Mini pcie card to ethernet not working boot loop

multi-tasking_guy

Limp Gawd
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Jun 16, 2017
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I wanted to add a second Ethernet port of my computer so i bought a mini pcie card to ethernet

I installed it, and when i boot the computer I see the post message then it goes black and boots up again and i see the post message, it just keeps doing that, a boot loop

if i take out the card, it boots fine to the OS, i looked in the bios and enabled the card, but it still does the boot loop, if i disable the card in the bios it boots to the OS, but then i cant use the second port, as it's disabled

if i enable the card in the bios, and plug a ethernet wire, the lights on the card work, but it boot loops so i cant even get into the OS,

So, it doesn't work, i dont know why, anyone have any ideas?

It's a HP T520 Flexible Thin Client, I looked in the specs of the thin client and it says:

mini.png

t520.jpeg





Pictures of BIOS:
PIC1.png PIC2.png PIC3.png PIC4.png PIC5.png







miniPrice.png

In the specs it says:

Features
Support existing CAT-5 UTP cabling with automatic crossover detection
Fully compliant with PCI-Express Base Specification Revision 1.1
Single-Lane (x1) PCI-Express with throughput up to 2.5Gbps
Compatible with PCI-E Mini Card Electromechanical specification revision 1.2
Compatible with Half size Mini card type form factor
Fully Plug and Play compatible
A high performance 1000BASE-T Ethernet controller card
Backwards compatible to 10/100BASE-T networking
10/100/1000Mbps data rate auto negotiation operation
Compatible to existing CAT-5 UTP cabling
Fully compliant with IEEE 802.3, 802.3u, 802.3ab
Supports full duplex flow control (IEEE 802.3x)
Supports IEEE 802.1P Layer 2 Priority Encoding
Supports IEEE 802.1Q VLAN tagging
Supports jumbo frame to 9K bytes
Crossover Detection and Auto Correction operation

System Requirements
Windows ME,98SE, 2000, XP, Vista, 7 and 8 32-/64-bit
Windows Server 2003, 2008 and 2012 32 -/64-bit
Linux, DOS MAC OS X 10.4.X or above

Package Contents
Gigabit Ethernet Mini PCI-Express Card - Main card x1
Gigabit Ethernet Mini PCI-Express Card - Daughter card x1
User manual x1
Driver CD x1
10-pin network cable x1
4-pin LED cable x1
 
I'm guessing HP has that slot locked down to specific wireless cards. What OS is it running?
 
I have a couple of them, so i tried them both on linux mint and windows 7, but i cant get past the post message on both
 
Is there specifc HP mini-pcie etherner cards for HP only? I can't seem to find any info online

Im going to try the card in a non-HP desktop i hace lying around to verify that it's not the cards itself. But i have 4 of them and all 4 of them do that

So it's HP the problem?
 
Last edited:
Is there specifc HP mini-pcie etherner cards for HP only? I can't seem to find any info online

Im going to try the card in a non-HP desktop i hace lying around to verify that it's not the cards itself. But i have 4 of them and all 4 of them do that

So it's HP the problem?
yes its an hp problem. they most likely have the slot locked to their optional wifi cards. i would contact them directly to see if it even supports anything other than their wifi cards.
 
Is that an lp4 power connector? Is it connected to power?

I suspect it won't work anyway, because HP, but it may be boot looping because insuficient power.
 
I never got it working.

Like the guy above said. I was reading online that it was an HP problem. Someone mentioned another brand might work with a special kind of intel chip or realtek chip

I ended up ordering a different chip type to see if it working but expecting it not to work. Ill post update when the card arrives

There is no power to it. Just whatever it plugs into the board.

I will try the card on an old desktop i have lying around to confirm its not the card thats broken
 
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I received my new half mini pcie to ethernet card. I installed it and it works! Good news.

I can't remember why i picked the one i did as i ordered it a long time ago and i did my research a long time ago.

But from what i can remember i think i bought it because it has a RTL8111H and i remember reading somewhere that HP would only work with a certain chipset.

The one that i bought first which didn't work has in the description it says Realtek 8111 chip and it also says IO-mPCE8111-GLAN and in the picture and on the physical chip it says RTL8111F

8111.png


Since that one didnt work. I ended up buying a new card below. This time with a Realtek 8111H in the description


8111H.png

8111H-2.png

8111H-3.png




It took 2 months to arrive and by the time it arrived the seller was not selling this card anymore. As i wanted to buy 5 more cards since I have 5 more HP T520

I found almost the exact match that i bought but its missing the writing on the silver chip

silver writing.png

As you can see below that chip has no writing on it. The one i bought does. It seems like it's a exact copy or no name. Im not sure if that one would work and I dont want to try it. I found the ones with the silver writing but they are more expensive. Mine says AZ chip N-1010G-a 16 01



I did face 1 problem. When i used the card as "LAN" it only gave me 100Mbps. I dont know why. I did a speed test and it wouldn't go above 100

interface-new-wan.png





I did a switch and put the card on the WAN and then both my speed were 1000 and i did a speed test and it gave me the speed i pay for. So it works! As long as you use the card as a WAN interface

final.png



So in final this card with the chipset Realtek 8111H works for me! Which is great news as i wanted to put these old mini desktop to good use as routers using pfsense.


Hope this helps others. Maybe someone can tell me which this card works.

The bad part is waiting for the cards to ship. I purchased them on aliexpress and it takes 2 months as the ship is from China
 
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