windows 7 limiting NIC to 10mbit

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sirmonkey1985

[H]ard|DCer of the Month - July 2010
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I dont know if this should be in the networking section or OS.. but i think this is an OS problem more then a networking issue so if its in the wrong spot feel free to move it..

so on to the problem..
this started about a month and half ago.. i have my system connected to a gigabit switch.. worked perfectly fine set at 1gbit for over a year in windows xp and 2 1/2 months in windows 7.. then all of a sudden my i lost connection.. at first i thought it was my router. so i switched my routers.. i changed between 4 different ones and i couldnt get the network to reconnect.. so i removed the gigabit switch and limited my network to 100mbit.. half of my stuff reconnected like yahoo, and mirc.. but i could not browse the web at all. so i limited it to 10mbit.. then all of a sudden everything started working. so i thought maybe my onboard nic was dying.. so some one from the DC sub forum was nice enough to let me borrow an almost brand new intel gigabit network card.. threw that one in and again i was limited to 10mbit. figuring maybe my cable was going bad since it is 130 ft long and made by myself i connected it to a second system that was running windows XP. and what do you know it works perfectly fine at 100mbit for over a week. now ive come to the conclusion that the issue is with windows 7 and i was wondering if anyone had any idea's of what could be causing this problem or have run into the same issue.

sorry for the long drawn on paragraph of a post and my annoying double periods but its a habbit ive gotten into since i have a nerve problem in my hand and i cant seem to stop myself from doing it now..

if anyone can come up with some idea's to try and fix it or know exactly how to fix it id really appreciate ive spent weeks trying to find a fix on the web and cant find anything that matches my issue..

edit* forgot to say im using windows 7 ultimate 32bit..
 
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Given that you've swapped in a known good NIC and enough switch ports that that shouldn't be it, I'll wager that even if your cable works in another machine, it is probably faulty since you apparently haven't swapped it for a known-good one.

Boot a Linux LiveCD and see what you link at to confirm it's not an OS or driver issue, and even if you have to move the switch or PC, try a known-good cable to verify that the NIC, switch and OS are working properly as I suspect.
 
Keep in mind that Windows Vista/7 uses some newer types of network technology that may not be compatible with older switches and routers.

First, make sure that your switch is at least Vista compatible.

Also, try disabling network Auto-Tuning

1. Open up an elevated command prompt.
2. Enter the following command to disable auto-tuning
netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled

If you found that this doesn’t fix your problem, you can turn it back on.

1. Open up an elevated command prompt.
2. Enter the following command to enable auto-tuning
netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=normal

c&ped
 
the switch has worked fine even with windows 7.. the problem just randomly happened..

as far as the cable.. after making my post i decided to play around with it some more today.. im currently using my switch with no problems.. other systems running at 1gbit.. this ones stuck at 10mbit on both nics.. intel nic and onboard nic. the 130ft cable is a cat-5E and the cable running between my switch and this system is a cat6 cable.. it was originally running on this cable before to the switch but its an unmanaged switch so the router controls everything which is what first gave me the assumption that it was the router that was the problem.. which i now know for sure its not the router, cable, or switch that are the issue here..

but ill try your suggestions bigdogchris..
 
so i tried your suggestion.. it didnt help right away.. so i decided to restart my system and so far its connected at 1gbit now.. but ill see how long that lasts..
 
well that didnt work.. lasted a good 15 minutes though and then went right back to failing and forcing me to go back to 10mbit..
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
well that didnt work.. lasted a good 15 minutes though and then went right back to failing and forcing me to go back to 10mbit..
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Have you tried to go into device manager and force a 1000mb connection on the nic? ie, disable auto negotiate.

Also, type in 'Troubleshoot' into start search and click Network and Internet, then check the Network Adapter
 
bigdogchris said:
Keep in mind that Windows Vista/7 uses some newer types of network technology that may not be compatible with older switches and routers.

First, make sure that your switch is at least Vista compatible.
Click to expand...
Really? This is complete bollocks. Windows 7 and Vista fully comply with the standards and if gear doesn't work with them, it's not proper gear and should never have been sold in the first place. And likely won't work with anything else either.

