Computer no longer likes 100MBs full-duplex!

[SimpleSi]

Bought 28 desktops over hols (Fujitsu Win7 64 pro with realtek PCIe GBE on-board) and one of them just started disconecting and connecting 1/sec

 

I shifted it from admin to curric network - same behaviour

Booted it off my linux Redobackup CD and it found the network fine but back in windows I've had to tell it to run at 10Mbs to get it to ackle!

 

I see some chatter on Google but not sure if is some sort of gloabl issue of not - anyone else had this?

 

Or got a better "cure"

 

Simon

[FN-GM]

Reinstall drivers? If not i would just reimage will be quicker than messing about getting it working

[SimpleSi]

Unfortunately it is the one machine I setup for the admin network with sims etc on it so its unique

 

Once I got it working at 10mbs I told it do do a driver update which it did but still same issue

 

Simon

[FN-GM]

Well sims is a 2 min job, surely?

[gshaw]

Realtek NICs are a pain, I'd say chuck an Intel Pro\1000 PCI card in there and be done with it

[SimpleSi]

Realtek NICs are a pain

I don't think a brand new computer should be unable to handle 100Mbs even if its a pain

Simon

[Michael]

What switch is it connected to? And I presume you've tried a different patch lead and port on the wall?

[m25man]

Is the port PoE enabled? If so disable the PoE..

[oxide54]

not completely off topic, but @m25man you're signature reminded of a post a whille back I think you made about a fluke tester, what was the model.

[m25man]

not completely off topic, but @m25man you're signature reminded of a post a whille back I think you made about a fluke tester, what was the model.

 

Which one? I have them all... The etherscope is still my favourite, but this has been replaced lately with the LinkRunner AT Ethernet Connectivity Tester | LinkRunner AT Network Auto-Tester | Fluke Networks as its a really quick frontline tool but for wireless the Aircheck is proving invaluable.

 

Ive drawn the line at the Optiview, £20k for a field tester is nuts!

[SimpleSi]

Just in case people missed the beginning

Bought 28 desktops over hols (Fujitsu Win7 64 pro with realtek PCIe GBE on-board) and one of them just started disconecting and connecting 1/sec

 

I shifted it from admin to curric network - same behaviour

 

Simon

[oxide54]

si

 

you really should have all your machines re-imageable with virtuallly none to none interaction including this one;

 

in all honesty you've got a few possible causes here.

 

1. software problem / drivers

2. hardware problem i,e, dodgy nic/mb

3. dodgy cabling

 

you know it can work because the other machines work, given this machine is unique - software/drivers is a possiblity,

 

have you swapped out all the cabling

 

have you tried the hard disk in one of the other machines which would tell you whether it was software / drivers problem.

 

tbh its not rocked science,

[SYNACK]

Smells like dodgy cabling to me, have had similar were the cable is just shocking, older cards sometimes worked better as they were designed to run with rubbish cable wired badly rather than proper stuff. Grab a basic tester and make sure it is wired properly, borrow a decent one and see if the cable itself is at fault. Try re-terminating the ends, that may help. They were probably wired be an electrician, hence are probably miswired and untwisted centimetres more than it needs to be.

[twin--turbo]

Realtek NICs are a pain, I'd say chuck an Intel Pro\1000 PCI card in there and be done with it

 

Considering realteks massive massive volume they rarely give real issues.

[SYNACK]

Considering realteks massive massive volume they rarely give real issues.

 

Their old ones did, some were almost as bad as the SiS 900 series. The drivers also have no wait state in them to solve these name resolution problems, they just report themselves as ready which is why they can sometimes suffer issues like this. If the driver includes a WaitForLink function it won't report that it is ready to Windows until it actually is preventing such problems.

[Dos_Box]

Their old ones did, some were almost as bad as the SiS 900 series. The drivers also have no wait state in them to solve these name resolution problems, they just report themselves as ready which is why they can sometimes suffer issues like this. If the driver includes a WaitForLink function it won't report that it is ready to Windows until it actually is preventing such problems.

 

Don't ever, EVER, mention the SiS 900 again on this site. I still wake up at 3am because of the nightmares that chipset caused me.

*shudders*

[twin--turbo]

Don't ever, EVER, mention the SiS 900 again on this site. I still wake up at 3am because of the nightmares that chipset caused me.

*shudders*

 

I am sure we one had 75 PC World Book PC's with the SIS chipset ( amoung many other faults! )

 

Rob

[oxide54]

well i apologize for underestimating your skill set but the only things you've stated towards solving the problem yourself aren't exactly detailed or numerous.

 

and maybe change your name

[SimpleSi]

toEveryone

oxide54's reply doesn't make sense because I deleted my post that wasn't very complimentary towards him.

Simon

[SimpleSi]

I popped into the school on Friday and one of the machines on the curric network was exhibiting the same behaviour

 

Just what I need - 28 brand new desktops with dodgy network interfaces

 

You'd think by now this would be one thing that just worked on a computer

 

Simon

[oxide54]

given you said it worked fine booting off usb / iso for a linux distro, its got likely its the windows drivers?

 

but i used to have problems running one of our servers using the HP supplied drivers it would randomly just not ping certain hosts on the network and I mean random, i ended up re-formatting and using the built in server 2008 r2 drivers and never had a single problem since.

[bossman]

@SimpleSi:

 

How are your switche ports set up? Auto negotiate?

 

Do your switches have STP configured on all your ports?

 

Some nics cannot sync sometimes with some switches with certain configurations and this can cause conflicts whereupon the switch ports actually shutdown or the nics slow down to virtually no speed throughput at all.

 

If as you say a curriculum machine is showing signs of this also it could be a switch port config problem?

 

Another theory is that all those 28 machines have the same batch of nics in and they could be from a bad batch of manufacture, only way to tell is to install another nic of a different manufacture.

 

Good luck my friend