Wake On Lan setup has locked the laptop

In trying to keep a remote computer (Toshiba laptop) from going to sleep
and making its files inaccessible, I figured that 'Wake On Lan' would
bring it back when I tried to access it. So I followed a little tutorial
to do that. Upon going to sleep, it will not wake up. Power light is
out. Pressing power button gets the power light to flash for perhaps 3
seconds. No key / mouse combination does anything. Holding the power
button makes no change. Gone so far as to remove power supply and
battery with no effect. This computer (Acer laptop) has no settings
applied to it, other than a 'Team Viewer' Youtube
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM-s...ature=youtu.be) that in
its course failed to match options with my situation, and so failed
incomplete.

My guess is that I've checked a box that said something like 'wake only
on magic packet'. I have no idea what address to send a magic package
to. Been trying "WOL - Magic Packet Sender" & "FindMAC Address 3.8", but
no luck.

I could envision a brute force 'crack' script that would cycle through
all addresses sending packets, but that is past my ability.That would be
a hell of a pile of MAC addresses, though - I reckon about 4.3 billion!
:-(

Anyone able to set me straight? Thanks for any help.

On 2/4/2018 10:39 AM, Brian Belliveau wrote:
In trying to keep a remote computer (Toshiba laptop) from going to sleep
and making its files inaccessible, I figured that 'Wake On Lan' would
bring it back when I tried to access it. So I followed a little tutorial
to do that. Upon going to sleep, it will not wake up. Power light is
out. Pressing power button gets the power light to flash for perhaps 3
seconds. No key / mouse combination does anything. Holding the power
button makes no change. Gone so far as to remove power supply and
battery with no effect. This computer (Acer laptop) has no settings
applied to it, other than a 'Team Viewer' Youtube
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM-s...ature=youtu.be) that in
its course failed to match options with my situation, and so failed
incomplete.

My guess is that I've checked a box that said something like 'wake only
on magic packet'. I have no idea what address to send a magic package
to. Been trying "WOL - Magic Packet Sender" & "FindMAC Address 3.8", but
no luck.

I could envision a brute force 'crack' script that would cycle through
all addresses sending packets, but that is past my ability.That would be
a hell of a pile of MAC addresses, though - I reckon about 4.3 billion!
:-(

Anyone able to set me straight? Thanks for any help.
Just a thought - try booting up in safe mode from an install DVD; you
might then be able to uncheck the wake-on-lan box.

Also, you might be able turn off Ethernet/wifi in the BIOS which might
allow you to proceed.

Brian Belliveau wrote:

In trying to keep a remote computer (Toshiba laptop) from going to sleep
and making its files inaccessible, I figured that 'Wake On Lan' would
bring it back when I tried to access it. So I followed a little tutorial
to do that. Upon going to sleep, it will not wake up. Power light is
out. Pressing power button gets the power light to flash for perhaps 3
seconds. No key / mouse combination does anything. Holding the power
button makes no change. Gone so far as to remove power supply and
battery with no effect. This computer (Acer laptop) has no settings
applied to it, other than a 'Team Viewer' Youtube
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM-s...ature=youtu.be) that in
its course failed to match options with my situation, and so failed
incomplete.

My guess is that I've checked a box that said something like 'wake only
on magic packet'. I have no idea what address to send a magic package
to. Been trying "WOL - Magic Packet Sender" & "FindMAC Address 3.8", but
no luck.

I could envision a brute force 'crack' script that would cycle through
all addresses sending packets, but that is past my ability.That would be
a hell of a pile of MAC addresses, though - I reckon about 4.3 billion!
:-(

Anyone able to set me straight? Thanks for any help.

Wake On LAN = Wake (from sleep) on receiving network traffic with *its*
IP address.

You should already know the IP address of that host. After all, you set
it up. If you have it get a dynamically assigned IP address from your
router's DHCP server, it could change because, well, it's dynamic. You
should go into the IPv4 and IPv6 settings and not use DHCP and instead
assign that host a static IP address (probably outside the range served
by the DHCP server in your router).

