In the BIOS option for many PCs I've looked at- you typically see these 3 options (among others) which you can enable/disable independently:
- Power On By External Modems
- Power On By PCI Devices
- Power On By PCIE Devices
In my experience- WoL only functions with the on-board NIC when the 3rd option "….PCIe devices" is enabled.
It would make more sense to me if it said "Power On By on-board Ethernet" or something equivalent.
My question: why would an on-board network card (not an add-on card plugged into a PCIe slot) have anything to do with the PCIe option in the BIOS?
Is there some link between PCIe and the onboard NIC on some PCs, or was this just an arbitrary BIOS design decision? I've seen this on various different models of PC, from different manufacturers. Sorry I don't have specifics right now.
Best Answer
All on-board devices are in fact attached via PCI or PCI express. Rather than using a physical peripheral slot, they are instead hard-wired PCI/PCI-E devices -- directly to your motherboard's north-bridge chipset (PCI-E) or south-bridge chipset (PCI).
The only difference between an on-board device and a peripheral card is that on-board devices are not removable (without some guru level of soldering skills of course).