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PCI-E 1x to M.2 WiFi Adapter -- USB / Bluetooth portion not working

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Ben333

Folding for Team 32!
Joined
Feb 18, 2007
Hey fellas, long time no see!! Hope all of you are doing well.

So maybe a couple of you will remember that I built my first new PC in 10 years about 4 years ago... Well, I don't have that anymore. And, I need help troubleshooting on some garbage teir HW :D

Basically, a 5500 XT 4 GB made its way into my hands. My main box these days is actually a 27" Thinkcentre /w a kabylake i5. I did however have a Dell tower with an x16 slot, it is old, it is DDR3, it isn't that great of a machine... but I'll be damned if FarCry 5 and CS 2 don't play smoother than butter. I was quite surprised.

Specs:
Core i5 4570 Quad Core
2x 8GB DDR3
I can tether the connection from my AIO PC, and I get excellent speeds but there are some quirks. Firstly, I'd really like to get my BT headphones working.


Skip the chit-chat?? Relevant info starts here :)

==> So I knew that PCIe (desktop version) to M.2 carriers were dirt cheap. I knew I'd want one with two antennas, knew that It would need a USB header because the BT radios on these cards are USB... so I ordered one up. It worked just fine. This was the one I ended up getting: https://www.amazon.com/Bluetooth-Wireless-Adapter-Dual-Band-Antenna/dp/B0BCTZB6H1?crid=28PDEPD74VSTY

Now, I did check the keying and physical pinout of the motherboard end of the connector... it looks good. It is possible I suppose that maybe the + and - are swapped for the data lines, but the pinout order is the same on the card end (which is not labeled, so I have to hope it came right)

I tried with two Intel WiFi cards, both of which work fine on my other system. (Using an M.2 native slot, not the carrier / adapter)

Intel AX210 and Intel 8265/8275 ... both are Wifi 6 /w Bluetooth

Lsusb shows nadda with either of them. I also tried moving the usb2 lead to another MB header and no dice :(

Now, wifi on the other hand, shows up fine in the pci devices on both cards. And yes, I do have all the BT modules / packages installed... but the device itself won't even appear.

Here is one of the cards, the AX 210, in my other machine. BT shows up fine:

ben@thinkcentre ~ $ sudo lsusb
Bus /dev/usb Device /dev/ugen0.7: ID 1532:0098 Razer USA, Ltd
Bus /dev/usb Device /dev/ugen0.6: ID 046d:c34a Logitech, Inc.
Bus /dev/usb Device /dev/ugen0.5: ID 8087:0032 Intel Corp. AX210 Bluetooth
Bus /dev/usb Device /dev/ugen0.4: ID 0bda:0129 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTS5129 Card Reader Controller
Bus /dev/usb Device /dev/ugen0.3: ID 174f:175d Syntek
Bus /dev/usb Device /dev/ugen0.2: ID 046d:c52b Logitech, Inc. Unifying Receiver
Bus /dev/usb Device /dev/ugen0.1: ID 0000:0000
 
Does the other machine not have a PCI-E slot to also test the adapter in to verify it works at all? Since you mentioned the WiFi cards work in that machine WITHOUT the PCI-e adapter...

Is the PCI-E slot you are trying to use on the system it's not working with a dedicated slot meant for proprietary peripherals? As in, is it labeled as just a PCI-E slot? Some motherboards have dedicated PCI-E slots that will ONLY work with that companies sound, network, wifi, etc. cards and will not function as a normal PCI-E slot.

I'd say this could be one of those weird hardware things that Linux is just throwing a tantrum at and doesn't want to work, but it's just an electrical pass-through card so that shouldn't be it...
 
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Good point, but I don't think it is anything like that. My mind kept going to BIOS whitelist kind of ideas, but this is just one of a total of four 1x PCI-e slots on a dell motherboard. My video card is in the top x16, wifi -> m.2 carrier board in the bottom slot. Wifi works great, both wifi cards will work. However, the USB / Bluetooth portion doesn't seem to be working. I think the card is probably built wrong, it was a $6 affair from china... had good reviews though.

Unfortunately, the other machine only has native M.2 slots, and not desktop style slots... So I can not test the carrier board there. I don't *think* I have anything else I can make work /w a desktop pcie slot... but I'll have to ponder that. I do have a s775 board, but not a single stick of ddr2!!
 
What do you have plugged in to all of your PCIE, M.2 and SATA ports, and what is your motherboard? Need to make sure you have enough PCIE lanes to feed your particular configuration.
 
What do you have plugged in to all of your PCIE, M.2 and SATA ports, and what is your motherboard? Need to make sure you have enough PCIE lanes to feed your particular configuration.

That was gonna be my next comment, and seeing as it's a Dell board there could be some shenanigans going on in the BIOS...
 
I think this should help get everybody on the same page:
m2wifiadapt.png

I am using a carrier board like the one pictured above. This allows an M.2 Wifi/BT card normally found in a laptop computer to go into a desktop PCIE x1 slot.

Thing is, laptop slots already carry both USB and PCIE data pins. Desktop slots are ONLY PCIE, unless the MB has a native M.2 slot -- many new boards do.

Both cards work with Wifi and BT when used in the all-in-one PC (with native M.2 slot).

Both cards work in this carrier board, but only the PCI-e portion. I do have a USB cable connecting the pins through to a header on the MB, but I see no USB devices with either of the cards... (the BT radios, can't see em!)

Just wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience, maybe could lend some advice? I'm thinking that maybe it is just a low quality PCB and either:
USB pinout is non standard
Some other issue w the carrier

I'm stumped. BT isn't super important, but I do have a pair of headphones I wouldn't mind being able to pair up to the desktop.
 
Haven't read everything, did you check the USB cable is the right way around? Make sure one end or other isn't reversed. If I recall mobo connectors correctly, they're usually 10 pins arranged 2x5 with one pin removed for keying. That has two USB ports, each using 4 pins in a line. The picture appears to show 5 pins for USB, so I'm also wondering if there is possible off-by-one error too if used with a 4 pin connector.
 
Yes, it only fits one way on the carrier end & I've confirmed that the MB end has the pins landing in the appropriate places.
 
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