nForce 2 integrated NIC drops signal w/ heavy load, PCI recommendations?

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Badger

Gawd
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Nov 6, 2004
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Whenever I have a lot of programs open that use the internet, I lose my internet connection. For instance, I have AIM open, then I open XFire and Steam. I load a game of Counter-Strike: Source, and always, always, I get a message anywhere from 5-20 minutes later saying I've been disconnected from XFire, and then most of the time, but not necessarily at the same time as XFire, the game will minimize to the tray while AIM pops up the message that I've lost connection and is now reconnecting. So then I can log back on to XFire and AIM, and alt-tab back into my game and keep playing.

I also lose internet connection a lot when I have Morpheus open along with XFire or AIM. It just seems that if there's a lot of traffic going through, I drop connection. And it doesn't say in my tray "A Network Cable Has Been Disconnected", that never pops up, it just drops the signal and those problems lose it and go crazy and disconnect.

This has been happening for some while, I Googled for a fix and came across a post at the nZone forums where a lot of nForce motherboard users were having similar problems with their onboard nForce NIC's (not just nForce 2, but 3/4 as well).

The router is a Linksys RT31P2 - a 3 port wired ethernet w/ 2 phone jacks for Vonage VoIP. Connected to that is a DLink DI-524 b/g wireless router for a laptop. My desktop is wired to the Linksys by 100ft of cat5e from newegg.

The motherboard w/ the onboard NIC is an Albatron KX18DPro nForce 2 Ultra 400
AMD 2400+ mobile
XP Pro

I'm guessing my best solution is to go with a PCI NIC. I'm not sure what a good one is though, I see good things about 3Com but I don't know. Best Buy has the DLink DFE-530TX+ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833127102 for $15 I could pick up. Would that work alright for me?

Thanks a lot for any help.
 
I'm fairly certain I'm going to just get a new NIC and hope that fixes the problem. I can't decide which one though:

LINKSYS LNE100TX 10/100Mbps - I can pick this up at CC for $25, at BB for $30, or Newegg for $23 shipped.

D-Link DFE-530TX+ 10/20/100/200Mbps - I can pick this up at CC for $15, at BB for $15, or Newegg for $18 shipped.

3com 3C905CX-TXM 10/100Mbps - I can only get this at Newegg for $25 shipped.

Which of those three is going to be the fastest and most stable, and not give me troubles like my onboard NIC? What are people's recommendations? Some online reviews like DSLwebserver.com showed good numbers for the Linksys, and Tom's gave a good review for the 3Com.
 
I'd go with the 3com; it will probably have lower CPU utilization than the other two.
 
Out of those 3x, the 3COM is far superior to the others. However I'm not sure the onboard nForce is your issue....but only takes a few minutes to test another NIC to see.
 
Thanks guys... but what else could it be? The computer is clean. I guess it could be the ethernet cable or even the coax cable to the modem. It might be the router. We've been having trouble with the Vonage VoIP - faint voices and echos mainly. Would not having enough juice through the coax to the modem create that (and my) problem? We have a bidirectional amp on it, but it's Radioshack so who knows how effective that is.

I'm going to give the 3Com a try unless someone comes rushing in with a better suggestion.
 
After experiencing similar issues (random disconnects, fixable only by rebooting) with my nForce 2-based system, I put in a $5 RealTek PCI NIC and haven't experienced any issues or loss in performance so far.

Any NIC will be better than built-in nForce NICs.
 
I have the same exact problem with my NF2 system. With a lot of torrents going and various other WAN activity and I lose my internet connection. Windows reports no problems and my cable modem is still blinking away but everything reports disconnect errors. I even had comcast come out and check my signal. Only thing I can think of is my onboard NIC.
 
Can you plug directly into the modem and log into it to get to a status page? Some modems will tell you the signal-to-noise ratio of your connection. I don't know what the threshold is for a good connection, but some reading over at dslreports.com (perhaps in their forums) would probably be informative.

In any case, having a spare NIC on hand is always a good thing, and if it solves your problem, then it's $23 well spent.
 
Well I'm glad I'm not the only one with problems. I don't know how to log into the modem. It's one of those Motorola jobs - white with a standby button on top. Is there a specific IP you have to log into to access the modem, like you have to do for a router?

