Network Card Issue

Ok, so we are having a very strange network card issue. I thought I fixed it, but it has come back again. Basically, the user will login and cannot get an IP address. Now it seems to only happen on Dell 960's. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the card, loading a new driver, and even reimaged the machine none of which worked. So we just replaced the computer and chalked it up as a loss. It then happened again on another 960. I went into the BIOS and adjusted the idle timeout, logged back in and it worked. This morning, the user reports that the issue is occurring again. So I just gave him a different model and brought the computer upstairs to work on it. Suddenly, it starts working again without issue.

I am under the impression that the card is somehow turning off and after a number of reboots it comes back on again. A review of the logs shows that the user shutdown yesterday at 4:57 PM and then turned the computer back on at 8:09 AM. At that time the following error is recorded:

Your computer was not able to renew its address from the network for the Network Card with network address <blah>. The following error occurred: The semaphore timeout period has expired. Your computer will continue to try and obtain an address on its own from the network address server.

Three hours later the error is gone and it grabs an IP address. At this point I would kill to get an answer as my research hasn't turned up anything that would fit with this issue. Plus the fact that out of all the machines we manage, only Dell Optiplex 960's appear to have an issue.

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Comments

the_hutch

Sounds like a pain in the ass. Is it the onboard NIC, or is it an expansion card?

paulgswanson

Any chance this is happening when coming out of sleep mode?
Found and article that might interest you :
Windows 7 Logon Problems | Classroom and Lab Computing

Heres the except that I think may be what your looking for:

On 8/13/10 we discovered disabling AMT (Intel Active Management Technology) as per this posting fixes the intermittent network connectivity problem after resume from sleep that the Optiplex 780 and Optiplex 960 have. This is part of the Intel Management Engine BIOS Extension (MEBx). To do this:

Go to MEbx settings by rebooting and pressing ctrl-P when the Dell logo appears.
Enter the default ME password admin (presuming you have never changed it).
You must now change the ME password. Really. The new password must have a number, a symbol, and uppercase and lowercase letters, and must be 8 characters. For example Chris;1; works, but don't use that, it's mine.
Press enter to select "Intel(R) ME Configuration".
Press "y" for yes.
Press enter to select "Intel(R) ME State Control".
Press enter to select "[ ] Disabled".
Press ESC to exit and reboot.
This page has screen shots.
We are looking for a way to automate this; we're not optimistic about finding one. Disabling the “Intel(R) Management Engine Interface” driver doesn't help.

the_hutch

the_hutch wrote: »

Sounds like a pain in the ass. Is it the onboard NIC, or is it an expansion card?

I withdrawl my question. Based on the fact that you said you tried uninstalling and reinstalling the card, I'm assuming an expansion card.

the_Grinch

Actually, it is an internal card I just meant I removed it from all devices. We're running XP on it, but I will try what you suggested paul!

KenC

I would be zoning in on the BIOS settings if I were you (possibly even a BIOS upgrade - check Dell support site if the BIOS version history mentions a fix). Unlikely, but is there a chance that some of the 960 machines are all using the same MAC address (image issue). You could also try a different NIC in one of the machines and see if the problems still occur in all 960s but that one.

Akaricloud

KenC wrote: »

I would be zoning in on the BIOS settings if I were you (possibly even a BIOS upgrade - check Dell support site if the BIOS version history mentions a fix). Unlikely, but is there a chance that some of the 960 machines are all using the same MAC address (image issue). You could also try a different NIC in one of the machines and see if the problems still occur in all 960s but that one.

MAC addresses are hardware specific, I don't see how this would happen unless they're using some technology to purposfully clone them. He could have duplicate SIDs from imaging but that causes no harm on client OSes.

Did this happen again on the same network port or is it a different location? -If it's the same location and two computers are having problems I'd assume it's more on the network side.

the_Grinch

Different network ports (I wish that wasn't the case!). We've actually had three cases so far and all 960's. Odd thing is almost the entire company has 960's and only these three have had the issue.

paulgswanson

Any luck with this?

the_Grinch

Nope. Found out the issue is definitely the onboard card and definitely when the computer goes to sleep, but nothing has worked so far to fix it.

MAC_Addy

Are the 3 computers you're having problems with using the same driver as the computers that aren't having any problems? What switches are you using to connect these to? Sometimes the duplex in XP might be off.

the_Grinch

We don't control the network infrastructure so I am unsure as to what type of switch. On the one pc I still have I loaded the latest drive from Intel for the card and it did not work. I also turned off the auto-negotiation option, which did not resolve the issue. Here's what I have done:

1. Reimaged, sometimes works and sometimes doesn't
2. Loaded latest driver from Dell - didn't work
3. Loaded latest driver from Intel - didn't work
4. Flashed to latest set of bios - didn't work
5. Changed setting in the bios to disable sleep - didn't work

As far as I can tell here is where the issue lies. There is a setting on the card that tells it to turn off when asleep by default. These computers came with Windows 7, but at the time the university didn't support it so they downgraded them to Windows XP. The Windows 7 Driver offers the option to turn off SIP, but the Windows XP Driver does not offer this option. It is on by default and can't be turned off, or at least at this point I haven't found a way to turn it off.

So my current solution is to disable the sleep option on the computers so that this issue doesn't crop up.

KenC

I would have thought disabling in BIOS would have solved that issue, any chance there is still something set that needs to be disabled (sometimes these can be well hidden).

I'm sure there is a registry tweak to turn off the SIP in XP.

You seem to be very close to resolving this and all on your own too - interesting one.

the_Grinch

Welp, throwing the towel in on this one. This dog will just not hunt. I edited the registry and to no avail, reimaged and still have the same issue. Thankfully we are getting rid of this line for the most part so as they go we'll replace them.