Slow Internet Connection

[Gary Grathen]

I have a year-old IBM NetVista 8199 running Windows XP SP2 with a built-in
Intel PRO/100 VE Network Connection adatper (v8.0.21.0) which is
experiencing very slow response time due to high CPU utilization. At times,
it will peg at 100% and lock the system.

I've already run applications to clean up the machine as much as possible
.... WinTask5 Pro, SpeedUpMyPC, PC Pitstop Optimizer, etc. The available RAM
is fine, no rogue apps are running, spyware has been cleaned out, temp files
cleared, disk scanned and defragged, etc. I even stopped all the running
applications I could find and still the problem persisted.

It can be replicated by stressing the internet connection. For example,
with most other apps shutdown (i.e. no firewall, no AntiVirus, all
non-essential processses stopped, etc), if I run a program to ftp a large
file several times, or run a program to check bandwidth, etc, my internet
connection performance will degrade as the CPU utilization increases, until
eventually it will peg at 100% and freeze the machine.

I'm connecting to a Linksys WRT54G router (updated firmware) to a cable
modem. My wireless laptop uses the same infrastructure and has better
performance than the direct-connected PC.

Please let me know if anyone has advice on how to troubleshoot this problem.

Thanks much.

 

[R. McCarty]

Which IRQ Line ( or #) is assigned to the NIC ? You might also want to
ensure the Task Offloading is set properly, so the NIC assumes the load
and not the CPU.
Below is a How-To link on the Registry Edit required.
http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/ArticleID/20189/20189.html

 

[Gary Grathen]

I made the registry change you recommended, however it did not fix the
problem.

The NIC is using IRQ 20; no conflicts were detected.

Do you have any other PD advice, or should I try to install a new NIC?

Thanks.