Problem with onboard network card with A7N8X-X

[Scott Head]

Hi,

I've tried searching for related articles to this but have so far not
found anything. I have an Asus A7N8X-X motherboard. It includes an
onboard LAN card (NVIDIA nForce MCP Netowrking Adapter). I am setting
up the machine to work offline at home, but need to connect to the LAN
at work to download the development environment etc. It worked for a
while (I connected to the setup server by logging onto it with my
domain user name and password). I used it for a few hours but suddenly
the card just stopped working. The message is that the network cable
is unplugged. I tried fiddling with it and even plugging in a new
cable that works on another PC. The same thing. The connection is
established briefly every few seconds at 100.0MB/s and then goes back
to "network cable is unplugged", then back to "100.0BM/s" then
unplugged etc. I tried disabling and re-enabling the device but no
luck. I have tried searching for the latest drivers for the board in
case that was the problem, however I don't see why if the LAN card
worked for a while and then failed. Is it possibly a hardware failure
or has anyone had a similar experience?

Not being a hardware specialist I am a little stuck with this. Any
help would be appreciated.

 

[markjen]

Not being a hardware specialist I am a little stuck with this. Any

help would be appreciated.

Have you confirmed the net is up and running - can another computer use the
same cable, hub, etc. and connect? I've had several hubs fail.

If your board has the 3COM LAN, you could install the drivers for this. I
have both the NVidia and 3Com on my board and I can use either.

- Mark

 

[Barry Walsh]

Hi,

I've tried searching for related articles to this but have so far not
found anything. I have an Asus A7N8X-X motherboard. It includes an
onboard LAN card (NVIDIA nForce MCP Netowrking Adapter). I am setting
up the machine to work offline at home, but need to connect to the LAN
at work to download the development environment etc. It worked for a
while (I connected to the setup server by logging onto it with my
domain user name and password). I used it for a few hours but suddenly
the card just stopped working. The message is that the network cable
is unplugged. I tried fiddling with it and even plugging in a new
cable that works on another PC. The same thing. The connection is
established briefly every few seconds at 100.0MB/s and then goes back
to "network cable is unplugged", then back to "100.0BM/s" then
unplugged etc. I tried disabling and re-enabling the device but no
luck. I have tried searching for the latest drivers for the board in
case that was the problem, however I don't see why if the LAN card
worked for a while and then failed. Is it possibly a hardware failure
or has anyone had a similar experience?

Not being a hardware specialist I am a little stuck with this. Any
help would be appreciated.

Disable spread spectrum in your BIOS, this issue is covered in the FAQ
on the ASUS website.

 

[Ben Pope]

Hi,

I've tried searching for related articles to this but have so far not
found anything. I have an Asus A7N8X-X motherboard. It includes an
onboard LAN card (NVIDIA nForce MCP Netowrking Adapter). I am setting
up the machine to work offline at home, but need to connect to the LAN
at work to download the development environment etc. It worked for a
while (I connected to the setup server by logging onto it with my
domain user name and password). I used it for a few hours but suddenly
the card just stopped working. The message is that the network cable
is unplugged. I tried fiddling with it and even plugging in a new
cable that works on another PC. The same thing. The connection is
established briefly every few seconds at 100.0MB/s and then goes back
to "network cable is unplugged", then back to "100.0BM/s" then
unplugged etc. I tried disabling and re-enabling the device but no
luck. I have tried searching for the latest drivers for the board in
case that was the problem, however I don't see why if the LAN card
worked for a while and then failed. Is it possibly a hardware failure
or has anyone had a similar experience?

Not being a hardware specialist I am a little stuck with this. Any
help would be appreciated.

Is this the one where you have to set the MAC address manually? It is
written on the floppy connector and must be entered into the driver panel.

Or I could be completely wrong.

Ben

 

[FABIO55]

I also have similar troubles with my A7N8X-X: it disconnects from the LAN
especially with large files and when is working the speed is very slow.
Fabio

 

[Andrew]

I also have similar troubles with my A7N8X-X: it disconnects from the LAN
especially with large files and when is working the speed is very slow.

Are you using a hub?

 

[FABIO55]

Yes, but it also happen when I connect my laptop to my desktop via cross lan
cable.
Fabio

 

[Andrew]

Yes, but it also happen when I connect my laptop to my desktop via cross lan
cable.

If using a hub your network cards should be set to 10Mb half duplex.
If you try to run at full duplex then you will get slow traffic. I
can't explain it running badly with a crossover cable though.

 

[Scott Head]

Disable spread spectrum in your BIOS, this issue is covered in the FAQ
on the ASUS website.

Thanks for the reply. I checked that and it is disabled. Why would it
connect for a while and then fail? Also "covered in the FAQ" is not
particularly helpful without links. I don't mean offence but if you
are sure of this could you provide a link to it? Thanks!

 

[Scott Head]

Is this the one where you have to set the MAC address manually? It is
written on the floppy connector and must be entered into the driver panel.

Or I could be completely wrong.

Ben

Thanks for the reply Ben. I did see some threads about manually
setting the MAC address but at the end could not decide if this
applied to my situation or not. It looks doubtful this is the problem.
Would you agree?

To the others who replied, thanks as well. I _have_ tried all the
obvious things such as connecting a different cable (from a PC that is
connecting to the LAN), etc. I thought there may be something
unobvious that I would have to do.

