LAN Connection "Dies" After Some Use (REAL CHALLENGE HERE)

My setup is the following: AT&T DSL => Zoom Bridge Modem => DLink DI-624 => Wired LAN to PC + Wireless LAN to several laptops

The PC that is connected to the wired LAN port had been running just fine with no connection problems for over a month. Suddenly, without any apparent cause (no new software installed etc.) this problem comes up.

After some random amount of usage (anywhere between 2 minutes to 30 minutes) following start-up the LAN connection stops working. There are no errors. No "Limited or No Connectivity" warnings. The symptoms are:

1. LAN indicator does not show any connection problem but there is no LAN connection: no pings to ip addresses, not to the router, to other computers on the network, nothing

2. Using "Repair" on the LAN connection takes a long time and either hangs or fails at the "Renewing your IP Address" step.

3. My motherboard has 2 LAN ports (680i), switching to the other port enables connection and works fine for another 2-30 minutes and same symptoms appear.

4. At this point, once both LAN ports have been "used up", the only way to bring the ports back to life is by a restart (warm reboot works fine).

Here is what I have tried so far:

I have a MEPIS Linux partition on the system. It establishes connection with the router and maintains it without a problem. So a hardware failure on the motherboard is out of question.

Checked settings on router: DHCP leases are for a week. Settings were not changed anyway and with the same settings other XP computers work fine when connected to the wired LAN just like the "problem PC".

Disabled all anti-spyware/virus software.
Disabled and uninstalled ntune.
Uninstalled QoS Packet Scheduling
Uninstalled NVidia Networking Enhancements
Disabled all fancy options in my network controller device manager properties
Unchecked the option to turn off the network controller to save power
Tried "netsh winsock reset catalog"
Tried "netsh int ip reset log.txt"
Tried using the Windows XP TCP/IP Repair Tool
Tried disabling and enabling the problematic LAN connection without restart
Uninstalled and reinstalled all motherboard and graphics drivers
Restored my system to a recent Norton Ghost backup to a time when I didn't have the problem
Tried removing all computers on the wireless network leaving only this PC connected to the one LAN Port, switched ports on the router etc.

NONE of the above solved my problem. The best way to test it is to start utorrent with a bunch of active torrents and it never fails to kill the LAN port in use within half an hour or so.

utorrent is not the problem, however, as I experience the problem without even touching that program in a particular session. It seems to particularly dislike a lot of throughput. Sites like Youtube make it angry very fast.

I should also mention as these LAN ports "die", my router and my internet connection is fine. Other computers on the network are able to access the internet and each other and the router.

As I'm writing this, I'm using the "problem PC" but connected directly to the Zoom Modem and using a PPPoE connection from within XP. uTorrent has successfully downloaded over a gig in the last few hours and I have no connection problems with this setup.

Any other ideas? Any one? Anything I forgot to check?

My only explanation at this point is that the router and the 680i board don't like one another and somehow start ignoring each other. But if the router was doing something, why would the connection come back after a reboot? And if this is a hardware issue why is it not happening when I boot into Linux?

Does anybody know any other low-level option in the Windows Networking or TCP/IP setup that I can play with?

Many thanks in advance.

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No mystery.

by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Sep 5, 2007 9:25PM PDT

The clue was utorrent and your 624 router.

"This problem is extremely easy to identify. You utorrent downloads continue running, all connections continues. For example, a Internet explorer downloads continues with no problem. But "non-continuous" connections stops. You can't ping your router. Your MSN Disconnects. You can't use internet explorer to surf the web. Then this is most probably your problem."

http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?id=8475

There are a few owners that will exclaim it can't be that but I've removed the 6xx router and it works fine. Go figure why they still can't accept this. Or if they use it without torrents, it works fine.

Let's hope you don't take as long to accept this one.

Bob

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PS. Next bet is you'll write "it worked before."

by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Sep 5, 2007 9:26PM PDT

There's an answer why but I decline to expand on this.

Bob

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Thanks but this isn't the same problem.

by ozcnet Sep 6, 2007 2:33AM PDT

Bob, thanks for your response. At least you tried to identify the problem.

This isn't the same problem, however, as even my "continuous" downloads stop. All downloads, all internet, and all LAN activity out of the "used up" port stops. So this doesn't match the description on the uTorrent board.

Trust me, I have no attachment to my D-Link. If that is really the problem I'll toss it right out the window and get a new router. However, the fact that 1. Linux on the same machine works just fine 2. All other machines are fine with the router 3. Youtube is almost as effective in destroying the connection as uTorrent

All these tell me this has something to do with some sort of low level Windows XP LAN setting or driver or something.

Any other ideas? All help is appreciated.

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Trust me. I've seen that too often.

by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Sep 6, 2007 3:06AM PDT

The owner tried to dismiss this issue claiming that's not it. The moment I pull the router out it works fine. Or put in my spare router which doesn't have the issue.

Then again you could have a trojan, spy or other OS damage but since your parts and software fly right into the usual issue and you have the right (or wrong) router it's my first and repeating cure.

Let's see if you can step forward on the problem by removing the router from the puzzle. Most won't and get to suffer until it dawns on them.

Bob

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Problem persists without the router

by ozcnet Sep 6, 2007 4:44AM PDT

Thanks for trying to help but this really isn't the router. I did remove the router from the equation (see the end of my original post). uTorrent worked for quite a bit, over 2 hours actually. But then Youtube caused the same problem when I was connecting with PPPoE directly to the Zoom Modem.

I'm pretty sure this isn't a hardware issue. Why does Linux work perfectly on the same machine while XP doesn't? I can use torrents and access Youtube just fine under MEPIS linux.

I appreciate your help but I think we need to move on to some new educated guesses here. Anybody else? Any ideas?