This is the post from the nZone forums where all the nForce users are having problems

I'll have to look tonight to see if I have a spare NIC, but chances are it's just a cheapy from an age old machine that probably wouldnt work right anyway.
 
The first thing I would do is hook the modem directly up to the computer bypassing all routers. Then start up your normal games and things like that to see if you have the same problem yet. If you don't have the problem, it's unlikely that the NIC is the cause but one of the routers.

Some routers have trouble with a lot of connections. I've seen it happen before. I've also had similar problems when my Windows install has gotten messed up. It happened just recently due to some bad shutdowns on my system. I started to get errors and had problems with freezing programs and things locking up. One of the main things that would cause this was when I was trying to run Bittorrent. The system would throw a fit if I tried to do much. I have the DFI Lanparty and the only problem I have every run into with the integrated NICs is when I go over 200 FSB, the gigabit NIC likes to crap out on me and refuses to connect with anything.

If the problem still happens after directly hooking up the modem, then make sure the modem is not getting too hot. A hot or old modem can cause problems like disconnects. I've seen it happen with a friend's modem. He had an old Surfboard modem from the cable company that worked for years. It was finally giving up the ghost, though. no amount of cleaning to keep it cool helped. It also looked like the modem was connected and nothing was wrong. However, disconnecting and reconnecting the power to the modem solved the problem every time.

I would look into your routers and cable modem before replacing the NIC. They could be causing the problems instead.

Everything being said, I would still recommend you pick up another NIC. It's always good to have at least one extra laying around. I keep an ISA NIC around and just ordered three more PCI NICs since all my spares ended up in other systems. Yes, the ones I am getting are used, but I don't really care. Pure performance isn't a major issue on most of the boxen I have. Plus, the ones I'm getting are 3Coms anyway. They generally work rather well.

 
Generally, once plugged directly into the cable modem, you'd visit the IP address of the modem (called the Default Gateway by Windows, you can find this either through the Local Area Connection Propertues under the Support tab, or run the command prompt and type 'ipconfig') through your web browser. According to the FAQs on dslreports, Motorola cable modems all have 192.168.100.1 as their IP address by default.

Here are the applicable pages on dslreports.com:

FAQ: Accessing modem diagnosic screens.

FAQ: Acceptable cable modem signal levels.
 
According to the second FAQ (the link is now fixed), the downstream & upstream power levels and the signal-to-noise ratio are all easily within acceptable ranges. The problem doesn't seem to be there. I would try what SmokeRngs suggested, see if the problem still takes place when you're connected directly to the modem. If yes, then get the NIC.
 
Alright, bum bum bummmmm:

I plugged the computer directly into the modem and.......


same problems.

sooo, 3Com network adapter it is! a good excuse to get my hands on some new hardware. ZipZoomFly has it for $25 w/ 2nd shipping.

Thanks for all the help guys, I really didn't expect this number of responses (my first time this low on the subforums list, haha). I'll order the 3Com and will post back with results.
 
I got the 3Com NIC and installed it, updated to latest drivers. Doesn't really seem to have fixed anything though, programs still lose connection when I have multiple apps running that require the net.

I've tried messing around with some tweaks from dslreports.com, like RWIN but it doesnt seem to have made a difference. I'm beginning to question the 100' ethernet cable itself - it's just the cheap generic brand of Cat5e from newegg and is probably in some pretty tight spots running through boards under the floor, probably getting stressed on some corners. I see that newegg also has Cat6 cable - is that stuff any good? 500mhz vs. 350 mhz (Cat 5 v. 6). I probably wouldnt see any benefit, would I? But for an extra buck it might not hurt.

I'm running out of ideas. The cable, modem, and router all seem to be in fair shape. Is there something I could do on the Linksys router? It's at all default settings. Then again it could just be Windows - I'm thinking of reformatting this weekend anyway. Those on the nVidia forums though, from the link posted above, said that even with a PCI NIC and a reformat, the problems still occurred for them, so who knows if it can be fixed.
 
didya check your wires?

step#1. check all physical connections. swap it for another wire, see if it works.

step#2. with your 3com nic comes diagnostic utilities that check to see if the physical media is working. use it.

step#3. if it ain't physical, then it's somn2do with software. msconfig/antivirus/spyware, etc. check it out.
 
