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[![Wifi Card with one questionably broken pin][1]][1] I just installed a TP-Link Archer TX3000E AX3000 PCIe Wifi Card in my PC. However, my PC doesn't recognize that the card is installed. Not that it can't connect to wifi, but that the card doesn't exist. lspci does not list it. What's the best way to troubleshoot this? How do I get the wifi card to appear, so I can try connecting to Wifi to see if it works?

I'm running Ubuntu 20.04 with kernel version 5.11 with an MSI B550 Tomahawk motherboard.

According to some other posts, it should work out of the box as long as I'm on kernel version 5.1 or above (I'm on 5.11).

According to the motherboard manual, "When installing devices in M.2_2, PCI_E2 & PCI_E3 slots at the same time, PCI_E3 slot will be unavailable, and M2_2 slot only supports PCIe x2". I have a device in the second M.2 slot, but I've tried all my PCIe slots and none of them work (except for the first, which has a graphics card).

Edit: After updating my BIOS, I reseated the card. After I did that, I noticed one of the pins (chips? whatever you call the vertical yellow lines that go into the PCIe slot) was scratched or otherwise wrong. See the image below. The 5th "pin" is gray instead of yellow, as if its damaged. One of the other pins is also gray on the other side. Perhaps this card is just damaged. [1]: https://i.sstatic.net/pehDU.jpg

Cooper Knaak
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  • I was unable to find the PCI-ID for your device. The vendor ID for TP-Link seems to be 2357, but other websites don't confirm it, and this website hasn't listed the mentioned device. – zx485 Nov 29 '21 at 23:46
  • @zx485 thank you for looking that up. What is the implication of that? Should I expect to see 2357 in my lspci output if my PC recognizes the card? – Cooper Knaak Nov 30 '21 at 00:08
  • Yes, 3257 is most likely, but I found other Vendor IDs for TP-Link. But as written, no definite ones. lspci should give you the VendorID:DeviceID. Maybe you can post it here. – zx485 Nov 30 '21 at 01:27
  • Er, that's part of the problem. lspci is not displaying my Wi-Fi card. My PC does not seem to recognize it even exists. – Cooper Knaak Nov 30 '21 at 01:51
  • Try using hwinfo. – sancho.s ReinstateMonicaCellio Nov 30 '21 at 02:54
  • Sorry I missed that info. But if it's not listed, the system doesn't even know it's there. Making it likely that there is some hardware problem, because even unsupported devices should be listed - at least, without a name. – zx485 Nov 30 '21 at 19:06
  • @sancho.sReinstateMonicaCellio what info am I looking for in hwinfo? The vendor ID? – Cooper Knaak Dec 01 '21 at 05:39
  • To begin with, check if the card is listed, and if so, post all related info. – sancho.s ReinstateMonicaCellio Dec 01 '21 at 05:42
  • Sorry for the delay, I was trying to dual boot Windows so I could see if the issue occurred on a different OS. TL;DR: hwinfo doesn't seem to list the card. I finally booted into Windows, and device manager seemed to recognize that something was in the fourth PCIe slot, but not what it was. Device Manager didn't list anything under Network Devices, but it listed "PCI Device" under "Other Devices". However, I tried installing the drivers from TP-Link and restarting, and nothing changed. Ubuntu doesn't recognize the card's existence, and Windows recognizes something exists but not anything else – Cooper Knaak Dec 03 '21 at 03:54

1 Answers1

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The AX3000 must be in a PCIe x1 slot.

Update #1:

It looks like some of the gold connections on the PCIe connector of the AX3000 are burned. Hardware problem now.

enter image description here

heynnema
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  • I currently have it in the bottom PCIe slot, which is a x1 slot. I briefly tried it in the second PCIe slot (also x1, but it doesn't fit safely with the graphics card, so I only tried it long enough to test). In both cases, lspci stlil doesn't output anything. – Cooper Knaak Dec 01 '21 at 05:38
  • @CooperKnaak re: "I've tried all my PCIe slots and none of them work (except for the first, which has a graphics card)"... so it works in the graphics card slot? Show me sudo dmidecode -s bios-version. – heynnema Dec 01 '21 at 15:36
  • sudo dmidecode -s bios-version returned A.50. Whoops, sorry, I meant I tried it in all slots but the top slot. I didn't try it in the top slot because I don't have integrated graphics, so I have no way to boot the OS without the graphics card installed (I tried the graphics card in the third slot, but it didn't work and it was beyond my ken to debug). – Cooper Knaak Dec 03 '21 at 03:50
  • @CooperKnaak The MSI website is a little unclear about the BIOS versions. You have A.50, but their naming is different. Check out https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/MAG-B550-TOMAHAWK/support#down-bios – heynnema Dec 03 '21 at 04:27
  • Looks like the BIOS versions on MSI's website go up by 10 for each version. Hence, I had 7C91vA5 (A5 == A.50). I updated to 7C91vA7 (A.70), but it still isn't recognizing the card. Per the comments in the above answer, perhaps this is a hardware problem. – Cooper Knaak Dec 04 '21 at 03:32
  • @CooperKnaak Check if your BIOS can change slot characteristics like speed/etc. Make sure nothing is overclocked, including memory. Take the cover off of the card, remove the screw from the modem/bluetooth card, re-seat the card, retest. Others are also having similar problems with the AX3000. – heynnema Dec 04 '21 at 03:39
  • Tried modifying the BIOS and reseating, didn't work. But when I did, I noticed one of the pins (chips? whatever you call them) was wrong. See the image I added to the post. Might be a defective card. – Cooper Knaak Dec 04 '21 at 20:28
  • @CooperKnaak In your picture, the missing PCIe slot connector looks like it's burned, like somebody inserted the card into a wrong slot in their computer. Good luck. Please keep me posted. – heynnema Dec 04 '21 at 21:04
  • @CooperKnaak Status please... – heynnema Dec 14 '21 at 03:07
  • @CooperKnaak Status please... – heynnema Dec 17 '21 at 16:40
  • Terribly sorry for the delay. I couldn't get it to work no matter what I tried and had to return it. Haven't gotten a new card to test with. – Cooper Knaak Feb 12 '22 at 19:23
  • @CooperKnaak Thanks for the update. – heynnema Feb 12 '22 at 19:37
  • I have the same issue except that the gold contacts are pristine, no sign of damage. Have tried two PCIe x1 slots. The USB Bluetooth shows-up, but not the WiFi device. – Coder Guy Mar 18 '23 at 01:37