Realtek 8139 drops the network build 7068

[themouse]

Hi everyone,

I am running a clean install of build 7068 64 bit on my amd x64 6000+ x2 athlon, I have a server which holds all of my media and so I play everything over the network. I use media centre for playing everything but I find that in the middle of a video/mp3 file media centre freezes and I have found that the network has dropped its connection. I had this problem with ALL of the builds but with build 7000 & 7048 updating the network card drivers to the latest fixed the issue. Now it doesnt matter what I try from build 7057 up it randomly does it. The OS does not freeze but what ever media centre is doing it takes so many resorces that everything takes about half an hour to respond so I end up switching it off.
This has been the case on the 32 bit builds also. I dont know what microsoft are doing with the network but it is really getting annoying.

Any ideas anyone?

 

[johngalt]

Yup - use the link to the left under your name to update your system specs so we can get an idea of the mobo and other specs - I suspect it is a driver issue for you, or else it *may* be failing hardware (doubtful, as it works on the next reboot)....

 

[themouse]

Thanks for your reply

I have updated my system specs hope this helps

 

[johngalt]

Have you looked for updated drivers and such from Foxconn - Support - Downloads

 

[themouse]

The latest driver they have is 2006 which is a bit old but I can see if can force windows to use it. . . .

Thanks for your help, I will post one way or the other.

 

[themouse]

Well I just downloaded the driver and it is only 32-bit they have no 64 bit driver listed. The realtek 8139 is such a generic chip I am surprised that I am having this problem. I remember when vista was released, I purchased the 32-bit version and it did the same thing. I got the latest driver from Realtek and the problem went away. Maybe there is a strange implementation of the chip on my motherboard, I cant think of any other reason cause it would appear other people arn't having the same issue.

 

[copernicus]

The driver update from windows update totally borks my network connection, I just leave the default driver that gets installed.

 

[themouse]

I have tried both, the default and the updated one. They both stop working

 

[johngalt]

Did you happen to find an updated Tulip (sorry, a *nix thing - 8139s were so new that we were forced to use a semi-generic driver called "Tulip" - that actually worked pretty darn well) driver from RealTek's site?

 

[torrentg]

What you describe sounds exactly how my PS3 would operate trying to play files over the network. I ended up figuring out that it was the connection type on the PS3 that was causing it, when I changed it to something it technically shouldn't be. I think I made it half duplex instead of full and then it started working amazing...1/2 second response time to play a standard .vob video file.

Maybe if all else fails and the tulip driver does not help, you could try something similar like I did.

 

[themouse]

Thanks guys for all your help

Yes I have downloaded the latest drivers from the realtek website and tried them. They are the drivers that worked in build 7000 but not for 7057 or 7068

I have today installed 32 bit 7068 release and the network connection failed freezing the computer this time. I have temp. plugged in a usb 56mb wireless card and it has been fine, it just taking longer to open files. There must be something bad with the driver for it to freeze to OS completely.

I will try forcing the NIC to half duplex and see what happens.

 

[themouse]

Half duplex made no difference it just dropped off again, replugged in the wireless and away it went again.

 

[themouse]

Reinstalled build 7048 for the past day has been fine no problems hope this is sorted for the offical RC release

 

[johngalt]

weird. Either it is a driver issue of your card is going south, slowly....

Right now I'd bet on a driver issue. For example, all previous builds installed my ScanJet 7400C automatically - 7077 did not have it and I had to installing it via Windows update - only that driver failed to install 3 times so I reverted to the HP Vista driver.

 

[themouse]

It looks like it may have been a bios setting, the LDT timing for hypertransport, it was set to 1ghz i made it auto. Its not a setting I would change, and it seems strange that the network was all that was affected but I will see if it remains stable, I had no issues yesterday at all

 

[conloso]

I have similar issue with my Lenovo S10. I paved it with build 7068, and the wireless will drop randomly, and regularly, like every 10-20 mins. All i can do is reset the wireless nic. The only S10 driver available is XP(which i actually tried - didn't work so well).
The card is a very generic Broadcom as far as i can tell.

 

[themouse]

I am lucky, the bios setting was all it took, i am on build 7048 and I have had no issues at all, running awesome I suppose I should go back to build 7068 but if it aint broke ......

 

[conloso]

I ended up re-paving with 7077. Haven't look back since!! 7077 fixed wireless issue, and has been rock solid. It even seems faster, certainly for login screen and shutdown. This is the build to be on.

 

[themouse]

I have been using 7048 all week with no issues at all! With all the excitment of the RC leak I installed 7100 today . . . and the network dropped its connection . I have noticed that with all the problem builds 7057, 7068 and now 7100 that initally after the installation the network performs ok for about 4-6 hrs then it fails. After that point it starts to fail faster like after an hour then 30 mins.

I have just installed the latest driver from Realtek's site fingers crossed it will be ok.

(And here was me thinking i had sorted it with the LDT timing in BIOS)

 

[themouse]

Well the latest driver from realtek hasnt fixed it, dropped again. What is the difference from build 7048 which worked perfectly and the later ones that dont? Has microsoft broke something or simpley a driver?

Anyway. ..
I rolled back to the original driver and then updated the driver from windows update and an unusual thing happened. It installed an older driver!! Version 6.11 came with win7 install and windows update installed ver 6.10!! I hope the older driver works ok, I cant really go back to the old build (7048) as it wont go for much longer . . .