So have you tried connecting from a different host to that host by its
IP address after it went to sleep? The other host would have to be on
the same subnet.

If you are remoting from outside the intranet for that host, how are you
punching through the router's firewall? Did you enable forwarding
(which means you open your intranet to external hacking)? If remoting
from outside through your router, did you get a static IP address from
your ISP to assign to the WAN-side of the router or are you using a DDNS
(dynamic DNS) service that provides the lookup of whatever is your
router's current WAN-side IP address dynamically assigned by your ISP's
DHCP server? With DDNS, you need to run a local client that reports the
current WAN-side IP address of your router. It can run on any intranet
host since it connects to the DDNS service to log into your account
there which means their server will get the router's WAN-side IP address
from that connection. Then you use the DNS hostname you gave your host
in your DDNS account to connect externally to that host. You get to use
a hostname instead of an IP address to reach your intranet host from
some external host.

Remoting using TeamViewer, LogMeIn, and other similar services is
somewhat similar in that their local client will connect to the remoting
service to log into your account there which means their server will get
your router's WAN-side IP address. You mentioned TeamViewer but was
unclear if that is how you are remoting to that host and whether the
remoting was from another intranet host or from an internet host.

Magic packets only work between hosts in the same subnet. They rely on
the MAC address which is not routable outside the network segment. See
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake-on-LAN#Magic_packet. As noted there,
the host must be wired (Ethernet) for Wake On LAN to work. "Most 802.11
wireless interfaces do not maintain a link in low power states and
cannot receive a magic packet." You did not mention how that host is
connected to your intranetwork. Also mentioned is "A principal
limitation of standard broadcast wake-on-LAN is that broadcast packets
are generally not routed. This prevents the technique being used in
larger networks or over the Internet." That's because MAC address is
not used in routable protocols. I doubt your consumer-grade router or
ISP-provided cable model w/router has the configurability needed for
SDB.

Do you know your host's MAC address to put into the magic packet? In a
command shell (cmd.exe), run the 'arp' command. Link-local is the MAC
address. I'm assuming you are using the firmware-based MAC address in
the hardware rather than masking it to a different MAC address in the OS
(Device Manager - properties of network device - Advanced - Locally
Administered Address, should be "not present" or blank).

Also noted in the Wikipedia article is "the computer may be waking up
from the "fully off state" (S5) but doesn't wake from sleep or
hibernation or vice versa." So Wake On LAN in the BIOS of your host may
not work when that host is in power off mode but only when in sleep
mode, or visa versa, or it will work with both provided the networking
is setup correctly and the connection is local. Even in power off mode,
the computer must still be connected to an A/C power source so the +5V
standby power from the PSU still connected to live A/C power can bring
up the computer from power off mode. You did not say how you were
powering off the computer. Presumably it is via a Power Option which
means the computer's PSU is still connected to live A/C power source all
the time.

If you're going to often remote into that host (after setting up all the
holes to punch through to get to it externally or by using TeamViewer or
similar), why do you need that host to go into sleep mode? Configure
its Power Options to never sleep. You can separately configure spindown
of the hard disks and power down of the monitor to eliminate those power
draws but keep the computer always awake. Wake On LAN can be tricky to
setup except in a very simple one-subnet setup between intranet hosts.
I doubt you are remoting to that host from another host within the same
subnet (since you would have to be on-site but then you wouldn't need to
remote to the other intranet same-subnet host).

Forget Wake On LAN. That's something that requires properly BIOS
support and where you have to inch yourself out from that host to get
each leg in the network to work with Wake On LAN with that host. Just
leave the host powered up all the time and optionally configure the hard
disks to spin down and the monitor to power off.

If you are relying on TeamViewer or similar, doesn't their client
periodically rewake the computer to poll for a requested session up in
the online account to which your other host connects asking for a
session? https://www.teamviewer.com/en/features/wake-on-lan/ mentions
the TeamViewer WOL feature but I don't know if that is included in a
free account (and you didn't make it sound like this was a business
account for professional services to that host).

