My network suddenly stops working for download tests, so I can't get data at all.
My network suddenly stops working for download tests, so I can't get data at all.
Hello everyone, I tried searching online but couldn't find any real answers. Not many people share the same problem here. I'll keep this short. My internet speed drops to almost nothing when I try to download files from the web. Web browsing works a little bit but is very slow and sometimes can't load even simple pages that have lots of data. When I run a speed test, it goes up to the rated 20 mbits and then slowly goes down to zero. Here is a link to a video showing this issue: View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7EmGXPnA2E I figured out that the problem is on my PC itself. Everything works great when I plug my laptop into the exact same cable used to connect the main PC. I also tested connecting via USB tethering from my phone, and it works well over WiFi and 4G. I tried resetting all network drivers and adapters, updating Windows, disabling the firewall, editing the Winsock registry. Nothing worked. I did not change anything on the router settings. The router is a ZTE ZXDSL 931VII. What can cause this problem? It could be the network card (a part of the motherboard), some weird settings in the router specifically for my PC, or maybe even settings inside the router itself or Windows. I reported it to the ISP. They said nothing works on their end because other devices are all working fine there. I feel like the connection gets blocked when big packets come through. I also noticed that if you leave the PC idle for a couple of hours and then run a speed test, it holds steady at 20 mbits. But once I start loading more data, the drop starts getting worse fast. Every time I run the test again after seeing it die out completely and Windows look like I unplugged the cable from the PC for a second. Any thoughts are welcome. I just hope this isn't a fried motherboard (MSI X370 Gaming Pro Carbon). Maybe I should try with a fresh Windows install. Best, Stjepan
It is likely just a hardware problem, not a software one. Since you are using an ethernet cable, check if your ethernet receiver driver on the motherboard needs updating too. Maybe clean it up? Some gunk could be stopping all your data from going through properly.
Before you reinstall windows, try a USB linux image first. This should start up and run without touching your Windows install. In theory, there might be disk issues not shown here since we aren't using your hard drive. I'd check the Event Viewer to see if anything looks wrong while running this test. You could have network errors, but you would need something like Wireshark to look into those deeper. It is strange that it works fine on a tethered connection. Is just the ethernet connected to your router or does it work the same way when using wifi? If you've installed any of that silly network gaming stuff bundled with the motherboard, I'd try to uninstall it.
Wi-Fi works pretty well. I don't have those gaming glitches installed that affect LANs. I'll try a Linux image and Wireshark to catch any errors. What's weird right now is this: I had been connected through my phone for two hours, then unplugged the phone and plugged in the LAN cable again. After running a speed test, it looked like everything was fine. Downloading files also works well. I don't know why this happened, maybe I bumped into something? Or maybe because it is late at night... no idea. I will check again tomorrow. Thanks for all the tips!
Here is a rewritten version using more casual language while keeping the "I" perspective:
UPDATE: Everything is still working fine. I remembered that yesterday I changed some registry settings. I went over to this thread https://www.tenforums.com/network-sharin...-drop.html. That post had a few old Winsock reg files. After applying the fix, it didn't work right away. I don't remember touching anything else since then. Maybe that was the fix? I will let you know if things change.
The Event Viewer shows three errors happening again: First, DistributedCOM has a problem with permission settings for the COM Server application. The specific app needs Local Activation permission but doesn't have it. To fix this, you can use Component Services. Second, AppModel-Runtime is failing when trying to check its status. Third, Kernel-EventTracing stopped unexpectedly because of an error code 0xC0000188 while the PerfDiag Logger was running.
Use Windows 10's built-in tools to see if they can fix anything. Then try opening Command Prompt and run "sfc /scannow". This helps repair system files. Next, go to the Dism tool. Don't touch your registry at all unless you really have no choice. Editing the registry is only okay when it's a known problem and after you've saved everything else away safely.
They couldn't see anything wrong with the computer. Neither the fix script nor the system repair tool found any issues, and they also made a copy of everything so nothing would be lost.