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"netsh winsock reset catalog"

by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Sep 6, 2007 4:51AM PDT

Let's take that to the next level. One member cured it with Winsockfix. See google.com about that. And yes they did try "netsh winsock reset catalog" first.

If you expect me to cure your machine instantly I'd have the get my 12 gauge out to put it out of its misery. If working on it is unacceptable and you only want the fix then just wipe the OS and start over.

Bob

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Anybody Else?

by ozcnet Sep 6, 2007 6:32AM PDT

Help from serious people who do not need to inject cynical juvenile comments in their suggestions while repeatedly recommending things I have already tried would be appreciated.

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Then you have tried this?

by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Sep 6, 2007 7:05AM PDT

I'm more than willing to discuss the cures I've used and the problems I've encountered (and fixed.)

But you have to work with us. If not then why not just call Geeksquad?

Bob

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Problem persists

by ozcnet Sep 6, 2007 7:14AM PDT

The netsh command is mentioned in my original post and tested already with no result.

The winsock fix is part of the TCP/IP repair tool that is again mentioned in my original post and does not resolve the problem.

Connecting directly to DSL Modem causes the same problem so it's not the router.

I have just uninstalled drivers and reinstalled and I still have the same problem.

I'm getting close to a motherboard RMA here. Unless there are other ideas.

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I re-read your post.

by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Sep 6, 2007 8:04AM PDT

I read...

"Tried "netsh winsock reset catalog"
Tried "netsh int ip reset log.txt"
Tried using the Windows XP TCP/IP Repair Tool"

But I didn't read WINSOCKFIX so I offered it. If that was that 3rd line it would have been nice but not necessary for you to call it out.

If you feel it could be the ethernet port then beg or borrow a NIC. They're cheap and piling up in many closets and shops.

The point about Linux working is interesting but that brings us back to a busted Windows or a forgotten driver update. We also have a P2P user and that leaves the possibility of a damaged OS. I sometimes have to install a temporary hard disk, install Windows to show it working. You might consider the XP PARALLEL INSTALL to test this since you can dust it off pretty fast.

Bob

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Just a link about HIJACKTHIS log reading.

by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Sep 6, 2007 8:08AM PDT

http://www.castlecops.com/HijackThis.html notes a section about winsock hijacks. I'd look at that.

Bob

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May have been resolved.

by ozcnet Sep 6, 2007 10:15AM PDT

Thanks the help and suggestions. I may be speaking too soon. But the problem has not persisted for the last hour or so. Let's keep the thread open just in case. I will post an update tomorrow. Here are the steps I went through for future reference:

Steps below (1 - 9) didn't fix the problem, but they may be relevant and may have contributed, so I'm including them:

1. Uninstalled all Nvidia drivers in Safe Mode
2. After uninstall rebooted into normal mode so uninstall can complete
3. I pressed "cancel" each time I was prompted with the "new hardware found" dialog
4. I booted back into Safe Mode and installed the set of Nvidia drivers found here:
http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/nforce-unified-remix-1116-2k-xp-and-xp64-vt70210.html
5. I booted back into Normal Mode let the installation complete
6. My two ethernet controllers were detected but drivers were not automatically installed
7. I went into Device Manager, chose to reinstall the driver, "Have Disk" pointed to the folder the nforce-unified-remix drivers were unpacked to, and then to the ethernet subfolder. I repeated this for both controllers
8. I booted back into Safe Mode and installed the latest nVidia display driver, which had also been uninstalled previously
9. Back into normal mode. At this point I had a new Start Menu item called "Nvidia Network Test". I started it, went to Batch Test option and started running tests. The first few cycles went successfully but in the third cycle starting with the "memory test" all tests began to fail. I realized this is the same problem persisting again.

Somewhere in these following steps may be the fix:

10. Restarted back into normal mode and downloaded a few more tools:
TCP IP/Repair from my original post: http://www.xp-smoker.com/freeware.html
Winsock XP Fix: http://www.snapfiles.com/get/winsockxpfix.html
And suggested DrTCP: http://www.dslreports.com/faq/5793
I used the suggested ping test to find out that my MTU is 1300, fixed that on my router first
11. Ran TCP IP Repair, clicked on both repair buttons and exited without restarting
12. Tried Winsock XP Fix, clicked on repair, after repair it restarted without asking
13. After reboot, I ran DrTCP, used 27000 for TCP Receive Window size (I followed the formula from: http://www.dslreports.com/faq/578 using an average ping of 120ms and download speed of 1200) set MTU to 1300 for both Network Controllers, Saving each one individually
14. Reboot

And so far so good. I listed all the steps but I think Winsock XP follwed by Dr.TCP did the trick. Thanks for the tip.

Again I may be speaking too soon. But I opened uTorrent, it downloaded fine for about an hour. Now I've shut down everything to make a clean Norton Ghost backup so I can keep this hopefully stable system point.

Once that completes I will do more stress testing with Youtube, uTorrent, all I can throw on it.

The tutorial on HiJackThis logs is a good link nonetheless. If the problem comes back I will be looking into that.

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Faulty Motherboard

by ozcnet Sep 6, 2007 1:29PM PDT

Definitely spoke too soon. It seems like the connectivity issues were just the tip of the iceberg.

The "stable" system first gave me a BSOD with the nvidia ethernet driver as the culprit. Then the problem came back after an hour or so of torrent work (this time with Azureus too). And the last blow was some display flickering, followed by a BSOD and shut down.

Now the 680i board gives a "1D" error and won't even get to POST. Swapped memory modules with a low-voltage regular stick, reset CMOS, still no go. I think it's RMA time with EVGA.

Thanks for the help. Maybe some of the info here will still be useful for somebody else having LAN issues.

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