Windows 7 intermittently drops wired internet/lan connection.
In a nutshell, my Windows 7 Ultimate (64bit) PC intermittently drops it's internet connection. Why? Background: My PC is wired to my ADSL modem/router which is directly connected to the phone line. I also have wireless connectivity turned on within the router for a laptop to connect wirelessly. Every few hours or so, when using my PC, I find I cannot access the internet and pages will not load. Eventually, Windows7 will update the network icon in the task-tray to show the exclamation mark symbol on the network icon. Opening up the Network And Sharing Centre will show the red cross between the "Multiple Networks" and "The Internet". I'm running Sun's VirtualBox on this machine and that creates a Network connection for itself. This doesn't seem to affect the intermittent dropping (i.e. the intermittent drops occur whether the VirtualBox connection is in use or not), and indeed, I have VirtualBox installed on two other machines (one Windows XP and the other Vista Home Premium (32bit)) and these operate with no issues. When the connection does drop, I cannot access any internet pages, nor can I access the router's web admin page at http://192.168.1.1/, so I'm assuming I've lost all local LAN access too. It's definitely not the router (or the internet connection itself) as my laptop, using the wireless connection (and running Vista Home Premium) continues to be able to access the internet (and the router's web admin pages) just fine. Every time this happens, I can immediately restore all internet and LAN access by opening Network Adapter page, disabling the "Local Area Connection" and then re-enabling it. Give it a few seconds and everything is fine again. I assume this is because, beneath the GUI, it's effectively doing an "ipconfig /release" then "ipconfig /renew". The IP assignment for the Windows 7 machine is the same both before and after the "drop". I have a DHCP server on the router issuing IP Addresses, however my Windows 7 machine uses a static address (192.168.1.2). I've also tried it with a dynamic IP Address (served up from the ADSL router) and there's no difference. There are also no specific clues within the various System Event Logs, other than an event that relates to the connection dropping which is a "DNS Client Event" and this is generated after the connection has dropped and is an event detailing that DNS information can't be found for whatever website I may be trying to access, just after the connection has dropped. The network adapter chipset is Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller and I have confirmed that this is the correct chipset for the motherboard (Asus M4A77TD PRO), and in fact, Windows Update installed an updated driver for this on 12/Jan/2009. The details of the update say that it's a Realtek software update from December 2009. Incidentally, I was still having the same intermittent problems prior to this update. It seems to have made no difference at all. Does anyone know why this is happening and how to fix it? I've searched for answers to this and seen quite a few other people (even on MSDN/Technet forums) experiencing the same or almost the same problem, but with no clear resolution. Suggestions of turning off IPv6 on the LAN adapter, and ensuring there's no power management "sleeping" the network adapter have been tried but do not cure the problem. There does not seem to be any particular sequence of events that cause it to happen either. I've had it go twice in 20 minutes when just randomly browsing the web with no other traffic, and I've also had it go once then not go again for 2-3 hours with the same sort of usage. Can anyone tell me why this is happening and how to make it stop?
January 28th, 2010 1:22pm