Also, try disabling network Auto-Tuning
Click to expand...
Might improve TCP performance, but it won't do anything about a slow link rate.

the 130ft cable is a cat-5E and the cable running between my switch and this system is a cat6 cable..
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I don't understand this. Are you using a different cable than you were before?

Based on the symptoms, this will almost certainly end up being some kind of physical layer problem, but you can rule software problems out entirely by booting up a Linux LiveCD and seeing what happens there. If it's still not working properly and you've swapped NICs, switch ports and cables then my guess would be there's some major source of interference along the cable path.
 
keenan said:
Really? This is complete bollocks. Windows 7 and Vista fully comply with the standards and if gear doesn't work with them, it's not proper gear and should never have been sold in the first place. And likely won't work with anything else either.


Might improve TCP performance, but it won't do anything about a slow link rate.


I don't understand this. Are you using a different cable than you were before?

Based on the symptoms, this will almost certainly end up being some kind of physical layer problem, but you can rule software problems out entirely by booting up a Linux LiveCD and seeing what happens there. If it's still not working properly and you've swapped NICs, switch ports and cables then my guess would be there's some major source of interference along the cable path.
Click to expand...

ok i screwed up my explaination of how my networks setup.. see if i can get it right this time..

i have a 130 ft cat5e cable running from my router upstairs to my gigabit switch in my computer room.. from the gigabit switch i have cat 6 cables running between 4 systems.. currently only 2 of the 4 systems are running right now..

so far today after finally realizing the problem is not my switch i decided to connect both systems to it again.. for the last month or so ive had the 130ft cable directly connected to this system.. today i decided to connect the cable directly to my second system which had no problems running at 100mbit since thats what my router supports.. ran flawlessly.. so figuring the cable worked perfectly fine.. i reconnected my gigabit switch.. hooked up this computer and the second one to it.. the second system connected and has been running for 6 hours now at 1gbit without any issues.. while i was stuck at 10mbit on this one connected to the switch.. changed cables between systems there was no difference..

i did not think about using a linux livecd i think i might try that and see what happens.. the only thing i cant figure out is if its not software would would be causing the same problem to happen on 2 different nics.. 1 is a pci nic and the other is the onboard nic..
 
FYI, at work in one location, we were using a 100ft cat5 cable for a run, absolutely fine. Moved to 135 feet and it completely went to the shit connection wise. Had to throw a switch on the end to pick the speed back up. The length might be your problem.
 
bigdogchris said:
FYI, at work in one location, we were using a 100ft cat5 cable for a run, absolutely fine. Moved to 135 feet and it completely went to the shit connection wise. Had to throw a switch on the end to pick the speed back up. The length might be your problem.
Click to expand...

even though the cables been working fine for almost 2 years now? just asking.. since im not sure what the life span is on these cables..
 
So it sounds like the problem is just between your computer and the GigE switch nearby? If you're not linking at the proper rate there's really only the physical part of the setup to blame, assuming the drivers aren't completely borked. Since you've tried two NICs with different drivers I think it's safe to assume that's not the case. I don't *think* the Windows network stack has any direct control over the link rate (this should be the domain of the driver alone), solidifies my belief that this is some kind of hardware issue.

Try the LiveCD and see what happens. 'ethtool eth0' at the console should give you details on the link state, assuming your distro includes it (most should). If that doesn't indicate a software problem and you've swapped all of cable, switch and NIC then I'm out of ideas.
 
yeah im downloading the ubuntu livecd right now.. sucks when you have a 20mbit connection and your stuck at 10mbit.. :(
 
I like Finnix (finnix.org) for a lightweight troubleshooting distro. Console-only, boots very quickly, plenty of useful tools for troubleshooting/repair, and it's only a 100MB download.
 
ok ill check that one out as well.. always good to have backups..

well problem solved.. my motherboard died the other day.. could no longer supply power to the pci-e/pci lanes.. and since the onboard nic uses one of the pci-e lanes.. it explains why i was having all the problems..

thanks for all the help though.. was frustrating the hell out of me..
 
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