Hi all,
Ive got a reoccurring issue that has been effecting a couple of dedicated machines that operate remotely. Users are reporting that their systems are unable to turn on. Walking them through the troubleshooting, there is no issues with the monitor. Power is being applied, the system lights turn on. We can confirm the network activity lights on the LAN port and the router has negotiated a link speed. But if we log into the router, we see no packets coming from the PC.
Now, the weird part. When the computer is shipped back, it magically starts working again. Ive tried running a memtest to see if maybe its bad ram, but it always comes back passed. I believe the issue is due to a multiport pci serial card. Sometimes if the cable is removed that connects to that pci, the system will boot. Other times, it completely kills the pc. Until of course it gets shipped back, then it will work again.
Ive really hit a dead end with this issue. Im not sure how to diagnose a no post situation without physically being there. At the very least, I wish I could replicate the issue in person. Unfortunately, the issue is occurring with multiple computers and pci cards. Doubtful its a one off bad piece of hardware.
If anyone has any experience troubleshooting a no post situation remotely or has had issues with pci cards, I'd really appreciate it!
Should have been more clear about the remote part. The systems operate remotely from me, I can access them via the internet. The users need to use the screen to operate it. This is just a windows 11 computer after all.
As for the router information, thats part of the reason I know there is power to the entire thing. I can access the router page and see that the link speed was negotiated correctly, at 1gb per second. If they unplug the ethernet, the port reads disconnected.
But 0 packets are getting sent from the computer. I believe those are ARP, but the router page doesnt define it. Just has a table with packets in and packets out. Packets going in will usually have a couple from the router. Always 0 with packets coming out. Theres actually a ping function built into the router, and that doesnt respond at all.
BIOS is not setup during boot to use any sort of networking. No PXE boot or anything like that. On this particular motherboard, you have to enable the network stack, so I dont think its that. System is setup to always turn on when power is applied to bring all the other components online together.
Anyway, thanks for taking time out of your day to respond!