Inspiron 660, Windows 8 and PCIe card

Just curious, what is your tuner card? I've a Hauppage 1250 that is having the same problem. Works fine in my old inspiron 530 (still does), but my new 660 doesn't know it's there. Working through support, but they don't have any ideas so far.

Mine was a Hauppage 1800.  Dell technical support is ridicuous and it took me countless hours (days really...) and a lot of frustation to finally get to the bottom.  Apparently there s a compatibility problem with these older model PCIe cards that were made with a 1st generation chipset.  The slots on this board can only handle cards using a 2nd generation chipset.  Hauppage customer service seemed to back this up. 

I don’t know if there is any way to correct this problem with a BIOS update.

I hope I have saved you hours and hours with a bunch of Dell tech support people that don’t have a clue.  You’d think they would disseminate this information a little better….

Thanks for the reply, though I was hoping for a little happier news. :(  But I *definitely* appreciate the time-savings all the same!

In your discussions with Hauppage, did they give any hope for this working in other PC's, Dell or otherwise? I hate going through the trouble of returning my Dell just to get another incompatible PC, but I hate having to buy a second tuner when this one still works perfectly well.

I know you said you have the most up 2 date bios but flash them anyway with the card in it. trust when I you could have a bad bios install. Shhh. It happens.

I have exactly the same problem!

I was using an HP desktop previously, with a PCIe SATA raid card and external hard drives.

When I upgraded to Dell Inspiron 660, the PCIe SATA card is not detected at all.

BIOS boot message from SATA card does not show, and no detection in Device Manager.

The PCIe SATA card uses the Sil-3132 chipset, same as yours.

I tried this PCIe SATA card in several other PC's, and it is detected in all!

So Dell seems to have a big bug in their desktop BIOS in detecting PCIe add-in cards.

These PCIe SATA add-in cards are still widely sold on Amazon and Newegg, so there must be a lot of them out there.

I hope Dell fixes this in their next BIOS update.

Anyone know what is the best way to report this to Dell in hopes it will get fixed?

To me, this is a very serious problem that Dell seems to have with their Inspiron 660.  I too have a PCIe card that fails to be detected by this system.  The card is an Asus My Cinema-PE9400Combo tv tuner.  Oddly enough it works perfectly in an older Dell that I have (Studio 540s)!  Are any PCIe cards being detected in any of the PCIe 1x slots?

Here's another example of the same issue:  en.community.dell.com/.../20292545.aspx

Looks like it is not just affecting SATA cards and tv tuner cards, but also sound cards as well.

It seems that all the PCIe 1x slots are disabled.

After recently receiving my Inspirion 660, I was extremely disappointed when I tried to install my PCIe tv tuner card and found that it was NOT detected by the system.  My card is an Asus My Cinema-PE9400Combo tv tuner.  Many others in this forum have indicated that they are also finding that their Insprion 660 will NOT detect other PCIe x1 add-in cards such as PCIe SATA II, Hauppauge tv tuners, sound cards, etc.  Issue:  The PCIe x1 card is plugged into the motherboard, but is not detected.  This is happening regardless if it is Windows 7 or Windows 8, so it is not an operating system issue.  In either case, the Device Manger does not show the add-in card, not even the yellow warning triangle.

Searching through the forums I found this exact SAME PROBLEM was being encountered by XPS 8500 owners.  The GOOD NEWS for them is that Dell released a new BIOS update for the XPS 8500 and their PCIe issues are now resolved.  Please refer to the following thread:  http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/desktop/f/3514/t/19449717.aspx?PageIndex=16

Under the "Fixes and Enhancements" for the updated XPS 8500 A09 BIOS, you can clearly see that line item "5." is a PCIe FIX!
1. Fix that BIOS will show no boot device when booting into Windows 8 without keyboard attached.
2. Update ePSA to 4220.10.                             
3. Fix M117N graphics card can't enable secure boot and UEFI boot menu show half logo in screen.
4. Fix RTC wakeup function will fail after AC lose.
5. Fix Some PCIE1X cards can't be detected
6. Update IvyBridge UEFI video BIOS to 3.0.14.1015.
7. Update SandyBridge UEFI video BIOS to 2.0.35.1018.

By the way, the VOSTRO 470 also HAD the same problem since it shares the same BIOS as the XPS 8500.

Also, the Inspiron 660 issue also affects the Vostro 270 because they share BIOS’s!

Dell needs to provide a BIOS update for the Inspiron 660 so we too can get our PCIe x1 cards working!
The funny thing is that my PCIe tv tuner card works perfectly in an older Dell Studio 540s!  I did not expect to have this problem with a newer Dell system!

Dell-Chris M:  Can you please escalate this problem to the Engineering team as you did for the XPS 8500?  This is a known issue from Intel / Dell.  I do not want to return this system back to Dell!

Thank you!

We are not seeing any reports of this issue in the call centers. You six on our Forum is the only case we can find. The only PCIe x1 card we validated on the Inspiron 660 desktop was the - P380K PCI-e Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio.

That's interesting Chris...because I talked to SEVERAL people there in technical support for what seems like 2 days solid...about the problems I was having with a card in the PCIe slots. 

I just checked Dell website, and Dell also sells this card.

accessories.us.dell.com/.../productdetail.aspx

It is Dell part # A1497032

So it seems Dell does sell this card, but I bet it will not work in their Inspiron 660.

Thanks for the offer Chris, but I don't think confirming the Creative PCIe sound card works would help me.

I suspect it is a BIOS incompatibility issue between my eSATA RAID card and the motherboard.

Does Dell have eSATA cards like the following you can purchase on Amazon:

www.amazon.com/.../ref=sr_1_5

www.amazon.com/.../ref=sr_1_1

They all seem to be based on the same reference design, I imagine they are all identical.

Perhaps these cards have some weird behavior, but I do know they work on my old PC and other PC's I tried and are widely sold online (Amazon, Newegg, etc.).

These are very popular with people who have external RAID boxes, like myself and other posters.

Unfortunately, I cannot use it from my new Dell, still have to rely on my older HP desktop, until I hope a new BIOS from Dell comes out, than I can eWaste my old desktop.

I am having the exact same issue with a PCI-E x 1 SATA RAID adapter- thought I had purchased 2 defective adapters in a row, but obviously that isn't the case!

I have a Insprion 660 MT- and cannot access the bios on the raid controller PCI-E card when it is installed- the system (bios) doesn't see it the card, so it doesn't initialize.....

What Gives Dell- we need a BIOS revision ASAP!!!

Hi joshbwepc,

Do you know what chipset is on the PCIe SATA card you have problems with?

Is it the Silicon Image Sil-3132? That is what is on mine that does not work in Inspiron 660.

I sent the Dell PCIe x1 sound card (P380K PCI-e Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio) to jbt1964. He reported back that our Dell PCIe x1 sound card was recognized in all three PCIe x1 motherboard slots on his Inspiron 660. We released that card on 11/5/2008 and it is PCI-e version 1.0 compliant. So I have to wonder what version your non-working cards are?