W7 Network actons lag PC, same problem multiple PCs

ChrisInVT · 25 Feb 2010

Yeah, I'm currently waiting on some new hardware before I do any more testing. I've thought it was a driver issue from the beginning, but I was put off to the thought since I used different cards. Come to find out, every card I used was a Realtek chipset - so now I've ordered a new NIC with a Broadcom chipset. I've read a few places that the reaktek chipsets have some problems with W7 - which would explain why EVERY HP PC I have W7 installed on has this problem.

And yes, Compaq is now a model of HP

ChrisInVT · 26 Feb 2010

Alright, this is a CONFIRMED problem with Realtek NICs.

I have a brand new PC I built at work:

AMD Phenom x4 955
4GB DDR3
Dual Realtek PCIe gigabit NICS

SAME FREAKING PROBLEM after a fresh install of Windows 7. ANYTHING I do lags the PC, I can only get a 3MB transfer between this machine and a file server (Both have dual gigabit NICs - I was able to utilize a trunked 2Gb connection in XP!!). CPU usage goes from 3% idle to 70% when transferring a file, and the mouse & keyboard become unresponsive.

I am stating that there is a SERIOUS problem with any Realtek NICs and Windows 7, driver & tech support is crap from Realtek regarding this issue.

ChrisInVT · 26 Feb 2010

I fixed it! This speedtest was done on my server, so upload/download is swapped for the actual PC in question.

Code:

6:32 PM > =======================================
6:32 PM > Creating temporary file chunk of 30MB ...
6:32 PM > Writing 30MB to \\172.72.72.100\ADMIN$...
6:32 PM > SEND SPEED: 7,022KB/Sec in 4.375 seconds.

6:32 PM > Grabbing 30MB from \\172.72.72.100\ADMIN$...
6:32 PM > DOWNLOAD SPEED: 10,240KB/Sec in 3 seconds.
6:32 PM > =======================================

What I did was install older VISTA drivers manually from this site: http://www.realtek.cz/ I used the drivers dated 2008-10-30 and they worked wonderfully! I found this out because I was researching the same problem with the Realtek NIC chipset in my PC at work. It was a BRAND NEW PC that I just built, and as soon as I installed W7 it had the same problem as the PCs I had at home. I finally found that site and tried the older Vista drivers and my 300k connection went up to almost the full 2Gb I was supposed to have (4Gb full duplex).

EDIT: HAHAHAHAHA, who was I kidding?!!?! It went back to being a piece of crap. Even after installing the new Marvell gigabit PCIe NIC, same problem. This is the result on the gigabit card:

Code:

6:57 PM > =======================================
6:57 PM > Creating temporary file chunk of 30MB ...
6:57 PM > Writing 30MB to \\172.72.72.102\ADMIN$...
6:57 PM > SEND SPEED: 1,172KB/Sec in 26.219 seconds.

6:57 PM > Grabbing 30MB from \\172.72.72.102\ADMIN$...
6:57 PM > DOWNLOAD SPEED: 10,240KB/Sec in 3 seconds.
6:57 PM > =======================================

And now this is the result of the onboard Realtek NIC:

Code:

6:58 PM > =======================================
6:58 PM > Creating temporary file chunk of 30MB ...
6:58 PM > Writing 30MB to \\172.72.72.100\ADMIN$...
6:59 PM > SEND SPEED: 804KB/Sec in 38.218 seconds.

6:59 PM > Grabbing 30MB from \\172.72.72.100\ADMIN$...
6:59 PM > DOWNLOAD SPEED: 2,363KB/Sec in 13 seconds.
6:59 PM > =======================================

I'm going to try some older drivers. I still think it's wierd that the system interrupts kill the download to the PC more than the upload. I'm really starting to hate Windows 7

ChrisInVT · 26 Feb 2010

No dice with even the oldest Vista drivers. There's no reason for the NICs to fun at full power when the computer first boots up, and then several minutes later they slow down and the system interrupts kill the PC. I think I'm just going back to XP. Maybe 7 SP1 will fix the issue whenever it comes out.

Perplexer · 30 Sep 2010

Hi.

Every solved your problem ?

I got a similar issue. My workstation PC is running Win7 and my server is running Windows Server 2008 Enterprise. If I transfer data FROM WS2008 to Win7 over Gbit, the speed drops to 5000 KB/s and the Win7 PC stutters terribly, mouse moves at 1 FPS. If I transfer in the opposite direction all is OK, speed 40.000 KB/s.

Seems to be something with Windows 7 because if I disable the LAN NIC and then re-enable it, the "down" speed will be ok .... for a few hours or for a day. Then the same speed drop and stutter occurs.

It's also interesting that this happens only when I transfer data FROM WS2008 server PC. Transfer with other PCs on this LAN (W7, XP) works fine both ways.

The thing that bothers me is that it works for a few hours if I disable/re-enable the NIC from the network connections window, and then stops again after a few hours. Sounds like it's going to be hard to troubleshoot this.

ChrisInVT · 30 Sep 2010

The problem eventually went away on it's own, I think there might have been a windows update patch that corrected the problem (because my laptop started working correctly also).

What are you running for anti-virus & anti-malware?

GameCharmer · 03 Nov 2010

Same issue here. We are running Win 7 x64 Ultimate on a Windows SBS 2008 Domain and have constant issues with insane network lag. I had to kill and restart explorer twice just today. This issue seems to come and go as well. Some days I have no network issues, and other days I reboot my PC 4-5 times before they go away. Likewise as well, I don't have these issues with Windows XP.

ChrisInVT · 03 Nov 2010

What are you running for anti-virus & anti-malware?

surfasb · 03 Nov 2010

I'm surprised you didn't check the Event Viewer. Typically, it will flag events that take longer than usual to complete.

GameCharmer · 04 Nov 2010

To ensure it wasn't anti-virus issues, I re-formatted the hard drive, installed a fresh copy of Win 7 and Office 2007 and still get the issues with no AV/AM. I even tried changing the network security settings from 128bit to the other setting (some odd bit count) and that still doesn't fix the weird lag issues.

I typically just run Microsoft Security Essentials, considering all of our email is filtered via 3rd party and our internet is fairly secured via our gateway.