Strange Ethernet problem

andyb · Post by **andyb** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 12:39 pm

My problem is that I only get to use Gigabit Ethernet every other boot up time, not every single boot up as I would expect it to do.

I have asked for help with this problem on the ASUS forums, but I have only had one response, and that was a really stupid question (unless my description was poor), and have had no more ideas or input on the subject.

Please help me.

A Better description of my problem would be.

I turn on my PC, it boots up, I have Gigabit ethernet.
I shut my PC down (or re-boot, it makes no difference) and start it up again, I have 100Mb ethernet.

Repeat the above, its like clockwork.

My PC is in my Sig, my mobo is the Asus A8R-MVP, I am running XP, with the latest drivers (all round) and the latest BIOS.

I have tried 4 different ethernet cables, all of which are Cat.5e or Cat.6 (Gigabit capable), I have tried different ethernet ports on my Gigabit ethernet switch (Netgear GS605 v2), and my 2 other PC's are both running perfectly off of that switch, both at Gigabit speed. My previous motherboard also worked fine off of both of the Gigabit ethernet ports I have tested using one of the 4 cables (Cat.5e 2m belkin cable) that I have used for testing.

Having looked at the ethernet speed options that can be changed manually via XP, the Gigabit ethernet at full or half duplex options are not listed even when I am on Gigabit ethernet speed.

I have re-installed Windows, with the latest drivers from scratch, and I am now contemplating returning the motherboard under warranty, as I cant think of anything else to try.

Please suggest anything at all, no-matter what the chances of it working are, I will try anything at all.

Andy

nickbits · Post by **nickbits** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 4:01 pm

It might be your switch. I have the same one and it frequently gets "stuck" at 100Mbps. Power cycling the switch fixes it.

nick705 · Post by **nick705** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 4:09 pm

Weird... is it a new build, or an established setup which has worked OK in the past?

Have you tried booting with a Linux live CD and see if it still happens?

Is the GbE controller (Marvell 88E8001) correctly identified both in the BIOS and in Windows when it only seems to be 100Mb ethernet? Have you tried dropping back to an earlier BIOS?

Have you tried a crossover cable to one of the other PCs (bypassing the switch altogether)?

A completely wild stab in the dark, but could it caused be some sort of IRQ sharing issue? I gather the GbE controller hangs off the PCI bus on that motherboard - do you have any PCI expansion cards you could remove or relocate in different slots? I know it seems highly unlikely, but who knows...

Just random thoughts really - I suppose if all else fails you could just plug in a cheap PCI NIC, or maybe a PCIe card (which would be better than the onboard controller anyway), it might be less hassle than fannying around returning the board under warranty. Bit of a bummer if you still get the same problem though...

andyb · Post by **andyb** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 4:38 pm

It might be your switch. I have the same one and it frequently gets "stuck" at 100Mbps. Power cycling the switch fixes it.

That doesnt explain why it will run at Gigabit speed at next boot up and stay that way until I re-boot again, all the while the router and gigabit switch have stayed on (for 2 months or so now).

Weird... is it a new build, or an established setup which has worked OK in the past?

It has been doing this since I built the PC ~9 months ago at a guess, but it has never been a problem until recently, and the PC is going to become a casual server (only on half of the time). I am not going to want to re-boot the machine every other time I turn it on.

Have you tried booting with a Linux live CD and see if it still happens?

No, good idea. I will try that.

Is the GbE controller (Marvell 88E8001) correctly identified both in the BIOS and in Windows when it only seems to be 100Mb ethernet? Have you tried dropping back to an earlier BIOS?

According to the "Local Area Connection" Properties box "Marvell Yukon 88E8001/8003/8010 PCI Gigabit Ethernet Controller" (its currently running at 100Mb/s, and I am quite sure it says the same thing when in GB mode).

I dont want to try earlier BIOS's, some might not even work with my CPU, and I have fried boards that way before when things have gone pear shaped.

Have you tried a crossover cable to one of the other PCs (bypassing the switch altogether)?

Nope, its an idea to try like a Linux Live CD.

A completely wild stab in the dark, but could it caused be some sort of IRQ sharing issue? I gather the GbE controller hangs off the PCI bus on that motherboard - do you have any PCI expansion cards you could remove or relocate in different slots? I know it seems highly unlikely, but who knows...

Nothing listed as a problem, and yes it is the only (non-onboard) PCI device.

Just random thoughts really - I suppose if all else fails you could just plug in a cheap PCI NIC, or maybe a PCIe card (which would be better than the onboard controller anyway), it might be less hassle than fannying around returning the board under warranty. Bit of a bummer if you still get the same problem though...

Another good idea, I will try that, I have a couple of PCI GB ethernet cards lying around at work, that would rule out XP, and the Marvell driver.

Although I dont want it to be a permanent solution, only as a test.

Andy

PS: Keep the ideas coming

Das_Saunamies · Post by **Das_Saunamies** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 10:34 pm

Definitely points to it being a driver issue if the speed options won't show the 1000MB setting(s). It's not being recognised correctly and thus can't initiate proper bandwidth - why this happens every other boot I can't say. This is especially interesting if the switch/router does indeed recognise the speed as 1000MB.

