Realtek Wired adapter will not connect at Gigabit speed.

[Hardie]

Thank you for the opportunity to raise this question. I hope you can assist.

I have a HP Pavilion dv7 Notebook which I purchased in South Africa. PN: LZ380EA SN: [Personal Information Removed]. I am running Windows 7 64 bit.

The problem I am experiencing is that it simply will not connect at Gigabit speeds. I'm only able to connect at 100 mbps (I assume I will also be able to connect at 10 mbps).

I have reloaded the drivers, unistalled and reloaded the drivers, replaced the cables, connected to different ports on the gigabit switch but still no joy.

Both my Windows 7 64 bit and Windows XP 32 bit PC's connecting to the same router are connecting at gigabit speeds. They are using the same UTP Cat 5e cables which I swapped around several times.

The network adapter is a Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller with Realtek Driver dated 2011-02-16 version 7.41.216.2011.

When I ask windows to update the driver it states I am already using the latest driver.

[HerbertM]

Hi,

I would recommend that you check to see if your network adapter's settings are correct.

• From Start Menu, go to the Control Panel
• Network and Sharing Center
• Change Adapter Settings
• Select the "Network Adapter" right click and select properties
• Click "Configure button"
• From "Advanced Tab" > Select "Link Speed & Duplex"
• Make sure that it's set to "Auto Negotiation"

[Hardie]

Thank you HerbertM,

I checked and it was already set to Auto Negotiate. So to see if I could force it I set it to the only Gigabit setting in the list which was 1.0 GBPS Full Duplex.

The Network card disconnected and again simply connected at 100 MBPS.

I also checked the other Windows 7 PC (which can connect at GBPS speed to the same switch) and found it ran what appears to be the same Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller with an older driver version 7.6.820.2009.

I then checked for differences in settings between the two. The laptop (newer driver version) had the same settings as the PC but have the following in addition.

ARP Offload <Enabled>

Energy Efficient Ethernet <Enabled>

NS Offload <Enabled> 

[Hardie]

Update:

I went to the office and connected to a Gigabit switch using CAT6 cable. The laptop identified it as a Gigabit connection and set the speed accordingly. This problem I'm experiencing must have something to do with the way the Realtek device or driver determine the connection combined with the actual hardware being used (CAT5e/CAT6 and maybe even the Switch).

Finding it very strange that this laptop should have a problem connecting at Gigabit speed while the other devices are quite happy with the same hardware, I started investigating Autonegotiation of network devices.

According to the information I was able to find on the Net it would seem Autonegotiation is a well defined standard and forms part of the physical layer of the OSI model. I should therefore be able to assume that if one piece of hardware automatically negotiate a Gigabit connection so should the next (using the exact same networking hardware). I have confirmed the nic is capable of connecting at Gigabit speed using the same driver but different networking hardware.

Some other process must be at work (likely at a higher OSI level - I'm assuming driver) which forces this nic to a lower connection speed (due to some reason?).

Side note: One indication that it can still be hardware is the gigabit switch never visibly indicate a Gigabit connection which then drops to 100 MBPS. When connecting the cable it simply shows no link for about twice the time it takes the other devices to connect at GBPS speed. When the lights come on they immediately indicate 100MBPS.

Can anyone maybe enlighten me as to the process this Realtek driver / chip follow in determining the speed of the connection - how or why and when does it drop the connection speed level? Should I investigate drivers or hardware? Hoping it is drivers, where can I obtain older/other drivers for this device?

[HerbertM]

It looks like the issue may be with your network card and/or drivers.  The switch seems to detect that the network card is gigabit compatible and then forces it to connect at 100mb. 

During the auto-negotiation phase, switches are suppose to detect the lowest speed link from all pc's connected, and then connect all pc's at the speed.   If you were to connect a pc with a 10mb connection,  all other pc's should be forced to connect  at the link speed of 10mb also, in order to communicate efficiently.

With this in mind, if the switch detected it to be 100mb nic, all other pcs on your network should automatically be forced to connect at 100mb link speed also, through the auto-negotiation feature.

[vanbend]

I was having the exact same problem with the exact same computer model. I resolved it by disabling 'Flow Control'. It is true that this should not have to be done, but it did take care of the problem.

[Robkoh]

[HUrst69]

Am having the same problem with HP Pavillion a1483w.  Any other device connected via cable is able to ahieve screaming download/upload speeds so pretty frustrated.  Have followed all previous suggestions

Disabled and reladed newest set of drivers

Speed/Duplex = auto negotiate      Flow control = disabled

Still achieving only half of known download speeds

Any suggestions would be appreciated. 

[hpuser2016]

Found that turning off the computer and removing power from the unit worked for me. See http://www.w7forums.com/threads/realtek-onboard-lan-doesnt-work-above-10-mbps.9501/

[RusTus]

Looking at your certifications, its hard to imagine such ignorance about connection speeds.  I wanted to clear this up for other people who are learning so they don't learn crap.

A switch will auto negotiate connection speeds per device.  If there is one device slower than others than your switch will NOT set ALL connections to the lower speed.  That is rediculous.

It is perfectly normal to have one connection at 10 or 100 and another at 1000 on the same switch.