Problematic LAN ports?

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
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About a month ago, I began having an issue with the LAN ports on my Gigabyte X58A-UD5, and I'm wondering if I'm alone, or if other's have had similar issues with either the same board or another. For the most part, the LAN ports here work great, and are rather reliable. But on occasion, a mere reboot will cause them to cease functioning.

The first time it happened, I had thought that the LAN ports did indeed just die, but after shutting down the PC for about a minute, then booting back up, they worked again. It just made no sense. I hoped it was a one-off kind of issue, but since then, it's happened more than once. In fact, it happens on 1/3 reboots, or around there.

The problem isn't so much that the LAN ports just die, because they are still visible by the PC, but it's rather the fact that neither will connect to either the network or the Internet. It also happens in both Linux or Windows, with the latest drivers, so I don't think that's the issue.

It's frustrating though, to boot into an OS and the network just not work. So far, the same solution of booting down for up to a minute fixes it, but I'm not sure how.

Anyone ever hear of this issue before, or experience it yourself?
 

Greg King

I just kinda show up...
Staff member
Ethernet ports are very delicate when it comes to electrical surges. I have a cheap APC surge protector/power strip between the outside grid and my computer and I have recently ran into issues similar to yours.

I have the same issues with my Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P. It's random but after a reboot, sometimes I cannot get out to the internet. It acts like there isn't a network cable attached.

We have had a higher than average amount of storms this spring and early summer and a few weeks ago, lighting hit a transformer about 100 meters down from my house. I lost my well pump and had to replace it. Since then, my router, a Netgear WNDR-3700, has had issues connecting to any of my devices at gigabit speeds. I also have a Netgear ReadyNAS-Duo connected to the router and it won't connect at anything higher than 10 Mpbs. I have initiated the RMA process for both my router and my NAS box and I hope that this solves the issues of connectivity speeds.

It's been hit and miss with the on board NIC but more often than not, I have to dick around with the connection and reboot my PC to get it to even register as connected. I have an Intel PCI NIC on the way so I don't have to mess around with the on board anymore but you aren't alone in your troubles.
 

Rob Williams

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Staff member
Moderator
Good to see you back on the forums, Greg :)

Well... I might just buy the theory that a power surge or something like it caused the issue, but even so, it sucks to have them just "die" like that. Around here, power surges aren't so much an issue, but power outages are, and I'm sure having the cord plugged like that doesn't do a PC good. I don't recall an outage that recently, at least, since I began using this board, but there probably was one.

I'm just glad that the ports aren't literally "dead"... because that would be way, way inconvenient.
 

Greg King

I just kinda show up...
Staff member
I can't say for sure that it was a surge, but with the storms we have had recently, thats my guess. I am fortunate that my gear that is acting up is under warranty. If not, I would have to battle APC, as they are the makers of my surge protector. Either way, its a monumental hassle to reboot your PC after every third or forth restart, just to get your NIC to show up.
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
You got that right.

Last night, I was doing some light benchmarking in Windows on this PC, and after I rebooted back into Linux, again, no LAN. So, I shut down for 30 seconds as usual, boot back up, nothing. Shut down for 1 minute, boot up, nothing. This time, it took being shut off for a couple of minutes before the LAN came back to life. Unbelievable. I hope it doesn't make a habit of it :-(
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
You got that right.

Last night, I was doing some light benchmarking in Windows on this PC, and after I rebooted back into Linux, again, no LAN. So, I shut down for 30 seconds as usual, boot back up, nothing. Shut down for 1 minute, boot up, nothing. This time, it took being shut off for a couple of minutes before the LAN came back to life. Unbelievable. I hope it doesn't make a habit of it :-(
 
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