Why is time "Unknown" in vPro log?

[mcbsys]

Hi,

I'm trying to get access to a remote machine. It's a Lenovo M55p with vPro in Small Business mode. I can access the vPro web interface, and I can turn the computer off and on, but the computer apparently does not finish booting because I cannot get to my in-band remote control tool (LogMeIn). The last time the computer was online was May 6 at about 6:45am.

When I look at the event log in the vPro web interface, I see that vPro stopped knowing what time it is after May 5:

Any idea what is going on with this machine? It's possible that it lost power for a couple days (I was unable to access even vPro at first). Maybe the CMOS battery was low and when it lost power, it lost time? But when I cycle power, the last message I see is "Starting operating system boot process," so I don't understand why the machine won't come up.

Thanks,

Mark Berry

MCB Systems

[mcbsys]

I had someone go on site and confirmed that the machine did come up but that the system clock was off (showing a date in 2001). No doubt the CMOS battery has died. Once he manually set the clock to the correct date and time and rebooted, I again see the date and time in the vPro logs. Why it wasn't showing the 2001 date in the logs, I don't know--maybe it won't allow dates to go backwards, or maybe it knows that the battery is dead. Would be nice if it provided a way to set the CMOS clock, but I don't see that option.

Also, the last message in the vPro log when rebooting is "Starting operating system boot process," so that is the normal behavior.

Mark Berry

MCB Systems