depicting a ca...

Page 41: ...up will appear telling the user that the device may be removed safely and the device will be removed from the list of the original dialog Press the Attention button that corresponds to the slot where...

Page 42: ...that has a different function or purpose may cause the system to crash due to a mismatch in the resources pre allocated by the operating system 9 The LED should start flashing again If power should no...

Page 43: ...e edited and recorded digitally for a better final result By combining the power of PCIe expansion through an EB2 system with multiple such PCIe cards the same PC can record substantially more tracks...

Page 44: ...s cost physical space heat dissipation etc A question then arises as to how good of a performance we can get by utilizing the expanded PCIe bus and high end video card In order to obtain a definitive...

Page 45: ...dia GeFORCE 7600GS 861 768 NVidia Quadro FX1500 1048 979 NVidia GeFORCE 7900GS 1582 1528 ATI 1900XT 2286 2504 NVidia Quadro FX5600 3678 3412 NVidia 8800 Ultra 3774 3843 The comparison table shows perf...

Page 46: ...idth But what if this impressive performance is still not enough to satisfy a bandwidth hungry application such as a multi dimensional database or a high definition real time video streaming broadcast...

Page 47: ...meter application one can benchmark the communication channel and verify that the PCIe express link is utilized to its fullest potential In the example below a single ATTO FC 44ES card was installed i...

Page 48: ...t Find the PCIe Expansion System When Nothing Works My PCIe Card Doesn t Work The System Fans Don t Appear To Spin Fast Enough The Magma PCIe Expansion System is correctly displayed as a PCI standard...

Page 49: ...onnection All LINK LEDs should be ON if both PCIe slots are populated and both an uplink and a downlink iPass cable are connected properly In the example shown below we see all but the DNLIK LEDs are...

Page 50: ...t has a problem that must be fixed To identify this problem right click on the line with the and select Properties from the pop up menu Resolve the identified problem or go to Chapter 6 to get additio...

Page 51: ...expansion system and that you have correctly installed your 3 rd Party PCIe card s and their associated drivers as required If it powers up OK but nothing works check the computer s Device Manager or...

Page 52: ...PCIe cards from the Magma chassis and it still hangs try the following a Remove the Magma PCIe expansion host card from the computer and try booting up without the Magma expansion system attached i If...

Page 53: ...PCIe Card Doesn t Work The following flowchart describes a general approach to resolve PCIe card issues The following additional steps might also help when the above troubleshooting steps fail to reso...

Page 54: ...the computer Windows 5 Next open the Device Manager View by Connection selection If the is gone the problem is with the 3 rd Party PCIe card or the card drivers You should go to the Windows Error Code...

Page 55: ...support IMPORTANT The Magma PCIe Expansion System is designed to function exactly like your desktop computer This means that you should follow the card maker s instructions for installation on a Windo...

Page 56: ...or the PCIe card is not installed on your system Reinstall the card driver following the manufacturer s instructions If that fails to fix the problem call the card manufacturer for new drivers 1 The P...

Page 57: ...d both for acoustic and increased reliability reasons In other words those fans can adjust their rotation speed based on the user s preference as well as the amount of heat dissipated by the component...

Page 58: ...rolled automatically By switching them ON the user can effectively bypass this circuitry and set the fans rotation speed to maximum This setting is particularly recommended if one plans on using doubl...

Page 59: ...uter Model 10 Operating System and Version 11 Make Model of PCI cards in expansion chassis 12 Detailed description of the problem You can also visit our web site at www magma com support For a quick r...

Page 60: ...ed dbgview exe on the Magma CDROM 2 Double click on the file dbgview exe 3 While the dbgview screen is open locate and double click on a file called dump exe on the Magma CDROM 4 Switch back to the db...

Page 61: ...inexpensive license from APSoft for use beyond the evaluation period PCIScope has proven to be extremely useful when verifying and debugging configurations involving the Magma PCI Expansion Systems un...

Page 62: ...s data as a file on your computer Please include your name and date as part of the file name with an extension of bpd This file should be included as an attachment when submitting a Technical Support...

Page 63: ...rom the original shipment of your Magma product However if you return a product to Magma for warranty repair replacement or take advantage of the 30 day money back guarantee you will need to package t...

Page 64: ...ation the BIOS looks beyond the Host card to find any PCIe cards installed in the expansion chassis behind a PCIe switch The PCIe switch in turn emulates logical PRBs The BIOS can then configure the c...

Page 65: ...nested PCI bus to determine the maximum number of bridge levels that must be traveled Exceeding this number may cause software configuration conflicts even though hardware wise the PCIe system is pro...

Page 66: ...ation you have fewer Toll Booths to pass through therefore the latency is shorter however you ve sacrificed another PCIe slot from the host computer which may not always be an option For clarification...

Page 67: ...allation for guidance in verifying the proper installation of your Expansion System For example the following image shows the division within the Windows Device Manager display between two Expansion S...

Page 68: ...d to the end of the PCIe expansion hierarchy which adds depth to the Local Bus by increasing the number of the logical PCI levels active in the system configuration Verify your configuration Before yo...

Page 69: ...ystem in multiple configurations such as these These combinations are only limited by the availability of PCIe slots both in the host and in subsequent chasses Obviously you will need to keep an eye o...

Page 70: ...erse also remains true for shutting your system down The computer must be shut off BEFORE you attempt to turn off your Expansion System s TroubleshootingAdvancedConfigurations When trying to troublesh...

Page 71: ...M A G M A 63...

Page 72: ...in the Location field Look for the Error Code in the box in the center of the Properties Window and then go to the Windows Error Code section for information on how to resolve this issue MAC and Linu...

Page 73: ...tion is subject to the following two conditions 1 this device may not cause harmful interference and 2 this device must accept any interference received including interference that may cause undesired...

Page 74: ...66 Magma 9918 Via Pasar San Diego CA 92126 USA Phone 858 530 2511 Fax 858 530 2733 www magma com Manual P N 09 09947 01 A...

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