natet wrote:I don't know if this was resolved, . . .
Sorry I never followed up on this. It has been resolved. To answer some questions first, the cable run is less than 100 meters. In fact, there is one other WAP on a longer run that works just fine. I tried the factory resets harddrive recommended to no avail. And I restarted them in a different order. Same result.
So, I physically moved the ever-booting WAP to the position with the shortest run from the firewall. It did not work there either. Based on this, I figured that the WAP itself was having the problem.
I also took the functioning WAP closest to the router and moved it to the position of the bad WAP.
It did not work. Based on this, I thought there might be a problem with the wire run from the router. When I returned the previously functioning WAP to its original position, it fired up correctly and worked just fine.
So now, I suspected I had both a bad WAP
and a bad run from the router. The thought crossed my mind that there possibly was a problem with the power supply, or something else amiss in the router area.
At this point I went back to my daytime job and my nighttime Church calling. I submitted a work order using FIR, describing the problem and the tests I had done in swapping the WAPs, along with the results, and asked them to fix it. About three weeks later, someone thanked me for fixing the WAP (it was the one outside of the Relief Society room at the stake center-- lots of users).
And sure enough, when I checked myself a few days later it had been fixed, rewired, replaced, or whatever else the FM Group did to solve the problem. What they actually did, of course, I have no idea, because I have yet to run into someone who can tell me. I do know that the WAP is different (new MAC address), so it must have been replaced. And the cable from the patch panel to the power supply for that WAP position seems to have grown several inches.
I suspect my initial conclusion that the both the WAP and the wiring to it were bad may have been correct.