HP MediaSmart Server EX490 - Solution to LAN going offline at boot-up

[1km]

After swapping out a defective Netgear router, I started to experience problems with my MediaSmart server going offline immediately after boot-up.

I could also see from the router stats that the EX490 established an Ethernet connection at 10Mbps when powered off, but not following boot-up.  I could even use WOL to start the server, but it would drop the LAN connection shortly afterwards, without ever coming online. 

I tried various Cat-5 cables and 3 different routers, but I could not get the aqua LAN LED to stay on for more than about 30 seconds after boot.  I could see the yellow LED on the RJ45 NIC port flash very occasionally, but that was about it.

I managed to establish a PC to EX490 direct connection and so could get into the server via Remote Desktop, which again suggested there was nothing fundamentally wrong with the NIC port or cables.

I tried upgrading the Realtec PCIe driver to no effect, checked there were no conflicting LAN addresses, DHCP services, etc., etc., and even considered doing a server rebuild.   Eventually, I found a solution that works for me.

Using the peer-to-peer LAN connection and Remote Desktop, go to the EX490 Device Manager, select the Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller Properties, Advanced Tab and scroll down through the Property window to Speed and Duplex.  Change Auto Negotiation to 100Mbps Full Duplex, save and reboot the server.

It seems in my case that the EX490 is no longer coping with negotiating connection to a Gigabit LAN (still not sure why), but slowing the card down to 100Mbps is giving me a rock-solid connection.

I hope this post will help others who may be contemplating using their MediaSmart as an expensive bookend or doorstop.

[noenulll]

I wanted to thank you for helping me solve a rather troubling issue. I suspect there might be a long-term defect in the ethernet port on this device.

[1km]

@noenulll - Well thank you. Even if only you have benefitted, I didn't wasted my time posting this.

My Mediaserver is still working fine.  In fact, I just recabled it last night.