Boot From LAN

[pwaddington]

I have a strange problem with some older pcs i have that i would like to boot from the network from.

When i set the bios to boot from the network and restart the pc they connect to the network fine but when i restart the pcs, it doesnt even attempt to look for an ip address it just gives me a

"pxe-mof exiting pxe rom"

And it will give me this error messsage everytime i restart the pc. The only way i can get the pc to boot from the LAN again is to remove the power lead from the pc for 20 seconds> plug it back in then restart, it then boots to the network fine UNLESS i restart and the whole process starts again until i unplug the power cable.
The onboard lan is VIA Rhinefast 2 fast ethernet and the bios has been flashed to the latest version.

[pwaddington]

I know its a strange one but someone, surely must have experienced it also!

[tmcd35]

Very sorry this is going to be very very vague.

I had this problem two or three years back and there is a thread about it somewhere. As I recall it has something to do with switch settings - maybe spanning tree - but I'm afraid it's all very fuzzy as it was so long ago.

I think at the time we were using PXE boot for ghosting so we set PXE Boot in BIOS as the 1st/2nd/and 3rd boot device, so the computer automatically retries after each failed attempt.

If that didn't work we used a PXE boot floppy which always worked.

I think it has something to do with auto-negotiate timings. The network link is still be negotiated and tested for spanning tree when the PC is trying to get an IP.

But that's as much as I remember I'm afraid.

[danrhodes]

Just use a BOOT cd from NetBootDisk.com - The Universal TCP/IP Network Bootdisk for M$ Networks or a Hirens Boot Disk if you cannot get it working.

D

[Martin]

I don't think that it is Spanning Tree Protocol, it sounds like Windows is changing something in the volatile memory on the NIC which prevents the subsequent PXE-boot (until a power-down reset).

Have a look/play at the device properties and also see if you can get a newer driver.

Good luck,

mb

[pwaddington]

I am using pxe to boot to a tftp server which in turn initiates a remote desktop session to the server so im sure its nothing within the windows enviroment.

[Martin]

In that case it sounds like your Windows^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hremote desktop session software is changing something in the volatile memory on the NIC

mb

[CyberNerd]

The onboard lan is VIA Rhinefast 2 fast ethernet and the bios has been flashed to the latest version.

I have had this exact same problem.
Unfortunately the latest via bios ROM doesn't contain an uptodate PXE portion of the ROM.
I cannot remember exactly how I did it - so bear with me.
I used a utility (forgot the name) to splice the ROM software - I used the latest via ROM and then spliced a more uptodate version of the PXE portion into it. I got the uptodate PXE ROM from the bios of another board.

I asked a colleague to have a look for the flash rom that we used - it was for an M1000 EPIA board IIRC. If we can find it I can email you it, can't post it here unfortunately. but use with caution as it is for a particular Via EPIA board. pm me.

[CyberNerd]

just an update, whilst my memory is coming back (it was 4 yrs ago).
The issue I had was the same, but it only occurred on Linux 2.6 kernel - I never tried with windows.

ThinStation

read here:

epia m1000 pxe boot rom problems [Archive] - VIA Forums

[adamchapman]

Thats Spooky!

I've got exactly the same problem today!!, with the same NIC!

Not got to the bottom of it yet though... still working on it

[adamchapman]

same solution - left powered off over lunch, been back and now worked first time

[pwaddington]

same solution - left powered off over lunch, been back and now worked first time

Have you experienced this before on these workstations?