Badger, do this.

Go into control panel --> adminstrative tools --> event viewer --> system.

In there, see if you see any warnings from the source of Dhcp, if so, you may be reaching the max amount of connections thats windows xp sp2 can handle.

There is a way around this, but lets just see.
 
It could still be a problem with your cable modem. It sounds old school, but try pointing a fan at it and seeing if it helps. I guess that it's overheating because it's doing so much work when you have all those connections doing p2p. I had a router that would do the same thing.
 
Badger said:
Whenever I have a lot of programs open that use the internet, I lose my internet connection. For instance, I have AIM open, then I open XFire and Steam. I load a game of Counter-Strike: Source, and always, always, I get a message anywhere from 5-20 minutes later saying I've been disconnected from XFire, and then most of the time, but not necessarily at the same time as XFire, the game will minimize to the tray while AIM pops up the message that I've lost connection and is now reconnecting. So then I can log back on to XFire and AIM, and alt-tab back into my game and keep playing.

I also lose internet connection a lot when I have Morpheus open along with XFire or AIM. It just seems that if there's a lot of traffic going through, I drop connection. And it doesn't say in my tray "A Network Cable Has Been Disconnected", that never pops up, it just drops the signal and those problems lose it and go crazy and disconnect.

This has been happening for some while, I Googled for a fix and came across a post at the nZone forums where a lot of nForce motherboard users were having similar problems with their onboard nForce NIC's (not just nForce 2, but 3/4 as well).

The router is a Linksys RT31P2 - a 3 port wired ethernet w/ 2 phone jacks for Vonage VoIP. Connected to that is a DLink DI-524 b/g wireless router for a laptop. My desktop is wired to the Linksys by 100ft of cat5e from newegg.

The motherboard w/ the onboard NIC is an Albatron KX18DPro nForce 2 Ultra 400
AMD 2400+ mobile
XP Pro

I'm guessing my best solution is to go with a PCI NIC. I'm not sure what a good one is though, I see good things about 3Com but I don't know. Best Buy has the DLink DFE-530TX+ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833127102 for $15 I could pick up. Would that work alright for me?

Thanks a lot for any help.
Click to expand...


I haven't read this whole thread yet... but I had the EXACT SAME PROBLEM not to long ago. I was using a Marvell onboard controller. It happened on more than one install, different drivers, different settings, and never figured it out. I posted up a detailed finding over on Genmay and no one else had ideas. Only thing recommended was to try a PCI card. I went ahead and through in an old Intel 10/100 PCI and what do you know. The problem was solved indefinetly!

Good luck :)

:edit
oh, looks like you did put in a 3Com and it's still occuring.
Yeah I would try a shorter wire and see how it does. If it works, replace the cable.
 
I had a similar problem with my onboard Marvell Gigabit NIC, until I updated my Asus A7V880 bios.

Then everything ran fine after that.

Go Badger!
 
wow talk about a helpful community! alright let's see here, first things first:

JediFonger: I'm currently working on finding the right utility for the 3Com card. It's a little trickier than I though, and I just installed some stuff that I didn't before, so we'll see how it works out now.

nas82: Well, you asked for it, haha: EDIT: Looking at this, all those problems were last seen in December, and not at all in January, even though the problem still occured. There are, however, a lot of other "errors" and "warnings" in the even viewer.

EventViewer.jpg


lanG: The cable modem overheating is a possibility, however the last time I felt it while I was having problems, it wasn't hot at all, just warm. It is stuffed in a drawer and I'll go back and see how it works again under heavy load. The phone service (Vonage) also goes through the router and modem, so that could be a contributing factor.

Ezekial: I think I may need to try a new cable. Should I spend the extra buck for Cat6?

Thanks a lot guys, you've been a ton of help, it's been a really frustrating problem and hopefully I can get it all straightened out.
 
A 100' run of CAT5 should not generally be an issue but if it's cheap stuff that could be it. Another thing you could try, if you have another switch laying around, would be to put the second switch at your end of the long cable then run a shorter cable to your computer. Having power at both ends does sometimes help with long runs of cable.

