Do I need a new network card?

[96s10]

I've about had it with this thing. It's been happening on and off over the past 2 years since building this computer. Sometimes I can go months without it happening and sometimes it happens multiple times in one day. Doesn't matter what ISP or router I use.

What usually happens is when playing a game online the connection drops within the game. So I exit to windows and the little network icon has a yellow exclamation point. After running the W7 trouble shooter it always comes back with something about the gateway and resets the network adapter and all is well. I'm just tired of it happening in the middle of a game.

If it matters it seems to happen the most while playing World of Tanks. It never happens on any other computer in the house. Please help before I go completely bald from stressing about this.

[Meridian]

Odd question, but: have you ever changed the NIC since you built this rig, or have you changed the slot for the existing card? (Or USB port if you are using a USB NIC). Which version of Windows?


M

[96s10]

I'm running Windows 7 and using the network adapter that's built into the mobo. I mean is there like a small 1 in a million chance that a capacitor is over heating and causing the port to go down?

I just don't understand how it's so random. I know for a fact that it is this computer. And it's happened after re-installing windows as well. I swear it's a hardware issue.

[Meridian]

My money personally is on a driver mistake - most likely you have two versions of the driver which are conflicting. If you don't mind playing about with settings, follow the advice here to allow hidden devices to be displayed. Now open Device Manager, and choose the option View -> Show Hidden Devices (if you didn't do the first bit then they won't actually all show)

Now, look under "Network Adaptors": can you see any which appear grey rather than black? Note that showing these devices will add a LOT of extra entries. What you are looking for is any case of two entries which are completely identical except for a number at the end, and one of the two is grey. It might look like this:

NETGEAR WNDA3100v2 N600 Wireless Dual band USB Adaptor
NETGEAR WNDA3100v2 N600 Wireless Dual band USB Adaptor #2

(That's my adaptor - obviously yours will be different). If all else fails, try to post up a screen dump of that section.


M

[96s10]

You could be right. Would it cause this if the factory windows NIC driver and the one with the mobo were installed at the same time?

[96s10]

So I did that and this is what I have under network:



Advice?

[Yeah]

I just want to clarify -

You have this computer connected WIRED to a router with OTHER computers on the same network ...TRUE OR FALSE

You can play this tanks game on all other computers WIRED on the same router and the ONLY computer dropping with the problem is THIS computer... TRUE OR FALSE

If either of the above is FALSE than please advise.

If both above are True than:

1 Try Different PORT on Router possible bad router port.

2 Try different RJ 45 cable. How far to the router from this computer?

3 Try Update Router Firmware -

[Meridian]

What's the "non-plug'n'pray" device? That suggests a badly loaded driver.

[Bryan]

Non-plug and play drivers are hidden by default as there statically assigned by the system.

[96s10]

I just want to clarify -

You have this computer connected WIRED to a router with OTHER computers on the same network ...TRUE OR FALSE

You can play this tanks game on all other computers WIRED on the same router and the ONLY computer dropping with the problem is THIS computer... TRUE OR FALSE

If either of the above is FALSE than please advise.

If both above are True than:

1 Try Different PORT on Router possible bad router port.

2 Try different RJ 45 cable. How far to the router from this computer?

3 Try Update Router Firmware -

I'm not sure if my wifes computer could play WOT so it's only been played on mine. The computers are wired directly into the modem/router from TWC. I will try a different cable/router. My only concern is this has happened on different ISPs/wires.

[96s10]

Happened again tonight. Let windows 7 run its troubleshooting thing and it completed a fix by resetting the network adapter. Said something about the default gateway.