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Ethernet Connection Lost (and Found?)
Let me start by saying that although I am new here to SevenForums, I have been a Windows 7 tester since the "pre-beta" bits were distributed at last year's PDC, and have been an active early adopter since the RTM versions were made available on MSDN earlier this summer.
Up until about a week ago, I had honestly not been experiencing any real headaches with the new OS as I upgraded 2 different 32-bit Vista machines and performed a clean install on my x64 machine at work without any issues whatsoever. However, my honeymoon with the Windows 7 upgrade experience ended when I performed an upgrade install to my x64 Vista machine about two weeks ago. The upgrade process went smoothly enough despite the large number of existing applications that were present on that PC; it took awhile to complete (~2 hrs), but everything seemed to be working fine afterwards...
...until I started noticing an annoying tendency for my network connection to drop whenever I was attempting to access music files stored on my home server, with sporadic drops also observed in Outlook and while browsing the web.
That is what eventually led me here, where I found a fairly lengthy thread on a topic entitled "Ethernet Connection Drop." I found a lot of good information and plenty of sage networking advice in this thread, but it also occurred to me that there seemed to be a very wide variety of users with different configuration scenarios that seemed to be experiencing a similarly broad variety of problems with their LAN/Internet connections. Folks are reporting problems and proposing solutions for everything from ISP's, routers and modems, network adapters and settings, and everything in between.
The general trends I observed on that thread were that this dropped connection problem could happen with practically any type of NIC, but seemed to occur more frequently for folks that have performed an upgrade install on a 64-bit Vista machine. Obviously there are just too many variables in play for there to be any sort of one-size-fits-all solution, and that thread has now grown so large that finding those useful nuggets of information that do exist there takes quite a bit of effort, can be easy to miss, and may not apply to your specific system configuration.
So, with a little nudge from Tews, I proposed that maybe a new thread was needed where users are encouraged to include some of the details of their particular systems and problems in the attempt make it a bit easier for folks with similar configurations to find information that might be more pertinent to them.
In the interest of building such a cross-reference, I am asking that posters please include at least the following information when discussing either their problems or suggested solutions to the dropped connection issues that seem to be occurring on many Windows 7 PC's.
Let me demonstrate by using the specifics for the issues I encountered.
- Motherboard type and/or NIC chipset(s) having the problem
- Wired or Wireless (or both)?
- CPU Architecture (x86 or x64)
- Upgrade or Clean install?
- Driver details (i.e. manufacturer and version of driver experiencing connectivity issues)
- Problem description (LAN? Internet? Frequency?)
- Solutions or Suggestions
Obviously your mileage may vary.
- Motherboard/NIC: MSI P6N Diamond - nForce 680i SLI chipset
- Wired or Wireless: dual wired gigabit connections (both fail)
- CPU Architecture: x64
- Upgrade or Clean Install: Upgrade from Vista x64 Ultimate to Win7 x64 Ultimate (MSDN RTM version)
- Driver details: Microsoft default driver for nForce ethernet adapter
- Problem description: Frequent loss of LAN connection when streaming media from home server (every 30 secs to 2 mins), sporadic drops also observed with email client and while browsing. Drops were isolated to this particular machine and did not interrupt connections on other PCs sharing the network (ruled out router and broadband modem).
- Solutions or Suggestions: Downloaded and installed the latest nForce 680i SLI ethernet drivers for Win7 x64 (version 73.14, released Oct. 6, 2009) directly from nVidia support site. I did not install anything from the driver package other than the ethernet driver, rebooted and have not observed any connection drops in nearly a week. More details here.
This is not meant to hijack the other thread, but if posters and respondents can try to provide/maintain some type of link to the specific configurations being discussed, maybe it will make it easier for those with similar systems to search this thread for related content.
Here is a blank template to assist you with formatting your replies:
Hope this helps.
- Motherboard/NIC:
- Wired or Wireless:
- CPU Architecture:
- Upgrade or Clean Install:
- Driver details:
- Problem description:
- Solutions or Suggestions:
Last edited by RugbyHoe; 27 Oct 2009 at 11:45. Reason: Added a "wired or wireless" category and response template