As for cables - yes, CAT6 is "better" (higher frequency rating, lower loss) than CAT5/5e so if you don't mind a little extra cost go for it. Check out www.monoprice.com for some good deals on cables.
 
Orinthical - Thanks a lot for your input. I do have an extra router, in fact, and I will try it. What you say makes sense - have power at both ends with a short cable to the computer.

I also decided to reformat, not just for the sake of the weird connection problem, but because it was just that time again. Once I have everything installed and ready to go I'll report back.
 
I don't know if you are useing any cable splitters, but I had the same types of problems and they cleared up after I replaced my cheap generic Radio Shack" splitters. Cost more, but definitely was worth investing in the best quality splitters available.
 
After a fresh reformat of Windows and the new PCI NIC, the problem persists. We even upgraded our bandwidth from 384/128 to 3000/256 (big difference in dl speeds), but I still lose XFire and AIM connection.

I haven't tried the router trick at my end of the line yet. There is one splitter before the modem, but it was recently replaced by the cable guy, and the modem's signal looks good so I don't think it's there.

I'll try the modem thing, if that doesnt work I may have to resort to replacing the cables with cat6, it's cheap enough to give a try.
 
I THINK THE EXTRA ROUTER FIXED IT!!!

I put a spare D-Link DI-604 between the router that's connected to the modem and my computer, and after a test of CSS + XFire + AIM I didn't have any disconnects, no hiccups whatsoever. Hopefully it wasn't just a fluke, and hopefully I didn't just jinx myself.

I really didn't think it would work, but so far so good. It kind of acts like an amp for the ethernet. Hope it keeps up.

Thanks a bunch guys for all the tips.
 
We even upgraded our bandwidth from 384/128 to 3000/256 (big difference in dl speeds)
Click to expand...

Yeah that's a decent upgrade, you should of done that long ago. ;)
 
:mad: It seems I was premature in my celebration. After playing around in a server tonight, I lost XFire and AIM connections. I did have a higher ping than usual, which may have been a part of it, but it was still sad to see...

I doubt if new cables will do anything, either, but they're cheap enough to give a shot...
 
The cream-of-the-crop nics are intel pro/1000's

They are about $25. Snag one, you won't regret it.

Rob
Badger said:
I'm fairly certain I'm going to just get a new NIC and hope that fixes the problem. I can't decide which one though:

LINKSYS LNE100TX 10/100Mbps - I can pick this up at CC for $25, at BB for $30, or Newegg for $23 shipped.

D-Link DFE-530TX+ 10/20/100/200Mbps - I can pick this up at CC for $15, at BB for $15, or Newegg for $18 shipped.

3com 3C905CX-TXM 10/100Mbps - I can only get this at Newegg for $25 shipped.

Which of those three is going to be the fastest and most stable, and not give me troubles like my onboard NIC? What are people's recommendations? Some online reviews like DSLwebserver.com showed good numbers for the Linksys, and Tom's gave a good review for the 3Com.
Click to expand...
 
In my experience I have simply not run across a better quality network card than those from intel. Back in the day 3COM NIC's used to be the most reliable but over the last few years I've noticed them becoming more like Bose or Creative Labs - sure they work well but the technology really hasn't changed in years nor do they seem adaptive to the growing demands of the enterprise.

Intel NIC's have the best throughput, are made from quality components and are relatively cheap for the performance ratio.

You might not notice a difference versus a realtek or via based gig card... but that's twelve to fifteen dollars... you may as well spend a little more and get something that won't crap out on you. =)
 
but it takes a lot fo configure a good high throughoutput network.

the "ultimate" in nic is onboard directly interfaced with PCIe bus. those are the faaastes.t==;
 
Thanks guys. You had me contemplating returning the 3Com and getting the Intel from monoprice along with the ethernet cables, but then when I tested my connection again, this time without the router, it was fine with no disconnects :rolleyes: I tried servers that I was getting low pings in, and high pings in, and it didnt matter, I still didn't disconnect.

So for now, things seem a little touchy. I'm going to keep playing around, seeing what works and what doesn't.
 
Update:

Well, it seems I've done everything possible on my end. I did a reformat, upgraded cable from 384/128 to 3000/256 speeds, used the 3Com NIC then went to monoprice and bought the Intel Pro/1000 MT NIC (returned the 3Com) and got a 50' Cat6 cable, along with some shorter Cat6 cable to run to/from modem and to/from other computer and router(s). Installed everything, put it all together.

