Burned ethernet port

[okayvin]

My dad, who is half blind, plugged a dusty ethernet cable into the ethernet port on my mobo. I've been using it for several weeks now and have had problems with the internet speed on this computer. I finally removed the cable and cleaned the port. But the pins look discolored (in a semicircle at the POE) as if it burnt out. Is this physically possible? Would webs and dust cause an ethernet port to burn out? Would this lead to slow internet speeds?

 

[gaborbarla]

Can you test your internet with a replacement network card? The port could be damaged and it could be the cause of your slowdowns but the fact that it still works might mean that maybe other things are to blame such as your phone line (if you are using adsl).

 

[Pinhedd]

My dad, who is half blind, plugged a dusty ethernet cable into the ethernet port on my mobo. I've been using it for several weeks now and have had problems with the internet speed on this computer. I finally removed the cable and cleaned the port. But the pins look discolored (in a semicircle at the POE) as if it burnt out. Is this physically possible? Would webs and dust cause an ethernet port to burn out? Would this lead to slow internet speeds?

Nope. The pins are current limited such that shorting them out won't cause any damage. You could shove a nail in there and the worst that would happen is that you might bend one.

What can happen over a period of many years is that the pins lose their stiffness which keeps them in contact with the wires on the ethernet cable. NICs require all 4 twisted pairs on a CAT5e cable to be connected in order to negotiate a 1000Base-T link speed (gigabit). If one of the pairs isn't connected properly it will negotiate only 100Base-TX, 10Base-T, or no link at all. You can see the link speed in the status dialog for that particular Ethernet adapter. If it's at 100mbps or 1gbps then your NIC is not the cause of your slow internet speeds.

 

[okayvin]

My dad, who is half blind, plugged a dusty ethernet cable into the ethernet port on my mobo. I've been using it for several weeks now and have had problems with the internet speed on this computer. I finally removed the cable and cleaned the port. But the pins look discolored (in a semicircle at the POE) as if it burnt out. Is this physically possible? Would webs and dust cause an ethernet port to burn out? Would this lead to slow internet speeds?

Nope. The pins are current limited such that shorting them out won't cause any damage. You could shove a nail in there and the worst that would happen is that you might bend one.

What can happen over a period of many years is that the pins lose their stiffness which keeps them in contact with the wires on the ethernet cable. NICs require all 4 twisted pairs on a CAT5e cable to be connected in order to negotiate a 1000Base-T link speed (gigabit). If one of the pairs isn't connected properly it will negotiate only 100Base-TX, 10Base-T, or no link at all. You can see the link speed in the status dialog for that particular Ethernet adapter. If it's at 100mbps or 1gbps then your NIC is not the cause of your slow internet speeds.

Thank you. I will try reinstalling the drivers for my mobo.