Windows 8.1 limited connection

[kallekill]

I have an older, maybe six years old computer that I have run Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 on. I recently installed Windows 8.1 on it and it is working fine except for one big problem. I keep loosing internet connection. It works for a while, but then it stops working, saying no Internet access. I can't even reach local host. If I try to disable the network card or change any settings, the network window hangs, so I can't disable and enable the network connection. The only way to solve it is a reboot. I've tried older drivers and the latest driver which is from January 24 2014, but nothing helps. I have a Realtek GBe family card, but searching the net I find other people having the same problem with other cards, so it seems to be a windows bug. I have tried to do a winsock reset, but that did not help. I have the ethernet cable directly connected to the computer. Connecting my other Windows 7 computer I get rock solid 100/100 connection. If anyone have a suggestion it would be appreciated, otherwise I will have to throw Windows 8 out the windows and go back to windows 7 again.

 

[Emulex]

disable power management and see if the problem goes away! in the bios - disable all of it! and in windows

 

[ConradGoodmanIT]

If you do have another network card available that is the first thing to swap out, regardless of what you have read elsewhere. Just to eliminate it.

 

[bgt]

I have an older, maybe six years old computer that I have run Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 on. I recently installed Windows 8.1 on it and it is working fine except for one big problem. I keep loosing internet connection. It works for a while, but then it stops working, saying no Internet access. I can't even reach local host. If I try to disable the network card or change any settings, the network window hangs, so I can't disable and enable the network connection. The only way to solve it is a reboot. I've tried older drivers and the latest driver which is from January 24 2014, but nothing helps. I have a Realtek GBe family card, but searching the net I find other people having the same problem with other cards, so it seems to be a windows bug. I have tried to do a winsock reset, but that did not help. I have the ethernet cable directly connected to the computer. Connecting my other Windows 7 computer I get rock solid 100/100 connection. If anyone have a suggestion it would be appreciated, otherwise I will have to throw Windows 8 out the windows and go back to windows 7 again.

Try this: (in a bat file and use administartor to open it)

netsh winsock reset catalog
netsh int ipv4 reset reset.log
netsh int ipv6 reset reset.log

and then this:

netsh winsock reset
netsh winsock reset catalog
ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
netsh int ip stop
netsh int ip start

 

[zephxiii]

I have this problem with wifi (where it drops the wifi connect and can't get back on it) on my old Thinkpad T60 and windows 8.1...the only thing that fixes it is a reboot.

I will disable power management to see if that fixes it.

 

[azazel1024]

If it helps any, this seems to be a semi-common problem with Asus T100 tablets as well. However, it seems driver related as an older version of the driver "limited network connection" happens significantly less often than with the newer drivers that are out there. Combined with this seemingly not happening at all on 2.4GHz.

So I suspect this is a Windows 8.1 + Driver issue. I've never seen it on my desktop or laptop, both on 8.1 (my server is on 8), but it happens on my T100 anywhere from once in 12hrs to every 36hrs.

With the newer driver, the exact behavior happens, a reboot is the only thing that'll solve it. Attempting to disable and reenable the Wifi adapter just results in it hanging, nothing is reachable (local host included) until reboot, at which time it happens again anywhere from 10-20 minutes to a couple of hours.

The older driver its much less often (maybe 1/5th the frequency) and simply disconnecting and reconnecting to the network solves the problem, or disabling and reenabling the Wifi adapter. So its pretty tolerable since we are talking once or twice a day, and fixed in 5-10 seconds.

I would love to know what exactly is causing this, as it does seem to be an 8.1 issue with all of the various problems I've seen reported on it, but it is also pretty obviously influenced by drivers.

 

[kallekill]

If you do have another network card available that is the first thing to swap out, regardless of what you have read elsewhere. Just to eliminate it.

I installed an old 100 mbit network card (also realtek). I downloaded over 25 GB of data yesterday without a problem, so it seems to work. I also applied all the latest windows patches via windows update. I little early to tell if the problem is gone, but I have my fingers crossed.