A fresh system + increased bandwidth + fresh NIC + fresh cables all around = same issue as before. I still get temporary disconnects from AIM and XFire when running Steam or playing CS:S.

So I guess it's a Windows problem. Or an nVidia nForce problem and something with how it handles internet traffic. I wonder if Via chipsets have the same issues?
 
First I'd have to say that I've never seen your particular issue on any nforce or nforce2 board I've owned... I have similar things happen with VIA based boards though.

Anyhow, with your follow-up details I'd say it's one of the following:

You mentioned you rebuilt the machine (reformatted, reinstalled,etc.) - did you do any tweaks of any kind? Did you see if this happened before them?

Bad Motherboard? - Like I said, I've never seen this particular issue on any nforce board that I've ownwed. Maybe it's a bad run on the motherboard or - if it was running great for a while thne started acting up - perhaps a component got too hot or shorted out and is now acting up.

But something I don't think was mentioned yet - is your router configured for any kind of QOS or packet prioritizing?

Also - have you tried a different port on your router/switch? While I haven't necessarily seen bad ports cause limited bandwidth (normally it's either on or off), I have seen ports go bad for one reason or another.

Best of Luck,
 
Hello Orinthical, thanks for looking.

I did some Dr. TCP tweaks, before and after, it didnt make a difference I still had the problem. That was it though as far as tweaks.

A bad motherboard could be the problem. It's Albatron, which is a weird company. Some fan headers have died on me, but it's weird that the internet would act like it does.

The router is configured for voice QoS, because we have Vonage. It gives the phone line 200 Kb/s upstream when the phone is in use. The problem happens though whether the phone is in use or not. It also happened before I enabled the QoS (very recently) and now after.

I assume you mean different physical ethernet ports on the router? I'm pretty sure I have switched them around in there a bit, after the rewiring and all.

I'm pretty certain it's something inside my PC case. Looking through the event viewer I see a lot of "Warnings" and "Errors" in DHCP, E1000, Browser, IPNATHLP, and TCPIP all last night at 8:50 and 11:51 PM. I think 11:50 ish would have been the last time I had all those programs open and had the problem with the disconnect. Today, however, just before writing this post, I was again "testing" (ok, really gaming) with AIM, XFire, Steam/CSS and I didn't have any disconnects or erros/warnings in the event viewer. I was fooling around with the network earlier but doubt if I did anything substantial. Chances are when I try again later the problem will pop up again.

Last note here, looking through the event viewer farther back I see A TON of NetBT errors. I can't place them at the scene of the crime, I can't remember if I was testing then or not (they happened a few weeks ago and there's no NetBT errors in recent days).

EDIT: looking up NetBT doesnt make it sound like it's a big issue. Just the thing for file/printer sharing, which is working fine on my network.
 
What concerns me most about what you just said was that several of your fan connectors have died in the past... that's not normal in my experience and both that and your networking issues are probably symptoms of the same underlying issue.

The errors you are seeing in your event log can be caused by a number of issues but your network card losing conenctivity from time to time would explain most of them. Considering that you've already rebuilt it once - I would start looking at or considering a replacement motherboard.

The fan lead problems could be caused by power problems on the board (which could also be causing the PCI drop outs - which in turn cause your network problems) or they could be caused by bad solder leads on the board... either way that is not good.
 
Thanks. The motherboard has 3 fan connectors, only one (the CPU) works as it should, the one by the northbridge either doesn't start a fan or doesn't report RPM like it should (I can't remember which of the two broken ones had what problem, and I don't need this header since the northbridge is cooled passively) and the 3rd connector is for a case fan, its problem is, again, either doesn't start the fan or doesnt report/allow control of the fan speed, I can't remember which one had what problem.

Hmmm... new socket A motherboard, or wait and put up with it until a total system overhaul...
 
dude. have you tried a direct connection without any router? if you succeed and you don't get any internet drops, it's your router.

if it still happens, it's your external internet connection. either somn directly outside of your house/residents or somn FUBAR @ISP. stop spending$ unless you're richl337 =-).
 
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