Issues with Network Connection on HTPC

[Sammy2]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post but it is network related. Also, This is a cross post from avsforum as I'm looking for information.


I'll start off with the issue. My HTPC in my Family Room has recently started to not want to connect to the wired Ethernet and is slow to load but only when in the Family Room.. everything runs real slow and it won't even load Control Panel at all

Here's my set up

intel i5-4690K
Gigabyte GA-Z97-MX Gaming5 w/Qualcomm Atheros 1gig NIC
ATI Ratheon HD7850
Intel HD4500 if not using card.
16GB g.skill RAM.
I've updated drivers for the NIC and MoBo.

Further Information that may be useful.

Denon AVR 2312ci
Panasonic VT60
All connected with a 8 port gig Trendnet switch.. Everything else on this switch connects just fine. I've swapped cables and ports, even connected the HTPC directly to my router with a long CAT6 patch cord.

When connected to the KVM and Ethernet in my office, everything works fine. Put it back in the Family Room.. No go.

I am using HDMI from the HTPC to the AVR and HDMI from the AVR to the TV. I even connected an HDMI monitor in addition to the VGA in KVM in my office to both the on-board graphics and to the video card.

I'm at my wits end with this and spent the better part of this past weekend fussing with it. To get TV going I put an echo from the spare bedroom in the Family Room, connected using the same Ethernet Patch Cord and HDMI Cable. I have the HTPC running on the KVM in my office right now and dishing out TV to all the clients just fine.

TIA for any suggestions and any flaming will be fine by me..

[Crash2009]

bad switch port?

boot the switch!

[Sammy2]

bad switch port?

boot the switch!

IDK but changed ports to no avail on the HTPC and I plugged an echo into the same port and it worked just fine.

I'm beginning to think that this may be the NIC or the driver but it is certainly weird.

[Crash2009]

what model kvm?

does the HTPC have a wifi adapter in it?

[Sammy2]

what model kvm?

does the HTPC have a wifi adapter in it?

IOGear from at least 5 years ago.

No WiFi on the HTPC.

Further research yields that the Qualcomm Athreos adapter is controlled by the Killer Ethernet adapter on these gaming MoBo's and that can be changed to the straight up Qualcomm driver with a little finagling in Device Manager.

Not sure if I'm going to do that or just get an intel NIC card for my HTPC and be done with it. I might do that as a fall back if changing the driver doesn't fix the issue. I'm not sure why this came out of the blue. I have Windows Updates turned off and the only thing I've updated in a while is Emby Server but I cannot see why that would be causing issues which seem to be a conflict between HDMI for my AVR / TV and the NIC because the other HDMI monitor doesn't cause an issue at all. Next weekend when I get back to checking this out, I'm going HDMI direct to the TV from the HTPC to get the AVR out of the chain..

[Crash2009]

Coincidentally I have atheros too, as well as emby. I haven't really jumped in with both feet yet. But I am getting occasional no tuner, signal, etc., and recently, HTPC crashed upon start echo.

Normally this would point to the nic, I suspect a relation to NET 4.6. Or NET 4.62.

Recently emby server update, required a windows update for .NET

[mikinho]

Sammy2,

Can you look in your System event log? I'm guessing you'll see an issue there related to driver crash.

Though for the price to time spent troubleshooting I would definitely go with an Intel PCIe NIC.

-Michael

[Sammy2]

Coincidentally I have atheros too, as well as emby. I haven't really jumped in with both feet yet. But I am getting occasional no tuner, signal, etc., and recently, HTPC crashed upon start echo.

Normally this would point to the nic, I suspect a relation to NET 4.6. Or NET 4.62.

Recently emby server update, required a windows update for .NET

I considered maybe that was the issue but it manifested itself not immediately after upgrading to .net 4.62 but definitely after that upgrade. Come to think of it, there has been some instability since about then but nothing like this.. Hmm..

I am also in the process of migrating Emby to my PC which has a Gigabyte G97M-DHE MoBo with the Realtech NIC..

Sammy2,

Can you look in your System event log? I'm guessing you'll see an issue there related to driver crash.

Though for the price to time spent troubleshooting I would definitely go with an Intel PCIe NIC.

-Michael

It looks as that is were I am headed with this.. As a matter of fact, I think I'll just order it now!

[mikinho]

I am also in the process of migrating Emby to my PC which has a Gigabyte G97M-DHE MoBo with the Realtech NIC..

Just make sure to download your NIC driver from http://www.realtek.com/downloads/downlo ... Down=false

It is often overlooked and Realtek's driver available out of the box in Windows or Windows Update is junk.

[Sammy2]

I am also in the process of migrating Emby to my PC which has a Gigabyte G97M-DHE MoBo with the Realtech NIC..

Just make sure to download your NIC driver from http://www.realtek.com/downloads/downlo ... Down=false

It is often overlooked and Realtek's driver available out of the box in Windows or Windows Update is junk.

I'm not having any issues with the NIC on this PC using the driver from Gigabyte's Support Page for the MoBo. I'll leave it be I think. Thanks!

[Venom51]

Never rule out anything. I just had a 5 port switch fail in a spectacularly stupid way. The uplink to the main switch was occasionally dropping and when it wasn't the switch was broadcasting every packet it received regardless of it being a broadcast packet or not. Pain in the butt to trace down.

[Crash2009]

^^ previously, I think Sammy told me he has at least one smaller switch connected to the main switch. Not sure if that smaller switch has a dedicated up link port.

Switches are weird sometimes, they have no conscience. On the upside though, every in, must go out. Unlike the router.....I'm busy, your packet was thrown in the trash.....send again...