Windows 2012 randomly dropping off the network while running VMWare 5.5

For the last few days while running a Windows 2012 R2 x64 server which was originally built on VMWare 5.1.x,, but moved to a 5.5.0, this servers network card appears to be dropping out and all network traffic stops altogether.

Restarting services wasn't good enough to start the network again, only a complete machine shutdown and restart worked.  This made some of the interested parties quite irate.  And me.

There were a number of thoughts that crossed my mind - recent firmware patch, physical network switches, SAN connectivity, VM (virtual) Hardware, Windows OS, Windows software.  Each were ruled out until VM hardware was left.

Digging through the VM Properties, I'd spotted some settings that I'd disregarded before.
Guest Operating System and Network adapter type.

Guest OS was set to Windows 2008 R2 x64 as there seemed to be a bug in 5.1 for us where the Virtual machine wouldn't even start up to install the OS if W2012x64 was chosen at machine build, but downgrading to W2008R2x64 worked.  Doing that however defaulted the network adapter to be E1000.  The default Adapter for W2012x64 is E1000E.

At the next network halt several steps were made.
1. Removed the Server from the Inventory (***REMOVE NOT DELETE!!!!***)
2. Created the new VM and chose the OS to be W2012x64
3. Moved the virtual hard drive from the SAN to local storage (this machine was supposed to be running locally - not from the SAN).
4. Added the correct IP address back to Windows and unbound it from the network card that is no longer being shown in Windows.
5. Removed the old version of VMWare tools which the machine knew wrongly was Window2008R2x64 and installed the version for Windows 2012 instead

The machine seems more responsive while RDPed onto and has been stable for a good few hours now :/  Or maybe that's some hope from a System Manager

Fixing a Bosch 2000 AXT Shredder

Fixing a Bosch 2000 AXT Shredder

I bought a shredder from ebay for £1.75 which had a fault on it of it kept blowing fuses when switched on.  At that price, what did I have to loose.

Got it home, sure enough, popped a new 13A fuse in the plug, turned it on and it came on for about a 10th of a second and blew the fuse.  I decided to take it apart to see if there was any visible sign of blackening or physical damage.  Nothing

Undid the side screws

Undid the lid

Pulled the front containing the switches off

There wasn't much in there, just the back of switches, bridge rectifier and a 450v 20uF capacitor.  There was no damage or blackening to any of the components and figured there was no other components further under the casing except for the power to the motor & if that is gone.... game over.

Even though there didn't appear to be any bulging to the capacitor, I bought a new capacitor from ebay for £9.09 and waited a week for it to be delivered.  Turns out I'd ordered the wrong one as this one had 4 tabs on the top, instead of 2.  Hay ho, bought it now.

Opened the case again and checked the capacitor was discharged by shorting the capacitor to prove to myself, there was no charge in it.  Last thing I wanted was a 340V+ DC shock.

Touching both tabs on the capacitor.  First time I did this was with an insulated glove.  Took it off for the photo

Took the old capacitor out by removing the spade plugs and unscrewing the capacitor, then doing the new one back up again.

There is no +ve or -ve/Gnd marks on the capacitor, so I figure the polarity didn't matter.

With the front still hanging off, I turned the switch on at the front, then plugged it in and turned it on at the switch.  Success!  Started turning and making a very weird noise which went away after a few minutes.

Put the front and top on and spent all afternoon using it.

Cost to buy new (currently) £190.  My spend £10.84 + diesel money for the collection.  Bargain!