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Both X540-AT2 C-NICs Expired?

hihihi8
By hihihi8
in Networking
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I've got a pair of X540-AT2-based 10GbE C-NICs that have both died for no reason, in the exact same manner. Both sat idle and unused in my system for months. One died first, while the other continued working for a few months for the once-in-a-blue-moon times when I actually used them.

 

Both cards would just stop detecting cables in both ports. Both cards pass Intel PROSet utility's hardware check, including the loopback test. Using the "identify adapter" function in PROSet will cause the respective port lights to blink, but plugging in ethernet cables does nothing.

 

What am I looking at? I know the PHYs are integrated into the dies of these controllers, but how does it pass the loopback test if the PHYs are bad? Any chance the port magnetics are dead? They ports are JT4-1108HL made by PulseJack.

 

 At this point im just curious what happened to them. Both cards are PE210G2I40-T's, manufactured by Huawei as what I assume to be a replica of the original by Silicom. Perhaps some sort faulty component in manufacturing caused both of these to expire at around the same time?

 

Not quite familiar with networking stuff so forgive any mistakes/assumptions i made.

 

PS: They both show up as functional devices in device manager. Drivers are the latest from intel. Have tried uninstalling the devices and reinstalling, to no avail.

PC 0: Pinky 2.0

Ryzen 9 5950x — 64GB G.Skill Ripjaws 5 @3600Mhz CL14-13-13-28-288 — ROG Crosshair 8 Dark Hero — RX 6900 XT — Hardline Loop — Sabrent Rocket 4.0 2TB — Samsung PM961 1TB — WD Blue 4TB HDD — Corsair AX1500i — Thermaltake Core P5 

 

PC 1: Pinky (Yes that is her name) Here's the build

Xeon E5-1680V3 — 64GB G.Skill Ripjaws 4 @2400Mhz — MSi X99A Godlike Gaming — GTX 980Ti SLI (2-WAY) — Hardline Loop — Samsung 950Pro 512GB — Seagate 2TB HDD — Corsair RM1000 — Thermaltake Core P5

 

PC 1.1: Pinky (Mom Edition) Here's the build

i7-5960X — 64GB G.Skill Ripjaws 4 @2400Mhz — MSi X99A Godlike Gaming — GTX 980Ti SLI (2-WAY) — Hardline Loop — Sabrent Rocket 3 1TB — Samsung Q 870 Evo 4TB — Corsair HX850i — InWin S-Frame #190

 

PC 2: Red Box/Scarlet Overkill (Dual Xeon)

Xeon E5-2687W x2 — 96GB Kingston DDR3 ECC REG @1333Mhz — EVGA Classified SR-X Dual CPU — GTX 1070 SLI (2-WAY) —Hardline Loop — Samsung 750 EVO 256GB — Seagate 2TB 2.5" HDD x3 — Self-Built Case

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My best hypothesis so far is that it was an ESD event that killed the PHYs on the X540-AT2 chips since the PHY generates the link pulses that communicate cable connection.

 

I have a habit of grounding myself using the PC chassis- normally this would be fine if the PC was actually grounded. But I do recall quite a number of nasty cases where I touched the chassis and shocked the system into rebooting (Blame the absolute crap electrical work back in China, I always doubted whether or not that ground was actually true ground).

 

Anywho the ESD probably killed one outright and maimed the other one to the point it died a few months down the line.

PC 0: Pinky 2.0

Ryzen 9 5950x — 64GB G.Skill Ripjaws 5 @3600Mhz CL14-13-13-28-288 — ROG Crosshair 8 Dark Hero — RX 6900 XT — Hardline Loop — Sabrent Rocket 4.0 2TB — Samsung PM961 1TB — WD Blue 4TB HDD — Corsair AX1500i — Thermaltake Core P5 

 

PC 1: Pinky (Yes that is her name) Here's the build

Xeon E5-1680V3 — 64GB G.Skill Ripjaws 4 @2400Mhz — MSi X99A Godlike Gaming — GTX 980Ti SLI (2-WAY) — Hardline Loop — Samsung 950Pro 512GB — Seagate 2TB HDD — Corsair RM1000 — Thermaltake Core P5

 

PC 1.1: Pinky (Mom Edition) Here's the build

i7-5960X — 64GB G.Skill Ripjaws 4 @2400Mhz — MSi X99A Godlike Gaming — GTX 980Ti SLI (2-WAY) — Hardline Loop — Sabrent Rocket 3 1TB — Samsung Q 870 Evo 4TB — Corsair HX850i — InWin S-Frame #190

 

PC 2: Red Box/Scarlet Overkill (Dual Xeon)

Xeon E5-2687W x2 — 96GB Kingston DDR3 ECC REG @1333Mhz — EVGA Classified SR-X Dual CPU — GTX 1070 SLI (2-WAY) —Hardline Loop — Samsung 750 EVO 256GB — Seagate 2TB 2.5" HDD x3 — Self-Built Case

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