gigabit adapter only running at 100mbps

nman729

Junior Member
Apr 10, 2008
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hello, i have a asus rampage formula motherboard, it has a marvel yukon 88e8056 pci-e gigabit Ethernet controller. i have installed the correct drivers from the CD but it still isnt running at full 1gbps speed. i know it works, because it worked before i reinstalled windows vista.

i am sure i have it hooked up with a cat 5 e cable, and i am using a gigabit switch.

please help.
 

Engineer

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
39,230
701
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Go to Control Panel and then Network and Sharing Center. Click on the "Manage Network Connections". You should see your Marvel chipset network there. Right click on that and select "Properties". Click on the <Configure> button. Go to the "Advanced" tab. Check to see what setting the "Speed & Duplex" setting is set to?

I have this same chipset on Vista. Can't verify it's running on 1Gbit, but do know the steps to see if it's set right for Gbit. Mine is set to Auto-Negotiation but you can force it to any speed you wish.
 

ScottMac

Moderator<br>Networking<br>Elite member
Mar 19, 2001
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Is your cable hand-made, or purchased?

Proper termination is critical, and all four pair are used. The cable must be in good shape with no hard bends, kinks, twists, stretches, knots, animal teeth marks or urine.
 

Emulex

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2001
9,759
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gigabit works on all 8 wires
10/100 can run on 4

what kind of switch you got? POE?
 

JackMDS

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 25, 1999
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What the indication about the speed that it is Running is?
 

nman729

Junior Member
Apr 10, 2008
21
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0
okay, this is really strange. i unplugged the cat5e cable from the lower port, and reconnected it to the upper port and it is now working at 1gbps.

@engineer, it was set to auto. to check the speed, right clock network adapter, then clock status.

@everyone else, it doesn't matter about the cable or switch because it worked with gigabit Ethernet before in installed windows, the problem arose with a new windows installation.
 

Emulex

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2001
9,759
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auto sucks ballz. set all of your switches and nic cards to 1gig/full

auto lets you down when the power goes usually :)
 

Engineer

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
39,230
701
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Originally posted by: nman729


@engineer, it was set to auto. to check the speed, right clock network adapter, then clock status.

No, I knew how to check it. The reason that I personally could not check to see if mine is running at 1GBit speed is that I don't have 1GBit switches in my network (1 switch and 2 routers (1 running simply as wireless access point).
 

jlazzaro

Golden Member
May 6, 2004
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Originally posted by: Emulex
auto sucks ballz. set all of your switches and nic cards to 1gig/full

auto lets you down when the power goes usually :)
negative...unless you have a very good reason to hard code (auto failing, interface errors, etc) leave access ports to auto. this is especially true when dealing with 1000base-t.
 

subflava

Senior member
Feb 8, 2001
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Originally posted by: jlazzaro
Originally posted by: Emulex
auto sucks ballz. set all of your switches and nic cards to 1gig/full

auto lets you down when the power goes usually :)
negative...unless you have a very good reason to hard code (auto failing, interface errors, etc) leave access ports to auto. this is especially true when dealing with 1000base-t.

Have to go with jlazzaro on this one. Why does "auto sucks ballz"? I've always been curious about this mentality I run across pretty frequently in my line of work. The only time I remember auto being an issue within the last 10 years is probably 8+ years ago when there were some incompatibility issues with Cisco switches and some NIC cards (3coms?). There have also been some known issues with Cisco routers/switches/firewalls, but again this is many years ago and in a few specific cases.

When you're managing networks with hundreds/thousands of devices, you'd have to be insane to want to manually set the speed on every device. If you don't trust autonegotiate...then does that mean you don't trust DHCP either?
 

Emulex

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2001
9,759
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i've had too many bad nic/drivers in the past bite me with auto.

if you watch your router logs you will see some whacky stuff.

i've had servers that paused every few ms due to auto

i've had servers just straight up throw errors all over the place in auto mode

i've had pc's decide to move between 10 and 100 depeding on their mood at boot.

not so bad with 1000 but honestly 1000 is auto anyways.

setting the device to a fixed port rate eliminated all of the problems.

 

Crusty

Lifer
Sep 30, 2001
12,684
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Originally posted by: Emulex
i've had too many bad nic/drivers in the past bite me with auto.

if you watch your router logs you will see some whacky stuff.

i've had servers that paused every few ms due to auto

i've had servers just straight up throw errors all over the place in auto mode

i've had pc's decide to move between 10 and 100 depeding on their mood at boot.

not so bad with 1000 but honestly 1000 is auto anyways.

setting the device to a fixed port rate eliminated all of the problems.

What kind of cables are you using? Factory terminated or hand crimped?
 

Emulex

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2001
9,759
1
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i never hand crimp. hands shake too much for that. always buy cat5e/6a pre-mades.

keep in mind some of these are old machines. they just don't follow the standards well any more :)

need to get rid of all 100mbit and just run the office at gig-e period. gets rid of alot of headaches with 1000->100 pressure.