Suddenly onboard LAN corrupts every download

[scyphe]

Wow, this came out of nowhere. Started last night for no apparent reason. I've used the Marvell until today, worked fine all the time until last night when every damn downloaded exe/zip was corrupted. I tried downloading other drivers but they were corrupted (!!). I tried the drivers that came with WinXP, same crap, file corrupted. I had an old driver version that I downloaded previously. Same thing..

 

Today I enabled the nVidia LAN and damn me if it doesn't do the same damn thing. Every exe/zip I download is corrupted. Meanwhile there's no problem for me browsing and stuff. It's just when I download a file of some sorts that it's corrupted.

 

:confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused:

 

Some circuit on the board burned or something that killed both LAN-ports? Good thing I have an old Realtek 8139-based NIC lying around.

[KimTjik]

A standard question:

 

- did you install the ActiveArmor (Embedded hardware firewall & network solution)?

[gamefreaks]

Are you sure it's not corruption in you're browser software?

 

Try using IE in place of Firefox or vice versa.

[wevsspot]

please elaborate on your networking setup. are you behind a router or connecting directly to your DSL ISP via a modem?

 

have you scanned your hard drives with Ad-Aware or Spybot to confirm you haven't picked up any nasty spyware or adware?

 

have you changed firewall software or made any changes to the settings of your firewall?

 

please provide us with a complete diagram of everything between your browser clear back to the wall plug.

 

it's unlikely that a hardware problem has manifested itself at the exact same time on both NIC's since they are completely seperate.

 

my first thought would be the adware/spyware scenario. Followed by a faulty networking cable, followed by a faulty or failing router or modem.

 

run this test and check the results.

 

go to nVidia's website and begin a download of 20mb or more in size (video card drivers for instance). Once you've began the download open a command prompt and type;

 

at the command prompt (i.e. c:xxxxxx) type tracert www.speedguide.net

 

that will give us an idea of how many hops your connection is taking to the final destination as well as associated ping times.

 

of course you can't rule out that the problem is at the ISP level. have you contacted them and reported the problem?

[scyphe]

I connect straight to the wall (CityLAN 100mbit tp), no routers or modems used

 

I don't use a firewall (disabled)

 

I didn't install nVidias network software (ActiveArmor etc.)

 

No ad/spyware found

 

I've tried using both Firefox and IE, same result

 

It doesn't matter how "far away" the file is. I tried downloading a file from the CityLAN server (2 hops) and it was just as corrupted as the 91.31 drivers @ nvidia.com

 

While downloading the 84.21 drivers from nvidia.com:

C:>tracert www.speedguide.net

 

Tracing route to speedguide.net [63.217.30.70]

over a maximum of 30 hops:

 

1 1 ms 2 ms 2 ms 10.0.0.1

2 1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 62.119.156.66

3 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 62.119.156.94

4 9 ms 10 ms 14 ms ge-0-2-0.0167.se-mlmms001-pe-1.utfors.net [62.13.27.28]

5 19 ms 20 ms 20 ms ge-1-1-1.no-oslms001-pe-1.tu.telenor.net [212.105.101.162]

6 20 ms 22 ms 24 ms nb03b11-ge1-0-2.nb.telenor.net [217.70.229.117]

7 22 ms 19 ms 19 ms nb01b12-ge2-0.nb.telenor.net [217.70.227.17]

8 44 ms 51 ms 51 ms nb21b12-pos4-2.nb.telenor.net [217.70.227.34]

9 54 ms 60 ms 53 ms cr02.ldn01.pccwbtn.net [195.66.224.167]

10 163 ms 159 ms 160 ms 63-217-30-70.sdsl.cais.net [63.217.30.70]

 

 

if it's not the onboard hardware I have a second guess: my cats. they've been known to chew on network cables but haven't seen them doing it for quite a while now. btw, the cable they chewed on isn't used now. if it indeed is the cable, I'm gonna use a brush and soak the whole thing in tabasco.

[scyphe]

Update: I just put my realtek NIC in and tried downloading the same file I've failed 8+ times with the marvell & nvidia onboard NIC's. And it worked flawlessly the first time. Conclusion? Something with the board. No idea what may have happened.

[red930]

Run memtest for 8 hours on each stick of RAM at your current timings. When that checks out OK run prime95 for 24 hours to verify stability.

 

Moved to OC section.

[caebron]

Might be totally unrelated, but also see the infamous nvidia NIC issue thread. Some people there have found very unusual solutions to their NIC related problems.

[scyphe]

Run memtest for 8 hours on each stick of RAM at your current timings. When that checks out OK run prime95 for 24 hours to verify stability.

 

Moved to OC section.

 

I ran an 11+ hour dual prime the other day, no problems. And RAM is running @ stock speeds.

 

Anyway, it's a non-issue now. Both NIC's disabled in BIOS and Realtek 8139 NIC is running just fine. It's just mysterious that they both started corrupting downloads at a point where I wasn't doing anything in particular.