mini PCI-E to PCI-E adapter problem

[gboado]

I have an Intel D525MW motherboard, with an Atom 525 and a mini-PCI-E slot (I do know it isn't a laptop problem, but I didn't find a better place to publish...). I have to connect a PCI-E multiport SATA board, so I bought a mini-PCI-E to PCI-E x16 adapter, which is basically a mini-PCI-E card with an USB 3.0 connector and a daughterboard with a PCI-E x16 slot and a power regulator. Both boards connect using anUSB 3.0 cable. The problem is that it isn't working. Although I checked the motherboard mini PCI-E slot using a mini PCI-E wifi card and it is working properly, and I checked that the signals from themini PCI-E adapter card are properly routed to the dauthterboard, nothing I plug to the x16 slot works. Any idea what may be happening? I couldn't try the adapter in a different motherboard because I don't have another board with a mini PCI-E slot....

 

[rgd1101]

https://www.intel.com/content/dam/support/us/en/documents/boardsandkits/desktop-boards/NM10/D525MW/D525MW_ProductGuide01.pdf
look like it might only support a wifi card

 

[gboado]

Thanks for your reply. Could you think in a reason why a mini PCI-E slot could only support some specific type of card? I am well aware that there are some signals in the min PCI-E slot that are meant for a WiFi adapter, but as far as I understand there is nothing special about a mini PCI-E card, right? By the way, I tried also a video card in the x16 slot which, of course, didn't work either. As a matter of fact, I am using debian (I don't remember the exact version, but it is reasonably new) and lspci lists the WiFi card properly, but none of the cards I connected using the adapter is listed.