Big mobo issue, no idea what's up: Ethernet adapter stopped working randomly (P7P55D)

[Pott]

It's been working fine until today. Nothing wrong. Plugged into the router with the RJ45 cable, all's good.

Mobo's an ASUS P7P55D.

It worked this morning.

I come back home after work and it seems to me that the hardware keeps on trying to find a cable, to no avail. I try the cable on another computer and it works fine.

I try to update the network card's driver, but nothing (latest driver installed).
My network card is a RealTek PCIe GBE Family Controller. Driver is 7.3.522.2009.


Eventually I disable it, after which windows manager can't even seem to see the device anymore. Then it reappears and I try to update the driver. It freezes. Screen stops, reset button doesn't work. I do a hard reset and start again, same problem.

It worked this morning and I've not changed anything since, I've not even been home :s

I put this in the motherboard forum as it seems to be a hardware issue and the network card is on the motherboard, I hope it's ok...
I'm on my wireless USB adapter for now but it's a lot sluggier. Meh...

Thanks if you have any ideas...

 

[crucibelle]

Hi, Pott. I don't have any first-hand experience, but I have read that these RealTek nics sometimes just go out for no apparent reason. You might want to throw a pci nic in there. If the one on the mobo starts working again, just use the pci as a backup (in case the onboard nic turns out to be flaky).

 

[Rifter]

make sure the PCIe bus is not running over 100Mhz. Also realtek NIC's are pure CRAP, 100% garbage. I would not consider it a loss if it did crap out. I only buy boards with brodcom or Marvell NIC's onboard, and if i have to get one with realtek i add a PCI/PCIe Intel NIC.

 

[AstroGuardian]

Rifterut cut the BS. Realteks are just fine.
Pott do you overclock your mobo/CPU? I have noticed recently trouble with NIC and Audio after overclocking. In this case it could be unstable OC.

 

[Rifter]

Rifterut cut the BS. Realteks are just fine.
Pott do you overclock your mobo/CPU? I have noticed recently trouble with NIC and Audio after overclocking. In this case it could be unstable OC.

They are crap, if you want to believe that or not is up to you. The poster above me also mentioned there lack of quality.

They are usually ok for most home tasks but when pressed to the upper end of gigabit specs cannot hold up to intel NIC's. Example, my girlfriends computer has a onboard realtek NIC and for what she uses the comp for it works alright, however she cannot transfer files off our file server at above 60MB/sec while i can hit 75-80MB/sec transfers of the same files, server has a intel NIC as does my comp. Same cables and switch and even HDD's on my and gf's comp and mine. Explain the differnce in speed if realtek is as good as intel. and since you can grab a intel for $25 its a cheap way to make sure you never have network issues in the future.

Also not the only one with the opinion that realtek cannot keep up with intel, see post 13 and 16 of the below link

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2072075&highlight=realtek

 

[Pott]

Thanks guys Integrated card is kaput so I need to buy anyway... And this was not overclocked, right now everything is running bog standard (so far... I can't help but tweak things which aren't broken, just ask my poor guitars).

I'll see what they have in the only one store open after I finish work in the whole country... I doubt they'll have any intel ones but one can hope.

EDIT:

You know it's frustrating when..:
When coming home at from work you decide to give it one last try... Computer crashes again, nothing works.
You got to the store, spend 7 euros on a cheap Sveex PCI card.
Realise only when at home that this card also has a realtek chip (DOH!).
Installing it nonetheless.
Reboot PC.
Somehow, I decide to try out the older card as the driver re-installed automatically (with no crashes, oh joy!).

And the old card works again just fine.

Snigger away, I deserve it

 

[Rifter]

you can always rma the mobo as it is defective if the NIC failed, but the shipping will cost you as much as a intel NIC so i would probably buy it instead. And then you arnt without a computer for weeks waiting for the RMA board to come back.

 

[AstroGuardian]

Bummer!

 

[adamantinepiggy]

We use about 50 of these ASUS p7p55D and pro boards in our test areas.Their reliability overall has been quite poor.

 

[crucibelle]

We use about 50 of these ASUS p7p55D and pro boards in our test areas.Their reliability overall has been quite poor.

Eep.. not good! Thanks for the info.