"Ethernet" Connection Drop

For me, as yet, it certainly only has happened when I've tried to copy a file to my server. The transfer just seems to make it explode. Having said that I have downloaded stuff fine, although that was overnight on a fresh install whereas this morning Windows Update added a host of new stuff so I'm not sure if it was fine yesterday and one of the updates has screwed it.

I'm not home at the mo so tonight I'll try different NIC drivers etc etc. Can't believe it would be the Quadcore but the prob seems so wide-ranging it may be tricky to trackdown. I'll post my NIC specs when I get in so we can have a compare.

It's a proper show-stopper for me though because it's the machine I use to work at home on.

I'd hazard a (relatively uneducated) guess that it's a driver issue and it's falling over when pushed hard. Having said that people have replaced onboard NICs with bought ones and nothing changes, so maybe it's a chipset thing.

Never simple is it?

FWIW - the machine I was having problems on was also a quad (Q6600), but I'm not sure if it's relative. It's now been 3+ days with no drops using the nVidia 73.14 ethernet driver for Win7 x64 they released on 10/6, but I'd did not install any other drivers from the 680i chipset package...

I've just upgraded Vista 64-bit to Windows 7 on the retail, upgrade release and I too am having dropped connection issues. Tried looking for drivers on the ASUS site but no go. Doesn't even list Windows 7 as a supported OS for this board.

I'm going to try the Nvidia site for the SLI 590 and see what happens.

Part of my guess is gigabit support. When I go into the Advanced, driver details under speed/duplex I see 100MB Full Duplex listed but nothing higher. I've also turned off allowing Windows to power off the device when not in use.

I'll let you know how this goes..

spoduke said:

I've just upgraded Vista 64-bit to Windows 7 on the retail, upgrade release and I too am having dropped connection issues. Tried looking for drivers on the ASUS site but no go. Doesn't even list Windows 7 as a supported OS for this board.

I'm going to try the Nvidia site for the SLI 590 and see what happens.

Part of my guess is gigabit support. When I go into the Advanced, driver details under speed/duplex I see 100MB Full Duplex listed but nothing higher. I've also turned off allowing Windows to power off the device when not in use.

I'll let you know how this goes..

FWIW - Looks like there are definitely "fresh" Win7 drivers available for the 590 series on nVidia's website.

So I've been lurking on this thread for a couple weeks now. I am experiencing this issue as well on the new computer I built recently. Specs are in my profile but the important details: I'm running Windows 7 Professional RTM on an ASUS P55D EVO motherboard with onboard dual gigabit Realtek 8112L / 8110SC LAN adapters. One is connected via PCIe and the other PCI.

I have tried the drivers on Realtek's site, the drivers on ASUS's site, the drivers that came in that windows update a few weeks back. All of them have this isssue.

I have tried using both the PCI and the PCIe adapter. Both have the issue.

I have changed every configuration option in the driver settings, including power management on both adapters, and power management to PCIe within my Windows 7 account profile. I have also disabled IPv6 using netsh. After every change I made I continued to have the issue.

Network failure in the case of this issue is the inability to open new connections until reboot. The adapter shows that it is connected, and all open connections will remain open (AIM remains open, existing file transfers continue, etc), but I cannot open new connections. Disabling/Enabling the adapter does not fix the issue. The adapter will drop all existing connections, reboot, and then claim to be working, but no connections can be opened until the machine reboots.

The issue ONLY occurs on large file transfers. If I transfer a gigabyte of files from this Win7 desktop to my laptop, the issue will occur. If I run uTorrent overnight, the issue will occur. The failure rate seems very high as well. I have only had 1 night in the last 2 weeks where the issue did not occur if I was running uTorrent.

The issue DOES NOT occur if you are not transferring files over the network. If I close uTorrent and cease transferring files to my other computers, I can leave the computer running for 3 days and never have the issue.


I had been waiting for Realtek to release a new driver now that Windows 7 is retail. They released a download on 10/23/2009 with the same driver version number which did not fix the problem. As of now it seems my only option is to buy another network adapter, although based on the posts in this thread this issue is happening to many different brands of adapters so I'm not sure buying a new one will even help.

Thanks in advance if anyone has any pointers or fixes. I'll be happy to provide more information if you need it.

Chasm said:

As of now it seems my only option is to buy another network adapter, although based on the posts in this thread this issue is happening to many different brands of adapters so I'm not sure buying a new one will even help.

Save your money. I also have Realtek 8111's and decided to buy a D-Link PCI adapter card. It has the same exact problem.

I think the problem is W7 vs. ethernet adapters.

hance said:

Hi everyone, i joins with you because i have the same problem of droping connection in about every 20minutes. I have tried to update all drivers :

Mother board : ASUS P5Q-E , so i have an Marvell Yukon 88E8001/8003/8010 PCI Gigabit Ethernet

Drivers saw by windows when i installed win 7 : Drop connection.
Drivers update with windows update : Drop connection.
Drivers update downloaded from ASUS for win 7 x64: Drop connection.

I feel very strange because :
Other PC use the same LAN in XP , vista : No problem.
I didn't have this kind of drop with vista x64 ultimate.
I didn't have this kind of drop for my fiste month of using windows 7 Ultimate RTM

Same motherboard here and I am having the same issue. Although the problem only occurs under high bandwidth loads. For example if I am downloading a large file at high speeds ~2 MB/s or more my network cards will just disappear. They don't show up in task managers, network tab. Ram usage spikes to 90% or more and I can't open anything. Only option is to press the reset button.

Downloaded the latest drivers from the Marvell site and still didn't help.

I've been reading through probably hundreds of posts and I've been seeing the same recurring words....Asus and Nvidia. Being that it's the same setup I have and I'm having sort of the same issues ( I can't even connect to the internet though) I think we have to wait for them to get together and get their heads in the game to give us some drivers that actually work.

maximoutlaw said:

I've been reading through probably hundreds of posts and I've been seeing the same recurring words....Asus and Nvidia. Being that it's the same setup I have and I'm having sort of the same issues ( I can't even connect to the internet though) I think we have to wait for them to get together and get their heads in the game to give us some drivers that actually work.

The chipset on the Asus board I have is Intel, although the network adapters are Marvell. Do you have links to other threads about this issue?

Well, Im really not sure on any of the ADAPTERS, that every body seems to be haveing problems with. Network Adapters.

1. I am using Realtek RTL8168C-8111C - Not one problem.
2. one laptop has Marvel
3. one laptop has Atheros
4. one laptop has Intel

I have NO PROBLEMS WITH DROPPING CONNECTIONS ON ANY OF THE UNITS.

All units are using DEFAULT Drivers installed by Windows 7.
So I would ask that all of you consult your ISP and insure they are set to
accept Windows 7.