"Prior to making the remote connection, ensure the computer you want to
access is connected to a power source and has an internet connection via
a network cable." So, again, Wake On LAN cannot be used on a host that
is using a wifi connection to the router (the wifi radio has been put
into sleep or power off mode and won't respond). Unless they got
tricky, I cannot see how this work other than their local client
periodically waking up the computer so it can check if there is a
pending session request in your Teamviewer account and then either
establish a session (if there was a pending request) or put the computer
back into sleep/poweroff mode for awhile (issuing a system call to put
the computer into sleep/poweroff mode) and wait awhile for its next
poll. That means your computer will keep re-awakening from sleep mode
or repowering up from power off mode (or resuming from hibernate).

On 2018-02-04 12:22 PM, Bennett Price wrote:

Just a thought - try booting up in safe mode from an install DVD; you
might then be able to uncheck the wake-on-lan box.

There is no ability to boot - it doesn't acknowledge a bootable disk.

Also, you might be able turn off Ethernet/wifi in the BIOS which might
allow you to proceed.

I presume you mean to do that in the BIOS of the affected machine, which
I can't get in to. That is precisely and solely the problem I face.

To look at it, it is a completely dead laptop. Pressing the power button
gives 5 blinks of the power light. Holding the power button down gives 5
blinks of the power light.

Brian Belliveau wrote:
On 2018-02-04 12:22 PM, Bennett Price wrote:

Just a thought - try booting up in safe mode from an install DVD; you
might then be able to uncheck the wake-on-lan box.

There is no ability to boot - it doesn't acknowledge a bootable disk.

Also, you might be able turn off Ethernet/wifi in the BIOS which might
allow you to proceed.

I presume you mean to do that in the BIOS of the affected machine, which
I can't get in to. That is precisely and solely the problem I face.

To look at it, it is a completely dead laptop. Pressing the power button
gives 5 blinks of the power light. Holding the power button down gives 5
blinks of the power light.

You should put the model number in a Google search and
see what pops up. I can't tell from what they're doing here, whether
this is a UEFI issue, or the power management hardware is in
a bad state on the motherboard.

http://www.tomsguide.com/answers/id-...wont-turn.html

Paul

On 2018-02-04 1:10 PM, VanguardLH wrote:

Wake On LAN = Wake (from sleep) on receiving network traffic with *its*
IP address.

You should already know the IP address of that host. After all, you set
it up. If you have it get a dynamically assigned IP address from your
router's DHCP server, it could change because, well, it's dynamic. You
should go into the IPv4 and IPv6 settings and not use DHCP and instead
assign that host a static IP address (probably outside the range served
by the DHCP server in your router).

It seems obvious in hindsight. But the setup instructions I was
following didn't mention that!

So have you tried connecting from a different host to that host by its
IP address after it went to sleep? The other host would have to be on
the same subnet.

This computer I'm on is physically only about 20 feet from the locked up
machine. Both are hard wired into my router.

I had set this up a few years ago to run my desktop (remember those?)
from my laptop (the one at issue), while I was hundreds of miles
distant. I'm thinking Win 7 era. Worked like a charm.

If you are remoting from outside the intranet for that host, how are you
punching through the router's firewall?

Not punching through anything (more likely to punch myself!)

Did you enable forwarding
(which means you open your intranet to external hacking)?

Not aware of doing anything like that

If remoting
from outside through your router,

As I'm on a local network, I presume the following paragraph has no
bearing. (Also, I don't fully comprehend the contents)

did you get a static IP address from
your ISP to assign to the WAN-side of the router or are you using a DDNS
(dynamic DNS) service that provides the lookup of whatever is your
router's current WAN-side IP address dynamically assigned by your ISP's
DHCP server? With DDNS, you need to run a local client that reports the
current WAN-side IP address of your router. It can run on any intranet
host since it connects to the DDNS service to log into your account
there which means their server will get the router's WAN-side IP address
from that connection. Then you use the DNS hostname you gave your host
in your DDNS account to connect externally to that host. You get to use
a hostname instead of an IP address to reach your intranet host from
some external host.

