Problem Solved Hey everyone, I am new to this forum. I wanted to share what my findings were since I've been using Windows 7. I have the RTM version so its the full retail version from Tech Net. Anyway, I was seeking answers to this problem as well and came across this forum. I skimmed through this thread and noticed the same thing everyone -- and myself -- was doing; Installing the system drivers.
"
Do not install your network or motherboard drivers specific to your system!" It seems that the Windows 7 drivers does not get along well with you manufacturer's drivers. Mostly with nvidia based chipsets, which is what I have. I've had Win7 installed since September when the RTM version came out, during that time I noticed connection drop issue when I upgraded my motherboard and nic drivers. I then noticed I would get a random drops in my connection from certain downloads but gaming and everything else worked fine. Since then I did a clean install and the first thing I started was my connection. I downloaded Linux ISOs from
DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD., 6 in total using IE and waited to see how long it would take until my connection dropped. I used Linux ISOs because they were big enough downloads to saturate my bandwidth and would force my connection to drop if a problem existed, you don't have to do what I did to test your download. The test worked fine for a good 5 minutes then I stopped the downloads. Then I installed Firefox and used Downthemall download accelerator plugin and had One 4GB ISO and Three 600MB ISOs. I allowed one ISO to fully download. The others kept downloading as well, but my goal was to see if it could pass one min which it did. One min was around the time when the connection would drop, sometimes it was half a min, so past one minute stable was a good sign. I then installed the nvidia chipset drivers which includes the network drivers and tried the download test again. After a min or less than a min the connection dropped.
I then realized that it was a serious driver issue. What I did to fix this problem is I went into
Safe mode using the systems Administrator account ( not the one you make after an install Windows) and uninstall the nic drivers from device manager. To re-enable the
Administrator account you have to go into the
Manage console using the account you initially created which should have administrator privileges.
Don't use the profile that you created with Admin privileges because its not a true admin account, use the system admin account for this process only and disable it again once your done for security reasons. First you must enter Safe Mode. Safe Mode is for troubleshooting issues within Windows. It disables all servers you are use to while in Windows normally. You can not even connect to the internet unless you chose safe mode with networking. But for this purpose you don't want networking because you want to remove the network adapters. If you were in normal mode this will not work as thoroughly that's why it is best to go into this particular mode. To do this you have to reboot your computer. Once the POST screen comes up ( the first screen showing a logo or a lot of text) Start pressing the F8 key. A menu will appear, select Safe mode then follow the steps below. Steps for Manage Console
1. Log into your account
2. Right-click on
Computer (a.k.a "My Computer")
3. Select
Manage 4. When the window appears select "
Local Users and Groups"
5. Select the "
Users" folder
6. Right-click on "
Administrator" account and click properties
7. In properties uncheck the "
disable account" option check box then hit apply
8. Close out of manage and log off your account
9. Once at the welcome screen you will notice the "Administrator" account, click it
Steps for removing Nics
1. Right click on "
Computer" and select properties
2. On the left hand side of the System info window select "
Device Manager"
3. In "
Device Manager" go "
Network Adapters" and expand it
4. Only select the NIC which is installed on you system e.g( Intel, NVIDIA, or Marvell, etc...)
5.
Ignore anything that says WAP or Tunnel as the network device 6. Right-click on your network card's name and select
uninstall 7. If you have two NICs on your motherboard uninstall both
8. When they both disappear close out and go back into your admin account while still in safe mode
9. Repeat the previous steps to get back into the management console and "
disable the Administrator account"
This account should not be left enabled for security purposes. Worms and trojans usually look for this account if left enabled, disabled when done. At this point reboot your machine, log back in to windows and test your downloads and see if you connection is stable. This is how I solved my problem, this may vary from system to system. This fix is mostly for those who have an nvidia chipset, bare in mind your results may vary also based on your configuration. I have not read up on issues relating to this on Intel or AMD chipsets. If you do have Intel or AMD and are experiencing this problem you can try this solution.
Note: Most of the extra detail is for those who are inexperienced. The experienced techs as well may have looked passed this, so it works out either way. Hope this solves everyone's problems. Please respond with your own findings as well and let me know if my solution worked for you. Lets help one another out.
Also for those who are not very familiar with Windows in general I did this in safe mode being that everything is turned off and when you uninstall the drivers and reboot Windows 7 will re-install them again. You should basically have a connection once you log back in to normal mode Also, "DO NOT INSTALL THE nForce Forceware Manage software", it causes a lot of Problems you can live without it. Nvidia has some weird drivers and for a while always have. I just stick with updating the video drivers when they update then.
L8tr