100% cpu util when tranfering files over lan

[laskos]

So i borrowed a realtek 8139 pci lan card same as the onboard on a laptop. Installed it, seted up the network and started transfering files. Speed is good about 80-90% of the 100mbbs bandwidth but cpu usage on the desktop goes 100%. The laptop doesnt go over 30%. Anywitch way i transfer files the desktop goes 100% cpu util. Changed drivers turned off and uninstalled firewall. Nothing. What gibs!? This pretty much renders the desktop pc unusable. It takes for ever to do anything while tranfering files. HELL! Do i need i a better lan card? WHAT!!?

 

[sswingle]

Your NIC is apparently using CPU resources in order to operate. A better NIC will do more of the work for itself, and not rely on the CPU.

 

[skyking]

almost any card will perform better, cpu-wise. I stick with intel pro-100, they are cheap enough and reliable.

If you go out and buy a nic, I would suggest getting a good gigabit nic, for future proofing

 

[laskos]

most of my friends have the same nic card. But nobody has faced that problem. At worst they have 25-30% cpu usage when transfering very large files over the network. Even the laptop with the same integrated lan goes 30-35% tops. Why is only mine going all the way up to 100%??

 

[sieistganzfett]

it depends on a lot, are both systems 2000 or xp? win98/Me shot up cpu resources no matter what is done, even tracking cpu usage it shot up to 30% on 9x.. have you tried going to safe mode with networking to see if the same result of 100% cpu util. is occuring? I take it that the pc you needed to borrow a nic for had no nic, and maybe was older with a lot of software running in the background somewhere doing something..

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: laskos
most of my friends have the same nic card. But nobody has faced that problem. At worst they have 25-30% cpu usage when transfering very large files over the network. Even the laptop with the same integrated lan goes 30-35% tops. Why is only mine going all the way up to 100%??

Check this...

Look in task manager and see what your system idle process is at. If it is above 90% while CPU usage is at 100% then it's a driver issue.

 

[laskos]

its around 25-30%. The most sapping seems to be explorer. Strange. HMMM maybe the nic is sharing an irq with an other device maybe vga or raid controller and just wont play nice with windows irq sharing. I'll try changing slots.

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: laskos
its around 25-30%. The most sapping seems to be explorer. Strange. HMMM maybe the nic is sharing an irq with an other device maybe vga or raid controller and just wont play nice with windows irq sharing. I'll try changing slots.

not an issue.

ACPI systems have no problems with shared IRQs. Keep in mind IRQs in ACPI systems are no longer a "wire to the cpu" that gets lit when a device wants attention. All IRQ traffic is now packet based.

 

[laskos]

Strange is that i didnt have any problems connecting the laptop to the pc and tranfering files before i got my dsl internet. Yes in greece 384 dsl is an expensive luxury.

 

[RebateMonger]

Probably half the world's PCs have a Realtek 8139-based NIC. Make sure you have the latest drivers installed. Windows 98, for instance, had a defective driver for the 8139 chip.

 

[Genx87]

Realtek are junk cards. I learned this a few years ago with a couple of 10/100 cards I had that had similar issues among other things.

The worst being some kind of incopatibility with certain hubs and switches that caused transfer speeds to drop into the Kbit per sec range.

 

[laskos]

I do have the latest drivers.I'll try borrowing an other kind of nic to see what happens. If its the same my guess is something is wrong with the dsl package i got. Meaning the cheap ass speedtouch usb.

 

[RebateMonger]

I just copied 400MB of files across my 100Mbps network to my SBS 2003 Server. I have a built-in Realtek 8139 NIC on my Abit motherboard. With my 2.2GHz P4 processor, I get approximately 15-20% CPU usage during the transfer, according to XP's Task Manager.