EDIT (1 Feb 2010): In my quest to solve this problem, I have discovered some more interesting information. On another forum, someone suggested that I should try running Windows in "Safe Mode With Networking" and see if the problem continues to occur. This was a fantastic suggestion and I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner myself. So, I proceeded to run in Safe Mode with Networking for a number of hours, and amazingly, the "drops" didn't occur once. It was a positive discovery, however, due to the intermittent nature of the original problem, I wasn't completely convinced that the problem was cured. One thing I did note is that the fan on my GFX card was running alot louder than normal. This is due to the fact that I have an ASUS ENGTS250 graphics card (http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=B6imcoax3MRY42f3) which had a known problem with a noisy fan until a BIOS update fixed the issue. (See the "Manufacturer Response" here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121334 for details). Well, running in safe mode had the fan running (incorrectly) at full speed (as it did before the BIOS update), but with an (apparently) stable network connection. Obviously some driver was not loaded for the GFX card when in Safe Mode so this got me thinking about the GFX card (since the very noisy fan was quite obvious when running in Safe Mode). I rebooted into normal mode, and found that Nvidia had a very up-to-date new driver for my GFX card (only about 1 week old), so I downloaded the appropriate driver and installed it. After installation and a reboot, I was able to use my PC for an entire day with NO NETWORK DROPS!!! This was on Saturday. However, on the Sunday, I also had my PC for pretty much the entire day and experienced 2 network drops. No other changes have been made to my PC in this time. So, the story seems to be that updating my graphics card drivers seems to have improved (if not completely fixed) the issue, however, I'm still searching for a proper fix for this problem. Hopefully, this information may help anyone who may have additional ideas as to why this problem is occuring in the first place. (And why does new GFX card drivers have anything to do with the network?) I appreciate everyone's feedback so far. However, I'll have to ask once more if anyone has any further ideas of how to fix this particular problem? Thanks in advance.
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February 1st, 2010 12:33pm

Hi, If the issue persists, please also try the following: 1. Update your motherboard (chipset) driver. 2. Bypass the router and connect directly to the modem and see how it works. 3. Disable Saving Power function of the wireless NIC: ============================= 1) Click Start, right click on Computer and choose Properties. 2) Click Device Manager. 3) Navigate to the NIC, right click on it and choose Properties. 4) Go to Power Management tab. 5) Please uncheck “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power." 6) Restart the computer and check if it works. Hope this helps. Thanks. Nicholas Li - MSFT
February 4th, 2010 2:31pm

I had networking problems as well. 3 computers running Windows 7. 2 had Adobe CS3 installed which brings with is a piece of software called Bonjour. These two computers had no end of networking problems. 1 was a desktop connected to the router and the other was a laptop connecting via WiFi. Third computer didn't have CS3 and didn't have any trouble at all. In trying to find a solution (nothing seemed to work), I came across the solution shown below in a different thread and thought I would share it. I installed the upgrade for Bonjour (it's listed as Windows Vista 64 software) and all of my network problems cleared up. My thanks to "PDX Prod Mgr". Brilliant! " PDX Prod Mgr I had the same problem when I rebuilt my Windows 7 system. I had CS3 installed on my system, it installs an old version of bonjour. If you inspect your program files\bonjour directory, see if you have an EXE and DLL file dated 2006. Jump over to apple's website and search for windows bonjour. I found the newer download here: http://support.apple.com/downloads/Bonjour_for_Windows Download and install this (you don't have to uninstall the old Bonjour) and reboot. This fixed my install and I no longer have the network error you describe. If you look at that folder now, you will have the newer DLLs (and some other gunk.) "
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February 14th, 2010 8:44pm

hi dear. i also gettin the same problem. i got two windows installed in my pc. in the windows xp, everything is fine.. no connection lost... in my windows 7, the lost of connection is often. an d i have to turn off my modem often so that to re gwt connection. i had a asus motherboard with a pcie lan ethernet adapter.. i think there is a bug for it in windows 7 have you found a solution. if yes please contact me on k3vin11m@hotmail.com bye
March 10th, 2011 2:49pm

Ya having the same problem. Its not intermittent its just gone. I got an update yesterday, prompted reboot now this. It connects for 2 seconds then a minute of nothing..then another 2 seconds. I picked a restore point back 2 days and nothing. Reset router and modem..nope. Tried the power option above and nothing. I uninstalled and re-installed the driver and notta. I put a Linux Live CD in and it could not connect... I seem to remember a Wake on LAN issue with Ubuntu a few months back? I'll go the their forum and check for an answer and post if i find? I can't believe there isn't a broad simple fix for this issue? Or is it board by board? Mine is Asus m4a785... anyone? hello?
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March 10th, 2011 3:32pm

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