nic card problem ?

renovation · Post by **renovation** » Sat Mar 30, 2013 9:59 pm

this sound right or possible ?
my INTERNET will be running fine .then out of the blue I'm loosing connection to the INTERNET .I'll have all lights on my router and modem and the nic cards still lit up. I'll power down my modem and router and wait 30 sec to 1 1/2 Min's power them back up and still no connection . but if I reboot my system everything is fine till the next time this is happening and it seems to about once a day. I'll try and do a repair connection though control panel . I get a message to get a hold of the system Mgr. windows (xp pro ) was unable to repair problem. its not a biggy to add a replacement nic card but i thought i run this by you guys first. right now I'm using a on-board nic card. also windows is fully updated with the latest updates .
my thought is the nic card is just getting weak or going bad .

I do run multiple open window at one time .

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Sat Mar 30, 2013 10:20 pm

Yup. Sounds like the NIC. They're cheap enough anyway.

b-man1 · Post by **b-man1** » Sun Mar 31, 2013 10:38 am

are you just losing connection to the internet, but internal pc-to-pc and such is still up? you mentioned the NIC lights are still on. when it happens again, can you:

1. ping the loopback address of the problem machine?
2. ping your router/gateway?
3. get to other local computers?

the repair connection option may already do it, but you can try manually disabling the NIC, then enabling again to reset it. one last thing to try is checking the network cable, in case it's going bad for some reason.

renovation · Post by **renovation** » Sun Mar 31, 2013 11:44 am

I'll have to wait till next time it happens . check if its just this one machine - not tryed connecting using wifes Ipad or her computer to see if there still commected.feel dumb right about now for not doing the later !

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Sun Mar 31, 2013 11:49 am

There's a known issue with a lot of on board NICs and XP. For some reason they just start doing that. The fact that the only fix is a reboot seems to imply that's the issue. A lot of the consumer mobos use rather cheap onboard NIC chipsets.

There's a LOT of tricks you can try, and I've been through most of them, but I don't bother anymore. When a client's onboard NIC acts up I just replace it with a card. They're so cheap now I don't even charge for the card, I just east it in labor.

If nothing else, installing a new NIC will confirm one way or the other if it's the onboard NIC or not, and if it turns out to be something else then it never hurts to have a spare NIC lying around.

renovation · Post by **renovation** » Sun Mar 31, 2013 12:47 pm

FlyingPenguin wrote:There's a known issue with a lot of on board NICs and XP. For some reason they just start doing that. The fact that the only fix is a reboot seems to imply that's the issue. A lot of the consumer mobos use rather cheap onboard NIC chipsets.

There's a LOT of tricks you can try, and I've been through most of them, but I don't bother anymore. When a client's onboard NIC acts up I just replace it with a card. They're so cheap now I don't even charge for the card, I just east it in labor.

If nothing else, installing a new NIC will confirm one way or the other if it's the onboard NIC or not, and if it turns out to be something else then it never hurts to have a spare NIC lying around.

Im incline to agree and it being easter sunday im not ripping into this rig to add a card today!

eGoCeNTRoNiX · Post by **eGoCeNTRoNiX** » Sun Mar 31, 2013 9:03 pm

I have had the same problem mentioned, however just disabling/re-enabling the NIC fixes it. What's weird is that it happened with two different computers and two different sets of hardware.. lol

Computer 1: 17" HP DV7 Laptop & SMC Modem/Wireless N router - Loses internet access but not network connectivity. Also still happened with the same machine and new Modem and WRT54G

Computer 2 : Home Brew - Same symptoms/resolutions as above but happening on the new modem/WRT54G this machine was never hooked up to the comcast modem/router.

I actually have a feeling I really know what's happening, just don't know why.. It usually only happens when I'm doing some heavy torrenting.. I'm guessing that too many connections get opened and it gets flooded.

Only reason I threw this out was to see if perhaps Reno is also torrenting heavily when this happens..

Not sure if there's a setting I can change on the router to resolve this or not. I still haven't gotten around to DD-WRTing this router so it's stock firmware..

eGo

renovation · Post by **renovation** » Sun Mar 31, 2013 10:33 pm

not torrenting just plain surfing or open up let say a forth web page .been having problems with facebook to. on facebook my browser will like slow down or crash. most the times it happen do facebooks has been one of the sites that be open. tomorrow night im going to add a loose nic card in this rig and see if that cures both problem (facebook ) and crashing /loss of service

wvjohn · Post by **wvjohn** » Mon Apr 01, 2013 7:50 am

Had that problem with a couple of machines at my old office. I had a bunch of NICs I had picked up for cheap somewhere and and a new one fixed the problem. Easier that screwing around with the software, etc.

renovation · Post by **renovation** » Mon Apr 01, 2013 4:35 pm

card swap seem to make page loading faster and not so choppy . i need a day or to to see if lock up problem is solved ~

renovation · Post by **renovation** » Mon Apr 01, 2013 10:11 pm

seeing I burned up my last loose nic card laying around -I just placed a order on newegg tonight for 2 cheap. ($8.99) ENCORE ENLGA-1320 Ethernet Card 10/ 100/ 1000Mbps PCI 1 x RJ45 with free shipping .