Remoting using TeamViewer, LogMeIn, and other similar services is
somewhat similar in that their local client will connect to the remoting
service to log into your account there which means their server will get
your router's WAN-side IP address. You mentioned TeamViewer but was
unclear if that is how you are remoting to that host and whether the
remoting was from another intranet host or from an internet host.


Setting up TeamViewer, it wants "your partner's ID in order to control
the remote". It seems to be saying that it wants information from
installing TeamViewer on the other computer, which I had not done -
TeamViewer represents one of my attempts to get out of this jam.

Magic packets only work between hosts in the same subnet. They rely on the MAC address which is not routable outside the network segment. See
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake-on-LAN#Magic_packet. As noted there,
the host must be wired (Ethernet) for Wake On LAN to work.

YES. I'm wired.

"Most 802.11
wireless interfaces do not maintain a link in low power states and
cannot receive a magic packet." You did not mention how that host is
connected to your intranetwork. Also mentioned is "A principal
limitation of standard broadcast wake-on-LAN is that broadcast packets
are generally not routed. This prevents the technique being used in
larger networks or over the Internet." That's because MAC address is
not used in routable protocols. I doubt your consumer-grade router or
ISP-provided cable model w/router has the configurability needed for
SDB.

Do you know your host's MAC address to put into the magic packet?

No. As I said, I believe this is the problem. So I'll check out your
next suggestion ...

In a
command shell (cmd.exe), run the 'arp' command.

Using "arp -a", I get about 15 sets of Internet Address ... Phsical
Address (which does have the format of a MAC address) ... & Type. Most
are 'dynamic', 5 are 'static'

Link-local is the MAC
address.

I haven't seen 'Link-local' anywhere

I'm assuming you are using the firmware-based MAC address in
the hardware rather than masking it to a different MAC address in the OS
(Device Manager - properties of network device - Advanced - Locally
Administered Address, should be "not present" or blank).

'Nor present' is the condition of this computer (unknown on the subject
computer)

Also noted in the Wikipedia article is "the computer may be waking up
from the "fully off state" (S5) but doesn't wake from sleep or
hibernation or vice versa." So Wake On LAN in the BIOS of your host may
not work when that host is in power off mode but only when in sleep
mode, or visa versa, or it will work with both provided the networking
is setup correctly and the connection is local.

Can't cause it to power off completely. Keep getting the infernal
flashing power light.

Even in power off mode,
the computer must still be connected to an A/C power source so the +5V
standby power from the PSU still connected to live A/C power can bring
up the computer from power off mode. You did not say how you were
powering off the computer. Presumably it is via a Power Option which
means the computer's PSU is still connected to live A/C power source all
the time.

No control available. Touching the power button causes the power light
to flash 5 times. Holding the power button causes the power light to
flash five times.

If you're going to often remote into that host (after setting up all the
holes to punch through to get to it externally or by using TeamViewer or
similar), why do you need that host to go into sleep mode? Configure
its Power Options to never sleep.

I had actually tried to do this, but it just continues to go to sleep.
(I couldn't get it to start up without a password either!)

You can separately configure spindown
of the hard disks and power down of the monitor to eliminate those power
draws but keep the computer always awake. Wake On LAN can be tricky to
setup except in a very simple one-subnet setup between intranet hosts.
I doubt you are remoting to that host from another host within the same
subnet (since you would have to be on-site but then you wouldn't need to
remote to the other intranet same-subnet host).

Forget Wake On LAN.

When I get out of this mess I will personally touch 240 volts to my
temples to erase any memory of this fiasco

That's something that requires properly BIOS
support and where you have to inch yourself out from that host to get
each leg in the network to work with Wake On LAN with that host. Just
leave the host powered up all the time and optionally configure the hard
disks to spin down and the monitor to power off.

If you are relying on TeamViewer or similar, doesn't their client
periodically rewake the computer to poll for a requested session up in
the online account to which your other host connects asking for a
session? https://www.teamviewer.com/en/features/wake-on-lan/ mentions
the TeamViewer WOL feature but I don't know if that is included in a
free account (and you didn't make it sound like this was a business
account for professional services to that host).

