Slow Network on D420

Question

We have a D420 here in our office that is having trouble with it's wired network connection. The wireless and Cingular broadband work fine, but the wired LAN seems to be rather slow. The computer can browse the internet at an acceptable speed but if you try to download files or do anything requiring heavy bandwidth, the network connection becomes slow. (Normal LAN speeds in the office are around 120-150kbps for downloading files, the D420 runs around 60-80kbps.) We have other D420s in the office that work just fine. This D420 has a Broadcom NetXtreme 57xx Gigabit Controller and is running XP Pro. Any ideas?

RKinner · Answer

Did you check the switch side too?  Are you seeing any errors?  Tried the PC in a different port?  Tried a different PC on the same port?   Replaced the cable?   Start, then right click on My Computer and select Manage then Device Manager then click on the + in front of Network Adapter then uninstall it and reboot.   Check for a new driver?   Ron

RKinner · Answer

Duplex mismatch.  One side set to Autonegotiate and the other side set to Full.  In this case Autonegotiate will set up at half duplex.  It's only allowed to go to Full when the other side is also Autonegotiate.  I'd say from the fact that you have download problems that the switch is set to autonegotiate as it should be and your PC has the NIC set at Full duplex.     Ron

Amazingracer · Answer

Yes. Tried all that. My D620 will download at the average rate at my desk. Unplug the D620 and plug in the D420 and it will download 30-50kbps slower. Those were the first things we tried. Next we reinstalled the driver. Then figuring that we just had a bad image, we then completely reinstalled Windows XP Pro, and all the drivers. And we are back to square one. We were just going to go ahead and call the motherboard in and get a replacement, but figured we'd check to see if anyone else might know what is going on, or had experienced the same problems. And its file downloads from everywhere. when running benchmark tests we have using files from dell.com.

Amazingracer · Answer

Thanks for the reply. NIC is already set to Auto. Any other ideas?

RKinner · Answer

I assume you tried the latest driver:   http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R116101&SystemID=LAT_PNT_PM_D420&os=WW1&osl=en&deviceid=6197&devlib=0&typecnt=1&vercnt=1&formatcnt=1&libid=5&fileid=153405   You might also try setting the duplex to full, run a quick test and then set it back to autonegotiate.  See if that shakes it up any.   I think I'd get a USB to Ethernet adapter and stick it on the PC and use that before I'd swap out the motherboard (unless it's under warranty then let Dell do it).   Ron

Amazingracer · Answer

Changed the Duplex to Full and everything seemed to working fine. Switched it back to Auto, and it went back to being slow. Probably just going to call it in, since its still under warranty. Thanks for your help!

RKinner · Answer

The one in the server room unless there is one under the desk.  Each port on the switch can be set to auto, full or half individually.  The fact that it does work in Full implies that the switch is set to Full too.  Either that or the NIC is lying about being in Full and is actually in Automatic.  Perhaps the other PCs have their NICs set to Full and that's why they work happily?  Did you look?   Ron

Amazingracer · Answer

Are you referring to the switch that would be in our server room? or for the website? If you are talking about the server room. Every other computer in the office downlaods fine. Even the other D420s.

RKinner · Answer

It really sounds like the switch is set to Full and that's what is causing the problem.  Are you positive it is not set to Full?   Ron

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

Slow Network on D420

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