Intel NUC8i7HVK locked up after wife vacuumed nearby

[JannePaalijarvi]

I have a strange issue with NUC8i7HVK. I have seen this a couple of times, but yesterday I could connect some of the dots. Posting it here in case others have seen this.

So, a couple of times I have had this issue where the unit seems to lock up. I cannot say if it is only Ethernet + HDMI or the whole system. Because you know, it is hard to say because there is no output of any kind.

Well anyways, yesterday my wife was vacuuming the shelves and near the NUC also. I was working and connected via network to the NUC, as it is a server machine. Suddenly my connection dropped. I shouted to my wife to stop operations and went to see what was going on.

My first thought was that she had shut down a NAS server and caused NUC to fail also. But it was not the case. There was visually nothing out of ordinary. I plugged in keyboard and HDMI cable. I got completely black picture, nothing else. Same thing with another HDMI port. My TV said HDMI signal is coming but the picture was black. I could not reach the NUC server via network either. However, the NAS on the same switch and same UPS was working just fine (and still is with uptime of 75 days).

I rebooted the NUC and the first visible information I got on my screen was "BIOS has detected unsuccesful POST attempt(s)" blaah blaah blaah. Another reboot I got normal operation back. I ran memory test overnight, no errors reported.

I believe some kind of electrical error crept to the NUC because nothing else was done. There are basically these possibilities:

* Input power disturbance (unlikely as there is UPS unit feeding and cables are secure)
* ESD transient via Ethernet port
* Inductive transient due to vacuumer engine

For what it is worth: UPS input power is from ungrounded 230VAC socket. Vacuumer input power was also from ungrounded 230VAC socket, but from another wall.

I filed this also as a support request, but would be delighted to hear input from others. Has anyone else had strange problems like this with Intel NUCs or NICs?

Any other general thoughts?

[Steven_Intel]

Hello JannePaalijarvi,

Thank you for posting on the Intel® communities.

Since you already have an existing technical support case open, we will proceed to close this thread. 

If you need any additional information, please submit a new question, as this thread will no longer be monitored.

Best regards,

Steven G.

Intel Customer Support Technician.

[n_scott_pearson]

This is a general thought - which may have absolutely nothing to do with your situation - but I thought it worth mentioning...

I have been told by the experts that any NUC that has a power brick that outputs greater than 90W is required to include a safety circuit that doesn't play well with UPS units that generate a simulated sine wave. In these cases, you need to be using UPSs that generate a pure sine wave output.

Hope this helps,

...S

[JannePaalijarvi]

Hello,

Thank you for replying. Every bit helps. Yes, this NUC has the power brick. Output 19.5V * 11.8A ~ 230W.

I have also https://www.apc.com/shop/hr/en/products/APC-Back-UPS-Pro-1600S-1600VA-230V-Sinewave-AVR-LCD-8-IEC-outlets-2-surge-/P-BR1600SI

It says sinewave... But another product of theirs advertizes "pure sine wave": https://www.apc.com/shop/fi/en/products/APC-Smart-UPS-Line-Interactive-1000VA-Tower-230V-8x-IEC-C13-outlets-SmartConnect-Port-SmartSlot-AVR-LCD/P-SMT1000IC

Oh, it means PFC? I have been working with PFC assembly and C code on digital rectifiers. I gotta get a hold of someone at APC to answer about this. Thanks again!

[JannePaalijarvi]

I contacted APC/Schneider about this, waiting for their response about the PFC.