Question Ethernet card keeps going to sleep despite the option to disable sleep

[tami]

...anyway, I think that's what it is.

When my Windows 11 Pro PC is idle, the Ethernet eventually shuts off and I get an APIPA IP (169.254.x.x) with no way to get it to wake up outside of a reboot.

I've uninstalled and reinstalled drivers but don't know what it is. Unfortunately, this also means I can't remotely connect to the computer which is needed for a variety of reasons, including printing through it (since I have a specialized printer that isn't network-capable).

The card is an Intel(R) Ethernet Connection (7) I219-V and is built into an MSI Z390 Gaming Edge motherboard. I do NOT have wifi enabled at the same time.

I have the setting to NOT allow sleep but it doesn't listen; the internet connection goes kaput, and I get the little globe icon in the tray saying I'm disconnected.

Not really sure if there's anything else I can try so I came here to find out!

 

[Tech Junky]

Seems more like a DHCP issue than a port going to sleep.

Next time it stops working try restarting the service instead.
If it's still offline then reboot the router to see if it picks up the DHCP advertisement to grab an IP.
Still not working, disable the interface and reenable it in control panel.

Then again it could just be a W problem and switching the device to Linux should resolve things on a more permanent basis. Or hook up the printer to a different box that's connected to the network. A z390 rules out it being really legacy in terms of connectivity like a parallel cable or something along those lines.

I've got a cheap Canon MG36xx printer that has a USB or WIFI connection that allows network printing over WIFI. IIRC it was less than $40 for the printer. A bit of a pain to setup initially to get it online but, after that it's just there and in standby mode until a print job is sent and it wakes up and does it's job and goes back to sleep.

 

[tami]

Thanks. That's what I'm wondering, but why would the DHCP server time out all of the sudden? I've never had an issue with this before.

Are you suggesting that I restart DHCP Client under services.msc? Anything else?

How would this be prevented in the future?

The printer is actually a thermal label printer and I was too cheap to buy the networked one, so I route it throug the desktop it's right next to. Admittedly, I did try some network printing device before this all started to try to get a print server working and it was useless so perhaps that triggered something since that's when it began. I just don't know how to get this back to where it used to be.

 

[Tech Junky]

Yeah, services.msc and just restart the DHCP client

Well, you could setup a cron for windows to automatically restart the service. I setup something similar to restart / run a script for something that needed a reboot every ~8 hours to keep an API alive on the device for monitoring.

Check your "startup" items and make sure everything got purged when you removed those things. The other option if the printer is hooked up via USB then it might just plug into the router and work from there w/o a PC being powered on. Otherwise you could make a print server with a PI or something that's lower power than the PC.

 

[JackMDS]

Assuming that you have router set it to...

DHCP IP reservation,or Set a Static IP address.​

 

[tami]

Hey Jack, good to see you.

Would a static IP really make a difference here? I should note - the MAC address *is* already assigned a static IP on the router level, I just haven't configured the adapter to use the address. I've never had to ever do this in my lifetime... seems strange this is necessary now.

@Tech Junky: Sadly, I confirmed with the manufacturer that there's no way to get the printer networked. I just need to figure out why in the world this DHCP issue arose all of the sudden after the fact.

 

[lantis3]

Set static IP on your PC and buy a wifi usb bridge for your thermal printer.

Amazon.com : usb wifi bridge

 

[tami]

Will try the wifi bridge but I had tried something similar without results. FWIW, the printer is a Brother QL-1100. I don't have much confidence that the bridge will be successful. The last one I used was a disaster. I'd be *very* curious if anyone successfully got *this particular* printer working on a bridge and if so, how.

I know the workaround is a static IP, but why on earth does the DHCP server keep crapping out? I'd rather just not hardcode my IP address. Any other solutions I can try outside potentially a complete OS reinstall?

I am not so much a fan of unnecessary changes when the other way should theoretically work.

 

[lantis3]

DHCP server or client does will malfunction and if you ask anyone it's extremely hard to troubleshoot even for experienced engineers. Just drop the idea figuring it out. Set a static IP and be done with it.

 

[Tech Junky]

complete OS reinstall?

Before you go that route maybe try s Linux USB boot and host it from there and see if it's windows or not. I suspect it was probably an update pushed by msft though for the nic driver. Intel just released some new drivers for other stuff so, it's possible. Can easily check your update history. Also, i use the Intel driver assistant and bypass WU completely because of this sort of potential issue.

 

[tami]

@Tech Junky It could take awhile for the DHCP to crap out; it's really inconsistent. I imagine it is Windows. I wouldn't want to sit there indefinitely on Linux... I don't regularly use the machine, only for remote access, which would mean I need to babysit it to see when it happens. But I found some newer drivers so that should hopefully help.

@lantis3 Looking at the printer I mentioned (Brother QL-1100), do you see the applicability of the wifi bridge? I'm trying to ascertain how that'd work as I have only used bridges in the past to extend my network (without much success) versus giving a device a unique IP address and then using it for something like printing. Brother explicitly said they do not support this and I did try the WAVLINK USB Wireless Print Server, WiFi Print Server with 10/100Mbps LAN/Bridge, 480Mbps USB2.0 which was utter crap and this issue with DHCP started after I got rid of it. I'd love to have this as its own device on wireless, I just don't know if anyone's successfully done it before.

 

[lantis3]

Well, I have no way to tell whether the wireless bridges sold on Amazon will work with your Brother thermal printer unless you tested it. In theory they will but who knows?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B014SK2H6W has 1750 reviews though.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09NN1L4SP don't know what the difference is ? (OK, it can act as a simple router, don't think you need this)

Anyway, if you can solve DHCP issue or just set a static IP for your PC, then you don't need to resort to the wireless bridge solution.

 

[tami]

Theoretically. I would rather not leave the carbon footprint if I could avoid it and keep that machine off. I really rarely use it.

Thanks for the recs. I'll give it a shot.

 

[Tech Junky]

@tami

Low power print server to get it on the network.

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=5342 $20