Question Intel I226-V 2.5GbE on Raptor Lake Motherboards Has a Connection Drop Issue: No Fix Available

[lopri]

It is apparently rebadged to I226-V (from I225-V), and the problem still remains. It's now over 3 years (at least since Z490, iirc) and I am puzzled as to why Intel is unable to fix this. Are they totally incompetent?

PSA: Intel I226-V 2.5GbE on Raptor Lake Motherboards Has a Connection Drop Issue: No Fix Available

The Intel Ethernet i226-V onboard 2.5 GbE controller appears to have a design flaw that causes the Ethernet connection to drop at random times for a few seconds. The I226-V is the latest version of Intel's cost-effective 2.5 Gbps Ethernet networking chips meant for PC motherboards with chipsets...

www.techpowerup.com

TechPowerUp reports dropping signals, but symptoms are not limited to that. Some might lose the speed to 10~100 Mb/s, or adapter not show up in Windows and/or BIOS, and others might see a bunch of error messages in Windows Event Viewer. This is a NIC problem, not an Intel platform problem, so even AMD motherboards are not immune if they come equipped with I225/226-V.

Apparently it does not happen to every board, so it has to be a hardware issue, stemming from defective network chipsets. It is particularly nasty if you have to install Windows 11, which requires internet connection for completing installation. Personally it is one of the reasons I ditched my Raptor Lake build. I suggest everyone who buys a board with Intel NIC check its functionality and if there is a problem, return/replace it.

 

[Shmee]

Ah, well that sucks. It sounds like not every NIC is affected, but sounds like it is a fairly common problem or defect in the line? Should be covered by warranty of the board, but still good to look out for this.

 

[BoomerD]

Well...crap. That's the chipset my new Z690 Tomahawk DDR4 has. <fingers crossed>

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah, not too surprising. I've been avoiding boards with "Intel 2.5 gbe" chipsets. I look for RealTek.

 

[lopri]

As an aside, I am pleasantly surprised at how good Mediatek's WiFi and BT are. It's what AMD calls AMD Wi-Fi 6E (RZ616) and it is allegedly co-developed with Mediatek. I think it's just Mediatek MT7922.

 

[Tech Junky]

A lot of options besides Aquantia in the 2.5/5gbps realm have issues. 802.11bz / NBASE-T is a niche bridging for mostly business applications to keep using their old cabling for higher speeds w/o upgrading to full 10gbps.

I look at the built in ports on boards as a backup and put in a NIC that will work with multiple ports.

My board has the RTL8125 on it and only works with certain driver / kernel versions. It had issues under 22.04 but 22.10 seems to work w/o the blacklisting of the module to make it work.

For the longest time though Intel has been the gold standard of things just working when it comes to network / PCIE / USB adapters but, seems they dropped the ball here or coders missed the release of the drivers to be invoked. Either way it will work you just might have to DL to your phone, copy to a USB, and install on the PC to get it to work the first time.

 

[lopri]

What I do not understand is the seeming inability to fix. Network is perhaps Intel's 2nd best (after x86) expertise, or so I thought. There has been 2 revision to I225, and I226 has to be the 3rd revision. It's the 4th. Still not fixed. What gives?

For those wondering, if you check your Network Adapter you will see the revision numbers.

Intel Ethernet Controller I225-V
Intel Ethernet Controller (2) I225-V
Intel Ethernet Controller (3) I225-V
Intel Ethernet Controller I226-V (revision #4)

Revision #3 so far seems least problematic.

 

[lopri]

 

[BoomerD]

A few days ago, I started having issues with my connection. It will work fine...turn off monitor walk away for a few hours (or overnight) come back...no connection. Reboot and everything is fine. AFAIK, I have the latest drivers from MSI.

 

[BoomerD]

MSI has referred me to this page:

Network Issues with Intel® Ethernet Controller I225-V

Recommendation to update Non-Volatile Memory (NVM)

www.intel.com

Unfortunately, there don't appear to be any NVM updates for the OEM i225 NIC. Those would have to come from MSI. (I think...Intel warns against using their stock driver)

 

[Tech Junky]

Intel warns against using their stock driver

They do but, OEM drivers should be the same though they're usually older versions. They also tend not to update them when you build your own system. Just enough to get started and then rely on other methods of updating. I use the Intel driver assistant and block windows updates because they're as bad as OEM deployments.

 

[burninatortech4]

My Asrock Phantom Gaming B550 ITX board with (3) I225-V hasn't had any issues (that I know of). Are the connection drops obvious or is it something I would only notice if a specific workload needed an uninterrupted connection and hung?

 

[BoomerD]

They do but, OEM drivers should be the same though they're usually older versions. They also tend not to update them when you build your own system. Just enough to get started and then rely on other methods of updating. I use the Intel driver assistant and block windows updates because they're as bad as OEM deployments.