"Prior to making the remote connection, ensure the computer you want to
access is connected to a power source and has an internet connection via
a network cable." So, again, Wake On LAN cannot be used on a host that
is using a wifi connection to the router (the wifi radio has been put
into sleep or power off mode and won't respond). Unless they got
tricky, I cannot see how this work other than their local client
periodically waking up the computer so it can check if there is a
pending session request in your Teamviewer account and then either
establish a session (if there was a pending request) or put the computer
back into sleep/poweroff mode for awhile (issuing a system call to put
the computer into sleep/poweroff mode) and wait awhile for its next
poll. That means your computer will keep re-awakening from sleep mode
or repowering up from power off mode (or resuming from hibernate).

Again, I think these last paragraphs assume I have some measure of
control over the subject. I don't.

Thank you for the effort you have obviously put into helping. I hope
perhaps my reply gives you a nugget to latch onto that helps me out.

One thought crossing my mind is the question of whether removing the
BIOS battery would cause the BIOS to revert to 'factory'?

Brian Belliveau wrote:

My guess is that I've checked a box that said something like 'wake only
on magic packet'.

I've never seen a machine that has such a setting to ignore all wake-up,
boot, reset and power-on options *except* WoL ...

Let's start at the farthest end first. HOW are you going to remote to
the host? RDP, TeamViewer, VNC, shared resource, what? What are you
going to use on your local computer (the one you're at) to remotely
connect to the other host (the one you want to set up for remote
access)?

On 2018-02-04 3:31 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
Let's start at the farthest end first. HOW are you going to remote to
the host? RDP, TeamViewer, VNC, shared resource, what? What are you
going to use on your local computer (the one you're at) to remotely
connect to the other host (the one you want to set up for remote
access)?

I get that sucker back on line and I cancel any thoughts of remote start.

(I was doing this so that I could put a movie on the remote laptop which
sits on a shelf above my treadmill, without having to go downstairs to
shake the mouse so that I could go back up to this one and log in the
drive and copy over to it. Simple case of trying to make life a little
more streamlined)

Brian Belliveau wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:

Let's start at the farthest end first. HOW are you going to remote to
the host? RDP, TeamViewer, VNC, shared resource, what? What are you
going to use on your local computer (the one you're at) to remotely
connect to the other host (the one you want to set up for remote
access)?

I get that sucker back on line and I cancel any thoughts of remote start.

(I was doing this so that I could put a movie on the remote laptop which
sits on a shelf above my treadmill, without having to go downstairs to
shake the mouse so that I could go back up to this one and log in the
drive and copy over to it. Simple case of trying to make life a little
more streamlined)

Do you really need the downstairs computer to go into sleep, hibernate,
or power off mode? Why not leave it powered on all the time? You can
leave the computer running but, as mentioned, configure the hard disks
and monitor to power off so save on the costs for electricity to those
devices.

You cannot use a USB flash drive on the downstairs computer to copy the
movie and then use the USB flash drive on your laptop? If you're trying
to use your downstairs computer as a file server, it really shouldn't be
getting slept, hibernated, or powered off.

On 2/4/2018 2:25 PM, Andy Burns wrote:
Brian Belliveau wrote:

My guess is that I've checked a box that said something like 'wake only
on magic packet'.

I've never seen a machine that has such a setting to ignore all wake-up,
boot, reset and power-on options *except* WoL ...

+1
I've used WOL. Never had it stop booting from the power switch.
I do have a UEFI system that went into a state similar to
yours after a win 8.1 installation.
If all else fails, there are processes intended to fixup
borked UEFI.
"crisis recovery" is a place to start searching.
I never made any of them work either.

On 2/4/2018 2:58 PM, Brian Belliveau wrote:
On 2018-02-04 3:31 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
Let's start at the farthest end first. HOW are you going to remote to
the host? RDP, TeamViewer, VNC, shared resource, what? What are you
going to use on your local computer (the one you're at) to remotely
connect to the other host (the one you want to set up for remote
access)?

