Curious to find out what goes wrong

[Enablingwolf]

As of now. I have no issue, though I would like to see if I can nail down what is going wrong.

Pertinent info:
Win7 64bit SP1 Ultimate, Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3L onboard gigabit Ethernet. All other machines on the switches work just fine. No special Windows firewall rules or QoS. I've nailed it down to a driver issue.

Long story short.. If I use the generic Windows driver for the Ethernet. I get full DOCSIS3 30/5 speeds for the WAN. If I use any other driver. It goes bonkers and will limit itself to about 1/3 of my download connection. Which is really unstable at that. Seeing dial-up speeds. On Ethernet means something is seriously wrong.

For now, I do not mind not having a generic driver. It works and I am ok with that. I try to ignore it and curiosity is getting the better of me. For the why aspect.

The driver off the motherboard setup disc, Gigabyte website, Windows update and Realtek itself. All produce the same results. I end up rolling back the driver to the generic.

Any ideas what is going wrong here?

 

[c627627]

You're saying use one driver and everything is OK and use others and it's not? If that is the only thing that changes - then all other drivers are buggy for your specific configuration.

With some drivers, especially for video card drivers there comes a point where upgrading from a specific version will mess other things up and you have to stay with the driver that works.

You are lucky you found the driver that works.

 

[Enablingwolf]

You are lucky you found the driver that works.

I also suspect a bug somehow, someplace.. I just do not want to rule out other possibilities just yet.

It's the generic driver that's on the Windows 7 install disc that works the best. Like I mentioned. It works and I'm good. I'm just curious why it's going bonkers. Possibly narrow it down to the actual issue.

Every version of the ethernet chipset driver does it on WAN, not LAN. Even the driver, off the (now old) Gigabyte motherboard install disc. I even reinstalled after a 19 month run. To rule out an old timer install base issue.. A little drastic, but I think I was due anyways. (Was secretly hoping for a 2 year install base.)

I just find it strange.. I can get 120MB/s on LAN. The WAN side only gets 1.3MB/s. With the stock driver. Same on the LAN, WAN gets the full 3.7MB/s.

 

[c627627]

If nothing else changes and you have drivers A & B and one works and one doesn't... there's nothing more to it than a driver which is not 100% compatible with your configuration.