Right where it oughtta be

User's PC stops communicating with the network, so this support pilot fish is called in to get things working again.

"She had been upgraded to a nice new computer several months ago from a real old clunker, so the idea that it was a hardware problem was not my first line of thinking," says fish.

"The PC was sending packets OK, but receiving them was down to just about nothing. First thing, I checked to see if it had network -- which it did."

Fish reboots, just to see if that clears the problem. Nope.

He checks network settings. Nothing looks wrong, but he resets them anyway. Then he tries changing the network settings. No improvement. He checks the PC's end of the network cable. Checks and replaces the cable. Uninstalls and reinstalls the network card.

But the PC is still receiving packets very slowly, and pinging the device is a hit and miss affair.

"Thirty minutes later, I had fairly much eliminated any notion of problems with wiring and thought that the integrated network card was going out," fish says. "I unhooked all the cables so it could be taken back to my work area to install a new network card and wait for a replacement motherboard on this brand new PC."

But as fish pulls the tower out of its spot, he notices that one of the metal expansion slot covers appears to be missing. When he pops the cover, fish spots it resting against the motherboard.

And after he puts it back in place and tries the PC again, it starts up and works like a charm -- network and all.

Fish's best guess: The slot cover happened to short out just the receive part of the integrated network interface by touching two jumpers -- a billion-to-one shot, but at least it's fixed.

But how did it happen? "The user said she had been filling out our yearly asset registry form," fish reports. "Because she had a new computer, she moved it about to attempt to find the serial number to write down.

"I thought since she had managed to not completely fry her computer and actually have an interesting problem, I wouldn't tell her that the big white label in clear sight on the front of the PC was her serial number.

"As with all new equipment, I clearly labeled it in an easy-to-read spot so I don't have to go fishing around the back to find that sort of information."

Sharky's fishing for your true tale of IT life. Send it to me at sharky@computerworld.com, and I'll send you a stylish Shark shirt if I use it. Add your comments below, and read some great old tales in the Sharkives.

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