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Using a Thunderbolt 4 PCIe Card Makes a Dell Precision Fixed Workstation Restart or Show an On-Screen Error

Summary: The following article provides information about how to resolve an instability issue after fitting a Thunderbolt 4 PCIe card to a Dell fixed workstation computer.

This article applies to This article does not apply to This article is not tied to any specific product. Not all product versions are identified in this article.

Symptoms

Computer unstable with Thunderbolt 4 PCIe add-in card added

 

Precision 5860 and 7960 Tower fixed workstation owners may experience their computer behaving in an unstable manner. (For Example: Automatic shutdown, automatic restart, restarting to an on-screen STOP error message, and so on.)

This is only seen under the following conditions:

  • You have a Thunderbolt 4 PCIe add-in card installed.
  • You attempt to hot plug an external thunderbolt 4 device to the computer using the ports on the add-in card.


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Cause

The Intel Xeon w3, w5, w7, and w9 (Sapphire Rapids - Workstation) CPU-based platforms do not support those PCIe slots associated with the CPU.

They only support the Thunderbolt 4 PCIe add-in card when it populates the PCIe slots associated with the Platform Controller Hub (PCH).

Resolution

Dell Thunderbolt 4 PCIe add-in cards must populate the PCH associated slots in the Precision 5860 and 7960 Tower motherboards to work correctly. (See Table.1 and Figure.1 and Figure.2 for the correct placement.)

Table.1: PCIe Slot Association
Slot Number Precision 5860 Tower Precision 7960 Tower
Slot One CPU CPU
Slot Two CPU PCH
Slot Three PCH PCH
Slot Four CPU CPU
Slot Five CPU N/A
Slot Six CPU N/A
Slot Seven CPU N/A
Slot Eight CPU N/A

 

Precision 5860 PCH associated slot placement on the motherboard

(Figure.1 Precision 5860 Slot Position)

Precision 7960 PCH associated slots placement on the motherboard

(Figure.2 Precision 7960 Slot Positions)

You can find step-by-step instructions on how to install or remove the PCIe add-in card in the teardown instructions in your computers manual:


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Affected Products

Precision 5860 Tower, Precision 7960 Tower
Article Properties
Article Number: 000211791
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 18 Apr 2023
Version:  1
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