Windows 7 Very slow internet (wired, wireless, usb stick)

DudaoRJ

New Member
Hello, I decided to reinstall Windows because after almost 10 years using it I thought it was a good time to enjoy a fresh installation. But it went all wrong, as using internet is just impossible.

I have the original windows 7 home sp1 disc and latest bootcamp drivers for my machine, which is a mid-2011 iMac. Before installing I wiped the windows partition to make sure I’d get a clean install. I haven’t installed anything so far other than bootcamp drivers from a usb stick, so there’s no software nor spyware eating by bandwidth.

I’ve tried wired, wireless, wireless through a WiFi usb dongle (I disabled both internal cards before doing that), and even via my phone’s Bluetooth. Nothing worked, it’s just pain slow. I can’t even install Chrome, as the 1.09MB download is taking over 3 hours and it eventually times out or something.

I have 2 other computers at home running windows and they work just fine. Mine was working fine before the reinstall and it still works perfectly under MacOS. My phone and iPad also work fine on my network. I’ve tried turning all devices off and installed windows 7 for a second time. My ping times are still awesome, at 13ms to nearby websites, it’s just the download speed that’s terrible. Also, bear in mind that “Apple update software”, which is a small application to keep things updated, also takes forever to search for any updates, which shows that this is not a internet explorer related issue either.
EDIT: I even tried to run windows in safe mode with networking but that didn’t work either.
Thank you
Best
Eduardo


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My computer is connected to a router. I just tried to connect it directly to the cable modem, and disconnecting all other machines in the process, but the problem remained the same: unusable internet connection speeds on Windows installation. On MacOS it has always worked fine, as does all other windows machines in the network, and as did the very same computer before the reinstall.


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I have the original windows 7 home sp1 disc and latest bootcamp drivers for my machine, which is a mid-2011 iMac. Before installing I wiped the windows partition to make sure I’d get a clean install. I haven’t installed anything so far other than bootcamp drivers from a usb stick, so there’s no software nor spyware eating by bandwidth.
Once the clean install is done (the OS install), now you have to install all the drivers for you hardware via OEM support web page or support page for custom mobo. Once that is done then you need to update the OS itself.

Tip: for the drivers downloads, it's best to download all need drivers to a DVD or USB thumb drive pryer to a clean install.
 
Bassfisher, thank you for your help. Unfortunately that’s basically what I did. The bootcamp is an application on itself which includes all the original drivers for the iMac. I downloaded the latest version for my system. On the first win7 boot I installed them. Before installing bootcamp my screen resolution was VGA, I had no sound and no network. After I ran the installer everything was perfect EXCEPT for the network, which is where I am now. It does connect, ping times are excellent, but speed is ridiculous (over an hour for 1 megabyte, which is worse than dial-up). I tried using a WiFi dongle with its own installation CD but didn’t work either. Under Mac OS it all works perfectly and it did on win7 before the reinstall.


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Last edited:
... Mine was working fine before the reinstall and it still works perfectly under MacOS...

Did you install exactly the same network card driver as before?
Try a different driver version from the manufacturer.
What model is your network card?
 
I did install the same drivers as before, they update automatically through the bootcamp application. Bear in mind that I’m trying to use 3 different cards: built-in wireless, built-in wired, and a WiFi dongle (from Dlink). None of them works, but they’re all able to achieve nice ping times. I’m pretty sure this is not a problem from neither drivers. I’m not at home now to check the exact models that are in my system, but Apple uses mainstream hardware components on its iMacs. I recall the wireless card is an Atheros.


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Please answer these questions so that I can understand your situation better:

- is your connection speed slow ONLY when you try downloading something or even when you try to visit a web site?
- have you tried using different web browsers?
 
My connection speed is slow under all circumstances, although ping times are excellent (went to command prompt and tested it). Hardware works fine on MacOS, WiFi dongle works fine on other computers.

I only have IE installed. I managed to download the Chrome installer application but the download time for the whole thing was going to take 14 hours (so it’s not restricted to IE, as the installer is a separated software).

Windows update doesn’t work either, after an hour or so it says it can’t download anything (probably because of a timeout).


