Windows 7: Intermittent connection loss (Asus P5KC)

Hi,

I have a problem where my internet connection will drop at least once a day. I have Windows 7 Business x64. It will first simply stop working, as in it looks like it's connected, it still has a public IP but I can't ping out and no browsers work, nor any games etc (you get the picture). If I try release/renew it'll either hang or give me a 169-address. To fix it I have to reboot my computer and it starts working again.



I have an Asus P5KC motherboard using the Windows 7 Windows Update drivers, and it's been like this pretty much since the start. I've turned off all power saving modes everywhere I could find and any sort of hibernation settings, and still it'll cut off almost always once a day. (I have a VNC server so I can log on from work, so I can tell when it 'crashes'.)

What's funny is that it often doesn't happen when I'm on the computer, it's mainly when I've been gone for a bit. That's not to say it hasn't happened when I've been at it, it's just more uncommon.

It's setup to a switch which in turn is connected to my modem. What's telling me that it isn't neither the modem nor the switch that has the problem is the fact that I have a mediastation which doubles as a webserver also connected to the router and it has never once cut out. I've tried switching the ports on the switch (ha-ha) to no avail.

I've been thinking about installing the Vista x64 drivers from Asus but I'm leery of trying because I don't know how similar the two systems are.

Is this a general issue with this board? I'm getting reeeaally sick of this problem. Hope somebody can help.

Thanks.

edit:
Also, I'm sorry for not posting this in the megathread we apparently have but I couldn't bear slogging through 43 pages of white noise and hope that my post wasn't lost at the tail end of it. There are so many issues being handled in there that I can't make heads or tails of who has the same problem.

Just posting to say that I tried the latest drivers from the Asus website and they told me I was using an unsupported operating system so I guess that option is out the window.

(I chose the x64 Vista drivers.)

Im thinking the same thing, i also have asus P5KC and running Windows 7 and i want to update my bios for 64x, but only xp 64x and vista 64x is avalible at asus homepage, is vista 64x driver okay to use?

Have you given Windows the power to turn off your NIC? That's usually the default setting.

No, as I said in the original post I've switched off all of those settings that I could find. In the NIC settings and the windows power settings.

I would say that I am really disapointed with Asus as I have a P5KC too. I have the exact same problem when running PS3 media server and I lost connection after one minute. I have to reboot to fix it. I manually installed the driver from Asus's website and by forcing it it fixed the problem.

However I just re-installed Windows7 64 again as after fixing the network issue I was loosing one SATA drive all the time again when streaming after couple of minutes.

I had no issue on Vista 64. When I bought that crappy board two years ago the PC was shutting down. I fixed by itself after a network driver upgrade.

If you find anything let me know. This is the worst MB that I ever bought!

There must be problems with ASUS motherboards and Windows 7 in networking. It seems pretty widespread now. My brothers' P4S800D-X is connecting, but it only works in bursts and then sometimes it pauses. Really annoying. He'll be going back to Windows XP pretty soon if we don't resolve the issue.

Just found a thread on Asus yesterday and everything is now fixed! I did the modification for the network and network was fine but still had the SATA disk who will disapear!

I loaded the Intel and INF driver from ASUSTeK Computer Inc.-Forum- P5KC not ready for Windows 7 and now I can stream again to my PS3 without loosing network and disks... So drivers from Windows 7 are defenetively a problem and Asus is not providing the drivers !

Well, some of them at least. I'm still fighting with the JMicron RAID controller a little, but here's where I'm at right now:

NIC: Do NOT use anything with Atheros in the name. I spent months cycling between various versions (not to mention 2 routers) with no luck maintaining any sort of network stability. Eventually, I tried the Vista x64 drivers from ASUS's download page for the P5KC (version 2.1.6000 according to the .inf) - the most recent drivers they offer. Against all common logic, these drivers have been rock solid since then (~6 months ago). The only catch is the installer will tell you that it doesn't support your OS and exit. To avoid this, install the drivers manually through device manager. If that scares you, you can also run the installer and when it quits after the error, Windows 7 will ask you if you want to apply compatibility shims and try again. Answer yes and the installer will re-run. If you choose this method install only the drivers - skip the Attansic utility.

If anyone comes across a version of the driver that will actually run stable under Windows 7, I'd LOVE to hear about it. I've had everything from network dropouts to BSOD's to hard hangs trying various incarnations of the Atheros offerings, including both versions offered through Windows Update and those from Atheros directly.

RAID: Unfourtunately, the jurry is still out on that one. I've had mixed results here. Version 1.17.53_WHQL ran fine for me for several months running Win 7 x64 from my RAID, but i'd see the odd controller error in my event logs. Nothing that ever impacted my normal use. Since moving to an SSD I installed version 1.17.55_WHQL_eSATA the controller has completely crashed a couple of times. I'm going to try 1.17.53_WHQL again, and will post my results. In the mean time, try 1.17.53_WHQL - it doesn't seem to be perfect, but it does seem to be functional. So far all drivers I've tried have come directly from JMicron - I haven't tried ASUS's Vista drivers under 7 at all yet. I think I might, just for S&G, and will post my results.

Chipset: Here, the current version offered by Intel seems to work just fine. I've not had any major issues with any of the versions I've installed so far. Get the Intel® Chipset Software Installation Utility INF Update Utility for the Intel 5, 4, 3, 900 Series Chipsets. That'll take care of your USB and Intel SATA controllers.

Everything else works great (so far) with native Windows 7 drivers. I've had no issues with devices not listed above. Some don't come on the disc, and you'll have to get them through Windows Update, but fortunately the native NIC driver (usually) will hold itself together long enough to pull off a driver run. I'd recommend you stard by downloading the above mentioned NIC driver (while you can) and proceed from there (seriously, I've had some BIG issues with some versions of that Atheros driver. Some were just annoying, but some brought the system right to it's knees!).

It's not been an entirely smooth road to find working drivers, but all-in-all the P5KC runs Windows 7 extremely well. Not surprising, as it's a killer board that was far ahead of it's time. I was blown away to have snagged mine at the "middle shelf" price range a little over 2 years ago now. It's got some top shelf attributes even by current standards! My setup earns a 6.3 rating on Windows performance index with the P5KC as it's backbone - and I still have a little bit of wiggle room left yet to squeeze up to probably a 6.9 out of it. This is the best value per dollar motherboard that I've ever seen - hands down.

Happy tweaking,
Z

Hi all, I too experienced a very similar issue to the above. I'm running a P5K mobo on Windows 7 64 Pro and whenever my wife watched a movie using PS3 streaming and I played a video game which was either multiplayer or required internet connectivity due to windows Live or steam etc.. I would lose connectivity and would need to reboot or disable and re-enable my nic card. I had the Atheros driver. As soon as I installed the Vista 64 driver which in turn changed the nic from Atheros to Attansic everything has been running smoothly. Thanks to Zaph0d for the tip ;-)