If you're going to be running a heavy-load server I'd take 100M FD over 1000MB HD, but if it's just for one-way heavy file transfers then it's speed and not service quality that matters.

andyb · Post by **andyb** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 4:27 am

t's not being recognised correctly and thus can't initiate proper bandwidth

It might not be running at full bandwidth, I dont have anything fast enough to test the theory with.

when it is in gigabit mode, I have run sustained data transfers in excess of 30MB/s for an hour solid on a few occasions.

Andy

andyb · Post by **andyb** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 11:10 am

UPDATE

After looking around the net for other motherboards that use the same Marvell chip to see if ASUS have been naughty and not listed the latest drivers for my motherboard.

I was not surprised at all to find that is the case.

The ASUS P5B-V (and other in the range) use the same LAN chip the "88E8001", but has a driver that is 12-months newer (2006 vs 2005).

It doesnt work, it is exactly the same as before.

Apart from ASUS being useless tossers when it comes to support (their forum is useless as well - I am glad I stopped using ASUS motherboards a few years back, now I have been re-affirmed in my stance towards them).

Is there much else to try apart from a Linux Live CD and a PCI Gigabit card.

Andy

Arvo · Post by **Arvo** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 11:59 am

Are you tried marvell drivers from http://www.marvell.com/drivers/search.do? The latest drivers are from 2/21/08.

You may first uninstall all previous GBE drivers in safe mode. Well, XP can reinstall these automatically aftre restart.

andyb · Post by **andyb** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 1:57 pm

Are you tried marvell drivers from http://www.marvell.com/drivers/search.do? The latest drivers are from 2/21/08.

You may first uninstall all previous GBE drivers in safe mode. Well, XP can reinstall these automatically aftre restart.

Thanks Avro, I was looking at that earlier, which is what prompet me to find other motherboards with the same NIC and see if they have a newer driver.

Marvell presumably have not been dragged into the current century, NT4 but no W2K or XP - WTF.

Thats what put me off of downloading and installing them, obviously NT4, W2K (NT5), XP (NT5.1) and W2K3 Server (NT5xxx) often use the same drivers (especially W2k, XP and W2K3).

Its worth a shot, so I will try it, I have 3 other drivers that all work to fall back on should this go very wrong.

URL, for my NIC - the most recent (NT4) drivers are 12 month newer than my new drivers and 2 years newer than ASUS "claim" to be my newest drivers.

http://www.marvell.com/drivers/driverSe ... 1065591083

Andy

nick705 · Post by **nick705** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 3:07 pm

andyb wrote: Marvell presumably have not been dragged into the current century, NT4 but no W2K or XP - WTF.

I googled a bit for XP-specific 88E8001 drivers, found some links dating from 2006 pointing back to Marvell's site, but the links were broken.

You could just select driver version 10.55.3.3 in the second search box... maybe Marvell now have one single package supporting all Yukon products. I suppose the worst that could happen is that the driver doesn't install...

Das_Saunamies · Post by **Das_Saunamies** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 11:59 pm

andyb wrote:Apart from ASUS being useless tossers when it comes to support (their forum is useless as well - I am glad I stopped using ASUS motherboards a few years back, now I have been re-affirmed in my stance towards them).

Same for my A8N-E, support stopped dead a few months after release. Asus boards are cheap for a reason, and now that I know why, I'll vote with my wallet for durable boards and a more decent company.

Good luck with the drivers.

andyb · Post by **andyb** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 2:49 pm

FIXED ------- Fault = ASUS

With no help whatsowever from Asus, did I mention their support was really shyte.....

http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id= ... el=A8R-MVP

Thanks to everyone at SPCR who threw in some ideas for me to try.

The system now seems to work at gigabit speeds every time I turn it on (I have only tried it about 5 times so far).

The problem is obviously a bug in the BIOS, I turned on "POST Check LAN Cable" which is disabled by default, and its function is:

"Allows you to enable or disable LAN cable check during POST. When enabled, the menu reports the cable faults or shorts, and displays the point (length) where the fault or short is detected."

As this has not reported any faults, it must be a bug in the BIOS, and as I suspected was nothing to do with my cables or Gigabit switch.

I really dislike Asus now, and wont be using any more of their motherboards for a long time (years, likely minimum 3).

Andy

AZBrandon · Post by **AZBrandon** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 3:36 pm

I hate stuff like that, and you're right, support issues are always the most frustrating. I've been very happy with my A8N-SLI for the last two years - much better than the DFI I had to trash before it. However, for my next build I'm thinking I'll probably go with something else, maybe a gigabyte, maybe an actual Intel brand board. Who knows, it seems like all of them have their problems.

DrJ · Post by **DrJ** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 5:46 pm

All the commodity motherboard mfgs have their issues. Gigabyte too has terrible support -- I sent their support email a request in early February, and I still have not heard back from them. They have lousy BIOS fan controls, and no ability to prevent memory reallocation in the BIOS. The latter is a killer for me.

I have had good luck with support from Tyan and Supermicro, but those are different sorts of products.