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Based on the information you provided so far it seems to be a software problem not a hardware. So, it is either a driver problem or another software that causes the problem. Some anti virus software limit the connection speed so that they can scan in real time files that are being downloaded. But since you say that the speed problem is permanent not only when you download then it does not seem to be the anti virus.
You can see what windows services are using the network by clicking on Start (Menu)>Accessories>System tools>Resource monitor (and expand the Network tab)

In regards to Windows update manager not working, this might be a solution
Windows 7 update not working
 
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Thank you for your reply.

Windows update does work, but it stops in the middle of the process as it takes forever to download anything. I’m pretty sure that once I solve the connection issue I’ll be able to use the windows update. My win7 is already SP1.

I really don’t see this as a network driver problem. The iMac have both ethernet and wireless cards and neither works, and both worked before with the same bootcamp application. I also tried a WiFi dongle that does work on other computer, using the original win7 driver supplied on its CD, and that didn’t work either.


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There are a few more things you can try if you haven't tried them yet:
- see what happens if you use the Ethernet network card with the wireless card disabled and then use the wireless card with the Ethernet card disabled
- also disable IPv6, use IPv4 only

By the way, what's the output to ipconfig /all command (this problem with internet connection can be caused by DHCP or DNS as well)
 
Hi, please tell me if you can view the attached picture, as I can’t use the computer to access the forum. It has the ipconfig results. Tell me if you need anything translated as well please.

Disabling IPv6 made the connection go away and an yellow exclamation point to appear on the connection icon at the task bar. Disabling IPv4 gave the same results. What does this mean?

Alternating network cards as enabled/disabled didn’t change anything, connection is apparently normal but extremely slow to the point of being unusable.

Thank you!

53463dc284d2ec00595edb4007c5f570.jpg



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I believe this will help. Describes your issue exactly.

TLDR version download the drivers directly from broadcom as the ones that install via Windows cause the slow down and don't work well with Apple devices with broadcom network chipsets
 
On the video it says to use the original bootcamp drivers, which is what I did. It also worked before with the same drivers.


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On the video it says to use the original bootcamp drivers, which is what I did. It also worked before with the same drivers.
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It says in the video that you should install EITHER USING BOOTCAMP OR DIRECTLY FROM THE MANUFACTURER.
So, I highly recommend that you download and install the drivers from the manufacturer, at least it would help us in the process of troubleshooting.
 
Thank you for your continuous help...

My wireless card is the Atheros 9380 and the Ethernet is the Broadcom 57765. Neither manufactures offer original drivers.

I found some drivers at very obscure websites, but often they were from 2011 or 2012 and my bootcamp ones are from 2014. I wouldn’t download from such places anyway.

I have to stress that I’ve also tried a WiFi dongle from D-Link and it didn’t work either, same problem as described on the video above: excellent connection, excellent ping times, but extremely slow speeds. It can’t be the drivers as all 3 boards I tried aren’t working in this specific windows installation.

I also tried to navigate within bootcamp files and manually update the drivers (done that with chipset and everything else as well). Windows confirms the new driver installation but situation doesn’t change.

Of course I did install windows again but that didn’t solve the problem either.

Thank you


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I tried that page exactly, there’s no driver there for the 57765. Once you click on the link in the Table 1 it takes you to a search page but no driver is shown.


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I tried that page exactly, there’s no driver there for the 57765. Once you click on the link in the Table 1 it takes you to a search page but no driver is shown.
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You are right, it is strange that they do not provide the drivers.
I did search for broadcom 57765 and found this
Download Broadcom NetLink Gigabit Ethernet* LAN Driver

Is this the driver that you have already installed on your computer?
It seems to me more and more that your problem is actually caused by the chipset driver (motherboard chipset). What model is your chipset?
 
Hi!

I’m having a hard time finding the exact chipset as the board is supposedly made by Apple itself. It’s a 2.5GHz 2400S "Sandy Bridge" i5 socket 1155. The iMac is model 12,1. But then again, I used the official drivers provided by them (Bootcamp) which includes the mobo ones. Would here be something I could download directly from Intel or something?

PS: I’m at the office, I’ll try the network driver from the link you provided, although it’s a 2010 version, when I get home.

Thank you.


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