Windows Management Instrumentation Troubleshooting
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Affected Roles: Owner, Administrator
Related Digital Watchdog VMS Apps: DW Spectrum IPVMS
Last Edit: August 24, 2023
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WMI and “HWID Not Found” Issue
Customers will sometimes change parts and components of DW Spectrum Server computers, which can lead to a Server reporting that the Hardware Identification (HWID) is not found, usually represented by the message “HWID Not Found”. Such situations include:
- The OS of the computer has been changed (Ex. Updating from Win7 to Win10).
- Hardware components have been replaced or failed (Ex. Motherboard, network interface card (NIC), RAM, or CPU).
- Updates to the BIOS have been made to the motherboard.
- A merged configuration is reporting that a Server is inaccessible as the Server cannot communicate to verify that licenses are accessible).
However, there are some cases where no such adjustments have been made to the Server, yet the HWID cannot be found. As the DW Spectrum System’s Hardware Identification (HWID) is determined by the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), if WMI is working properly, it is expected that Spectrum will collect the correct information.
The most common reason for an unexpected HWID change, other than the causes outlined above, is sometimes due to WMI failing to function properly. This can sometimes happen for reasons related to the OS, but the most common cause is due to Windows System Updates.
This article will outline how to determine why the HWID is reported to be missing.
**NOTE: For more information related to troubleshooting this issue, you may refer to the article “License Problem: Server Not Found”.
Supported/Affected Devices:
- DW Blackjack Server Series (Windows)
Identifying the Problem
Checking WMI Functionality
A simple way to know if WMI is functioning properly is to:
- Open the Start menu in Windows and open the System Information (msinfo32) application.
- If WMI is working as expected, you will see System Information populate with information about the system, like the image below.
- If WMI is not functioning properly, it will report that information cannot be collected.
If WMI is not functioning as expected, you can get a better idea on when the issue started by looking at the DW Spectrum logs.
Reading DW Spectrum Hardware Logs
Directly at the Server computer, navigate to:
C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\Digital Watchdog\Digital Watchdog Media Server\log
Depending on the version of DW Spectrum Server that is installed, you may see the file listed as two different things:
- HW_log.log (5.0 and older)
- system.log (5.1 and newer)
This log file will contain virtually all instances of when the media server has started since the software was initially installed. When you open the file, you will see a list of times that the server was started, followed by the information that pertains to the hardware as it was detected.
For example, a server with a functional WMI running 5.0 or lower will have logs that look like this:
2023-02-12 17:33:44.309 17c4 INFO START: Digital Watchdog Media Server started, version: 4.2.0.32842, revision: c56b2bc06b90
2023-02-12 17:33:44.309 17c4 INFO START: Binary path: C:\Program Files\Digital Watchdog\DW Spectrum\MediaServer\mediaserver.exe
2023-02-12 17:33:44.309 17c4 INFO START: Log level: info
2023-02-12 17:33:44.309 17c4 INFO START: Log file size: 10M, backup count: 25, file: C:/Windows/system32/config/systemprofile/AppData/Local/Digital Watchdog/Digital Watchdog Media Server/log/hw_log.log
2023-02-12 17:33:44.309 17c4 INFO START: Mutex implementation: qt
2023-02-12 17:33:44.436 17c4 INFO HWID: {"biosID":"J46LNK3","biosManufacturer":"Dell Inc.","boardID":"/J46LNK3/CNPE1001AD02MF/","boardManufacturer":"Dell Inc.","boardProduct":"0NDYHG","boardUUID":"44454C4C-3400-1036-804C-CAC04F4E4B33","compatibilityBoardUUID":"4C4C4544-0034-3610-804C-CAC04F4E4B33","date":"2023-02-12T17:33:44","mac":"30:D0:42:F9:C4:XX","memoryPartNumber":"CT16G4DFD8266.M1XXX","memorySerialNumber":"E6083BA0E6085380","nics":[{"mac":"30:D0:42:F9:C4:XX","xclass":"PCI"},{"mac":"84:D8:1B:E9:44:XX","xclass":"PCI"}]}
You will notice that it is collecting all the information from the media server, including BIOS information, motherboard information, RAM information, and NIC information.
However, the same server with problems with WMI will look like this:
2023-08-17 19:25:31.889 15d8 INFO START: Digital Watchdog Media Server started, version: 4.2.0.32842, revision: c56b2bc06b90
2023-08-17 19:25:31.889 15d8 INFO START: Binary path: C:\Program Files\Digital Watchdog\DW Spectrum\MediaServer\mediaserver.exe
2023-08-17 19:25:31.889 15d8 INFO START: Log level: info
2023-08-17 19:25:31.889 15d8 INFO START: Log file size: 10M, backup count: 25, file: C:/Windows/system32/config/systemprofile/AppData/Local/Digital Watchdog/Digital Watchdog Media Server/log/hw_log.log
2023-08-17 19:25:31.889 15d8 INFO START: Mutex implementation: qt
2023-08-17 19:25:31.900 15d8 ERROR HWID: No network cards detected.
2023-08-17 19:25:31.900 15d8 INFO HWID: {"biosID":"","biosManufacturer":"","boardID":"","boardManufacturer":"","boardProduct":"","boardUUID":"","compatibilityBoardUUID":"","date":"2023-08-17T19:25:31","mac":"","memoryPartNumber":"","memorySerialNumber":"","nics":[]}
2023-08-17 19:25:31.900 15d8 INFO HWID: Hardware IDs: ["74be16979710d4c4e7c6647856088456", "01d41d8cd98f00b204xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxe", "02d41d8cd98f00b204xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxe", "03d41d8cd98f00b204xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxe", "04d41d8cd98f0204xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxe", "05d41d8cd98f00204xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxe"]
A key indicator in the example the report above is that there are no network cards detected (ERROR HWID: No network cards detected.) as well as the “nics”:[]} field is reporting that there is no MAC address.
If the HWID reports that it starts with a “7” such as listed above, this is also a guaranteed indicator that WMI is not functioning properly (even if WMI is not working as expected, it may still report “05”).
Using this as a frame of reference, we can look at the previous logs to compare when the issue took place. In this scenario, we found that on the same day had a functioning WMI, but then hours later, this log reported an issue.
We can look in the Windows Event Viewer for the day and find that Windows updates took place, causing WMI to fail to respond as expected.
Using the same information, we can also see if other items have changed. For example, we can use the log files to determine if there were changes, such as a NIC card failing or being replaced. By cross-referencing the hardware log information and Windows Event Viewer information, we can typically pin-point the time the issue started.
We can also see if the NIC information is reported differently than before in multi-NIC environments. For more information in how to resolve this issue if the MAC changed as it was reported in WMI, you can refer to the article “Troubleshooting: HWID Changes in Multi NIC Environment ”.
If you find that WMI is not functioning properly there are a few methods that can potentially resolve the issue:
- Roll back any Windows updates that took place to create the problem (if applicable).
- Create a database backup of the server, save the backup to a thumb drive, and run an OS recovery.
- Find information online that can help with repairing WMI. This is not suggested by our team, as there can be unexpected consequences from changing WMI interactions.
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