Network Card negotiation issue

We have a number of dell laptops that are not auto negotiation the correct speed on the network. They connect at 10mbs rather than 1gbs

Is there any way to force the 1gb speed through group policy or a reg hack or such like?

These wouldn't be Latitude E6400's would they?

I have one at work with exactly the same problem, haven't had time to reimage yet to see if this fixes the problem.

They are indeed that exact model.

We have circa 200 here for the staff but the majority of them use them wirelessly so only stumbled upon the issue by accident yesterday.

Have reimaged many times with various xp images and still same issue.

Maybe a bios update?
Is there a frimware update for the nic?

You could try using a Linux live cd and booting into that to see what speed it connects at.

Is it when running on battery power that it does it?

Try:

Go to "Network Connections" > Local Area Connection Properties > "Configure" > "Power Management" tab > Make sure "Reduce link speed during battery operation" is unchecked.


Steve

If its an intel network card maybe try the driver from intels download page as apposed to the dell download page

Also try a few different network cables connected directly into the gigabit switch on a couple of the ports on the gigabit switch to see if it does the same on the switch as apposed to a data point.

I am on leave this week but I'll try the driver updates when I am back in, not opening mine up when on leave, I will only end up working which is not what I want!

i had similar issues with dell gx270's (yes fairly old) that set to auto negotiate they wouldnt dhcp. In the end i firmware flashed the switch and the problem went away was a hp managed switch (various of them in different schools) but only affected that model of pc and not 100% of them

Will try for the drivers and a different OS tomorrow..

Not sure how I can roll out a driver update though if its not through MS Update?

It happens on power and Battery

Reg hack to force 1gb an idea?

The only problem if you do a reg hack is that if they plug into another switch for example at home that can't run at 1000 you will have a problem.

We had an issue with the firmware for CD/DVD drives for Dells- DVDs would play but SUPER patchy and almost unwatchable. Firmware update for the drive later and all was sorted. I went around Dept by Dept and did them all manually.

I would start with drivers, then look at firmware on the laptop, and lastly firmware on the switch if you have a spare you can test on.

Can't roll drivers out via Windows Updates but can make it part of your image (or WDS if you use that) and catch them next time they're re-imaged.

In your case, the laptops work in the mean time, so leave them with staff until someone complains (and frankly I doubt anyone will even notice) and then just update those that come in.

Switch is much easier to solve centrally but also much easier to nuke your entire network setup.

Avoid a reghack as it assumes too much about the environment the laptop will be working in- or set to 100Mbps.

Interestingly out of the 10 or so of these laptops I have here only 2 were displaying this issue even though they all have the same drivers/firmware/bios etc.

Anyway, Ive upgraded the bios on the two troublesome ones, (from v6 to v20 - guess they are more than a bit out of date) and the problem has been resolved.

Thanks all

Dug my work laptop out today, BIOS was on A15 so upgraded to A20.

NIC driver was 9.50.14.2 and upgraded that to 9.52.25.2, until I am back in the office I am not sure if this has worked, I shall keep you posted.