Decklink SDI Cards on HP Server Platforms

Hi there folks,

I'm wondering if anyone has had any 'challenges' in getting DeckLink SDI cards up and running on HP Servers? I'm currently experiencing some card recognition problems on a bunch of the same type of HP server (DL 180 G8).

I have two servers in our test lab at the moment that are imaged identically on Server 2008. I've got all the latest HP firmware updates and Support Packs installed but I'm only seeing my BM card registering on one of those two servers.

When I swap the BM cards between servers, the fault doesn't appear to follow the card. The one server never picks up the fact it's got new hardware installed, and doesn't see it under Device Manager.

I originally thought it might have been a bad PCIe Riser Card which has 3 slots but, I've also added a NIC card which is picked up perfectly by the operating system across both of these servers. I've tried all 3 slots to see if that made any difference, but no joy.

I'm starting to think there is some power issue at play or some fault tolerance conflicts with the motherboard of the server. I did have a fiddle with the PCI e Gen 1 and Gen 2 settings within the BIOS of the servers but that doesn't appear to have any impact here.

I also had an engineer from HP with me all day yesterday who left the building quite bewildered with the issues we saw.

I'd be most grateful to anyone who might have had similar experiences across HP server platforms for a little insight.

Many thanks in advance - Bernie

[Joshua Helling]

If you say that the problem follows the Decklink card it could be an issue with the card.

We don't test those particular servers (we do test the z series machines). But if the problem is folowing the decklink card, meaning that one card works in both system and one card works in neither, I'd suspect the card itself.