That would be too easy. I also use the Intel driver assistant...it's great for SOME things, wifi, bluetooth, etc., but ignores any updates for the network adapter.

 

[Tech Junky]

That would be too easy. I also use the Intel driver assistant...it's great for SOME things, wifi, bluetooth, etc., but ignores any updates for the network adapter.

I suppose you have a point there. I don't use Intel Ethernet at this point so.... Laptop and server native ports are both RTL and my primary NIC on the server is Aquantia based. The server though running Linux doesn't like the default module though and had to blacklist it to get it to use the other one instead which works great for the 2.5 port. It just seems like Intel is having growing pans when it comes to the NBASE-T options they're deploying. Then again they have issues periodically with some of their other gear as well when they don't QA the drives as closely as they need to.

 

[coercitiv]

My Asrock Phantom Gaming B550 ITX board with (3) I225-V hasn't had any issues (that I know of). Are the connection drops obvious or is it something I would only notice if a specific workload needed an uninterrupted connection and hung?

It's all hit or miss. My MSI Z690 with (3) I225-V had zero issues with networking from day one, yet I've seen several people in the MSI forum complaining about crippled networking experience with the exact same board.

 

[R81Z3N1]

I feel everyone's pain, I updated to Win 11 Pro, and they don't even have network drivers for my card I bought 2 X520-i 10Gbe cards that came with a driver cd from 2016.

I still have one nic NIB, never been out of the box and is almost now dead in the water. Intel latest drivers do not support those 10Gbe cards go to website download current drivers won't install. I had to go to old computer with optical drive put all drivers from CD on to USB as new computer does not have optical drive. Then let Win choose best driver from disk, and it installed.

When reboot, says network is disconnected, I had to unplug one end of the cable from my switch then reconnect all is well. Even old drivers was not fully baked, then by the off chance I decided to see if Windows has an update. Yes it does, so now when I reboot it works as advertised.

I think this problem was in Win 10 as well, as for at times my network says it was disconnected from media, had to reconnect a cable mostly likely due to software not sensing the link, or the cable.

In Linux it was just run, it did complain about outdated firmware at times but never had to pull the dac cable just to get connected.

 

[BoomerD]

The fun and games...and finger pointing between MSI and Intel continues.
I've jumped through all the hoops both companies have suggested, done the needful, so to speak...yet, at least once per day, the NIC drops the connection requiring me to reboot the system.

 

[A///]

Easiest fix is buying a non intel chip nic card and being done with this bs. $100-130 should get you a nice one.

 

[BoomerD]

Easiest fix is buying a non intel chip nic card and being done with this bs. $100-130 should get you a nice one.

Sucks to have to resort to that on top of a $300+ motherboard.

 

[A///]

Sucks to have to resort to that on top of a $300+ motherboard.

Tell me about it! I spent a fortune on my motherboard and bought a nic card to avoid the headaches with the Intel based nic.You used to get more variety in aib mobos and their built in ethernet nics now it's all mostly Intel on mid range and above. The only workaround to this problem I can think of is using built in wifi with a good mesh network and router. You'll still hit some latency issues but the internet will be largely reliable. If there isn't one the aic is the best option as the USB ones are terrible.

This problem is an issue with Intel 2.5 Gbe nics. Their 1 Gbe or 10 Gbe should be fine.

 

[snoopy7548]

This is why I specifically bought a Z790 mobo with a Realtek NIC. Gigabyte is mostly Realtek and I'm running two of their mobos (Intel for my gaming PC, and AMD for my HTPC) with zero issues, both internet and overall.

I've read that putting a cheap switch in between your Intel NIC and router resolves the problem, but that's still more stuff to buy.

 

[BoomerD]

This is why I specifically bought a Z790 mobo with a Realtek NIC. Gigabyte is mostly Realtek and I'm running two of their mobos (Intel for my gaming PC, and AMD for my HTPC) with zero issues, both internet and overall.

I've read that putting a cheap switch in between your Intel NIC and router resolves the problem, but that's still more stuff to buy.

For some odd reason, when I put a Netgear switch between the router and NIC, my Brother laser printer started printing weird 1-2 line pages of gibberish. (see my thread in peripherals) Removed the switch...it stopped.

 

[Turbonium]

Isn't Intel build-in LAN supposed to be good?

I'm probably getting a new mobo with 1 Gb Intel LAN built-in. Should I be worried? Or does this only affect 2.5 Gb variants?

EDIT

This problem is an issue with Intel 2.5 Gbe nics. Their 1 Gbe or 10 Gbe should be fine.

Phew, as long as this is fact.

 

[BoomerD]

Isn't Intel build-in LAN supposed to be good?

I'm probably getting a new mobo with 1 Gb Intel LAN built-in. Should I be worried? Or does this only affect 2.5 Gb variants?

EDIT


Phew, as long as this is fact.

the problems SEEM to be with the I225 and I226 2.5gb versions.