 

[Ben Pope]

Thanks for the reply Ben. I did see some threads about manually
setting the MAC address but at the end could not decide if this
applied to my situation or not. It looks doubtful this is the problem.
Would you agree?

I couldn't say - intermittant faults tend to be hard to diagnose without
being there yourself.

Setting the MAC address manually is free, easy, reversible and might work.
Whether you try it or not is up to you.

Ben

 

[Barry Walsh]

Thanks for the reply. I checked that and it is disabled. Why would it
connect for a while and then fail? Also "covered in the FAQ" is not
particularly helpful without links. I don't mean offence but if you
are sure of this could you provide a link to it? Thanks!

Asus's webpage system doesn't really allow very direct links, the best I
can manage is
http://www.asus.com.tw/support/faq/faq.aspx

Enter a7n8x in the search box and hit search.

Or this may work.

http://www.asus.com.tw/support/faq/qanda.aspx?KB_ID=84823&SLanguage=en-us

The problem they describe is frequent disconnections or disconnection
after half an hour, which certainly sounds a lot like your problem.

 

[IanDunbar]

Hi,

I've tried searching for related articles to this but have so far not
found anything. I have an Asus A7N8X-X motherboard. It includes an
onboard LAN card (NVIDIA nForce MCP Netowrking Adapter). I am setting
up the machine to work offline at home, but need to connect to the LAN
at work to download the development environment etc. It worked for a
while (I connected to the setup server by logging onto it with my
domain user name and password). I used it for a few hours but suddenly
the card just stopped working. The message is that the network cable
is unplugged. I tried fiddling with it and even plugging in a new
cable that works on another PC. The same thing. The connection is
established briefly every few seconds at 100.0MB/s and then goes back
to "network cable is unplugged", then back to "100.0BM/s" then
unplugged etc. I tried disabling and re-enabling the device but no
luck. I have tried searching for the latest drivers for the board in
case that was the problem, however I don't see why if the LAN card
worked for a while and then failed. Is it possibly a hardware failure
or has anyone had a similar experience?

Not being a hardware specialist I am a little stuck with this. Any
help would be appreciated.

Hi Scott have a look here
http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=150240
and around the other forums.

HTH


--

Ian

A7N8X Deluxe v1.04
Uber Bios 1006 + Sata Bios
AMD 2700 TB
Corsair Twinx1024-3200LLPT
210 x 11.0
ATI Radeon 9700Pro

 

[Darsh]

Dude, get a 10 dollar LAN card. Any deluxe user knows that this LAN port
sucks.

You don't have a 3Com, so go buy one. The MCP integrated NVIDIA MAC +
Realtek 8201BL PHY is not up to par with a 10 dollar pci card.

Just me talkin'

Darsh

 

[Andrew]

Dude, get a 10 dollar LAN card. Any deluxe user knows that this LAN port
sucks.

Thats news to me, I have no problem with the perfomance of mine.

 

[Scott Head]

I also have similar troubles with my A7N8X-X: it disconnects from the LAN
especially with large files and when is working the speed is very slow.
Fabio

Thanks Fabio, that is exactly my problem. Not sure about speeds but it
works fine for a while and disconnects when transferring large amounts
of data (I was copying ISOs the first time and .AVI files the second).

I saw someone mention somewhere else how they fixed this problem
though it seems temporary. Unplug the power cable at the back (this
doesn't seem necessary to me) -> reset bios to defaults -> set bios
back to your choice -> boot up.

This served the purpose of getting the card to connect again but as I
said it lost the connection again after a while. I think I am going to
take Darsh's advice and keep the board but get myself a PCI LAN card.

Thanks to all those who replied.

 

[Scott Head]

I couldn't say - intermittant faults tend to be hard to diagnose without
being there yourself.

Setting the MAC address manually is free, easy, reversible and might work.
Whether you try it or not is up to you.

Thanks Ben.

As I said in another reply I can get the LAN card to work for periods
of time (by resetting the bios) and then it disconnects. I'll try the
method you have suggested to see if that solves the problem
permanently but in the end perhaps Darsh is right and I should just
get myself a PCI LAN card. Probably better in the long run.

Thanks to all who replied.

 

[Ben Pope]

Thanks Ben.

As I said in another reply I can get the LAN card to work for periods
of time (by resetting the bios) and then it disconnects. I'll try the
method you have suggested to see if that solves the problem
permanently but in the end perhaps Darsh is right and I should just
get myself a PCI LAN card. Probably better in the long run.

Well I have the Deluxe and both my LAN ports seem fine... I've installed
lost of software located on one machine on the machine over LAN. Thats
using the nVidia mainly, but I tested the 3Com to see if it was working.
The best solution is clearly to have your onboard LAN working, but if you
can't get it to play ball...

Ben

 

[Ed]

Well I have the Deluxe and both my LAN ports seem fine... I've installed
lost of software located on one machine on the machine over LAN. Thats
using the nVidia mainly, but I tested the 3Com to see if it was working.
The best solution is clearly to have your onboard LAN working, but if you
can't get it to play ball...

Ben

What's a LAN card cost now, $5 tops! If it fixes it go for it! ;p
Ed

 

[markjen]

Thanks Fabio, that is exactly my problem. Not sure about speeds but it

works fine for a while and disconnects when transferring large amounts
of data (I was copying ISOs the first time and .AVI files the second).

I recall there was a FAQ about this problem on the Asus web site.

- Mark