I get that sucker back on line and I cancel any thoughts of remote start.

(I was doing this so that I could put a movie on the remote laptop which
sits on a shelf above my treadmill, without having to go downstairs to
shake the mouse so that I could go back up to this one and log in the
drive and copy over to it. Simple case of trying to make life a little
more streamlined)


Am I the only one catching the irony?
You're gonna go walk for miles on a treadmill, but walking
downstairs to click a mouse is too much trouble???

People ask me why I don't buy a more efficient bicycle.
Why? The purpose is exercise. Efficiency ain't an issue.
Better bike just means it'll get stolen. But I digress...

Is the computer close enough that a wireless mouse upstairs
could be used to wake it?

On 2018-02-04 4:20 PM, VanguardLH wrote:

Do you really need the downstairs computer to go into sleep, hibernate,
or power off mode? Why not leave it powered on all the time? You can
leave the computer running but, as mentioned, configure the hard disks
and monitor to power off so save on the costs for electricity to those
devices.

I do leave my stuff on all the time. It's just that that machine puts
itself to sleep after 5 minutes. I've told it to never go to sleep, with
or without line power, but I think it's a teenager - it just won't listen.

You cannot use a USB flash drive on the downstairs computer to copy the
movie and then use the USB flash drive on your laptop?

Sneaker-net would be fine - but I can see it on the network, so no real
need.

If you're trying
to use your downstairs computer as a file server, it really shouldn't be
getting slept, hibernated, or powered off.

Not a server. Just my second tier computer, about 8 years old. It is
very good for playing movies - had been using a tablet, but that has to
stay portable with me. Plan here is to have a system the whole family
can make use of.

One and only issue is that it is completely locked up and inaccessible.
My plan at this moment is to pull the battery out tomorrow, and hope
that resets the BIOS.

On 2018-02-04 4:52 PM, mike wrote:

Am I the only one catching the irony?
You're gonna go walk for miles on a treadmill, but walking
downstairs to click a mouse is too much trouble???

i, for one, am aware of the irony there

People ask me why I don't buy a more efficient bicycle.
Why? The purpose is exercise.Â* Efficiency ain't an issue.
Better bike just means it'll get stolen.Â*Â* But I digress...

Is the computer close enough that a wireless mouse upstairs
could be used to wake it?

I doubt a wireless would work that far, but the whole point here is that
at the moment, I can do NOTHING with it.

As I said, it's looking like the battery is my best bet.

mike wrote:
On 2/4/2018 2:25 PM, Andy Burns wrote:
Brian Belliveau wrote:

My guess is that I've checked a box that said something like 'wake only
on magic packet'.

I've never seen a machine that has such a setting to ignore all wake-up,
boot, reset and power-on options *except* WoL ...

+1
I've used WOL. Never had it stop booting from the power switch.
I do have a UEFI system that went into a state similar to
yours after a win 8.1 installation.
If all else fails, there are processes intended to fixup
borked UEFI.
"crisis recovery" is a place to start searching.
I never made any of them work either.

I'm curious. Did you re-flash the BIOS to escape ?
And if so, how ?

A lot of BIOS, they may provide a way to re-flash the
BIOS if the BIOS is still running. Not very many work
if the BIOS is broken.

I have one machine here, with an independent chip that
flashes the BIOS. And since the machine is UEFI, I'm
still waiting for it to brick, so I can try it out.

The UEFI variables are supposed to be stored in NVRAM.
That's a portion of the BIOS flash chip. It's not clear
whether "zeroing" that area is sufficient (the UEFI can
rebuild it). Or, it needs an initial set of variables
stored in it. In which case, a BIOS flash might recover
it.

It's unclear to me what the 256 byte CMOS RAM does in the
UEFI world. Or for how much longer chipsets/Southbridge/PCH
might have that 256 byte RAM. It's not hurting anything,
but you know how Intel thinks... They're the deprecators-in-chief
of the computing industry.

Paul