PCIe x4 nic makes half of the RAM go away

[mrdrthom]

identical situation as previous poster titled "HP ProDesk 400 G4 SFF PCIe Issue with Memory"

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Hardware-and-Upgrade-Questions/HP-ProDesk-400-G4-SFF-PCIe-Issu...

I am trying to use an Intel i350-T4 (4 port nic)

any help would be appreciated

[BeemerBiker]

Strange - There are reports of fake or counterfeit i350-T4 cards all over the net!

https://www.bing.com/search?q=counterfeit+i350-T4+&form=ANNNB1&refig=a93072c893714cee9060e2cd4443cc0...

There is even a web site over at intel to determine if the card is a counterfeit

 https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000007074/ethernet-products/gigabit-etherne...

Lots of pages on how to tell if youjr i350-T4 is fake or not

https://www.bing.com/search?q=determine+fake+intel+cards&form=ANNNB1&refig=f1b2bf5ac1684a7589affddc9...

This NIC must really be popular.  I once bought a fake GTX 1050Ti but that was when miners had bought out most graphics cards

This memory problem seems to have been around for a while and one "fix" was to tape off two of the contacts on the board as discussed here

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-PCs-Workstations-and-Point-of-Sale-Systems/Anyone-have-Intel-...

[mrdrthom]

thank you.  the link you provided was very helpful.  further details:

(1) this is not a counterfeit card.

(2) i did verify there is no problem with a different PCIex4 card (an nvme adapter), i.e consistent with issue as described.

(3) if there is a firmware update solution I couldn't find it (anyone know otherwise?)

(4) i will try polyimide (kapton) tape on the two smBus pins and report back.

thanks again for the helpful post

[mrdrthom · Accepted solution]

the fix suggested by BeemerBiker did the trick. 

I used 1/4" thick polyimide (kapton) tape.  layed a line on a slick material (i used the inside of a Ricola cough drop bag) and cut off pieces with scissors.  selecting one of the desired width (approx 1/16") and using tweezers and an xacto  knife i was able to remove the 1/16" x 1/4" piece of tape and transfer it to the appropriate place on the pcie connector.