DMV computer fixed after chaotic morning

DMV computer services have been restored following a Tuesday morning system crash that forced statewide offices to turn away appointments or reschedule them.

DMV spokeswoman Jan Mendoza told the Chron the crash happened before 7:30 a.m. and was resolved around noon.

She also said that offices had phone service, but lost access to the Internet and the DMV’s internal networks.

Around 9 a.m., the DMV tweeted:

DMV is currently experiencing technical difficulties that may affect customer transactions. We appreciate your patience.

— CA DMV (@CA_DMV) August 14, 2012

Only scheduled driving tests were fulfilled during the outage.

Customers with Internet access, however, could still access the DMV website to process other requests.

Adam Dondro, assistant secretary of external affairs at the state Office of Technology Services, said the DMV’s routers failed due to a communication break between the router and the Verizon network the DMV uses.

He also said state workers need to identify which router broke down:

“We’ve been kind of peeling the onion to try and figure out where it is and haven’t been able to nail it down yet.”

A similar network crash occurred hours earlier after AT&T made changes to their routers overnight.

Dondro said that the Department of Consumer Affairs and the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency was also affected.

Mendoza said that Tuesday’s outage was simply a connectivity issue and is not related to the new computer system the DMV installed in 2010, which suffered a series of meltdowns shortly after it was installed.

In light of the outage, the DMV encouraged Twitter followers to read a recent blog post about what to do should an incident like this happen again.