Question Chronic Wired Connection Issues

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cmill78

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Feb 21, 2016
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For the last 3 years I have had connection issues ONLY on my wired connection. All wireless devices do not experience ANY issues. These issues do not happen if I have a VPN turned on, but that isn't always practical for speed reasons. It isn't permanent. A simple reload or three immediately brings me to where I was going. However, it becomes frustrating when logging into games, staying connected to certain streaming services, or making any purchases online. Basically, not life altering but annoying. Here are the things I have tried to resolve the issue:

- Uninstalled the VPN via REVO (twice), deleted all files associated with it, and reinstalled a different VPN and had some issues so I repeated the uninstall.

- Updated all relevant devices, drivers, programs (i.e.; Ethernet, GPU, BIOS, router firmware, etc...).

- Restarted modem and router (several times).

- Confirmed through ISP that their modem is working properly.

- Changed ethernet cables.

- Ran network commands (netsh winsock reset, netsh int ip reset, ipconfig /release, ipconfig /renew, ipconfig /flushdns).

- Uninstalled Ethernet Network Adapter driver and restarted Windows.

- Tinkered with 'Speed/Duplex' settings on Windows and router.

- Disabled 'Dynamic QoS' within router.

My router is a Nighthawk X6 R8000 and it seems to be working fine otherwise, though it is a little over 4 years old. My motherboard is an MSI B450 Tomahawk Max and I am using the Ethernet port on that motherboard.

The only thing I haven't done yet is a complete Network Reset. I was told it should be a "last resort" so I came here to see if I missed anything before taking that step. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 

cmill78

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Feb 21, 2016
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How do you log out?

I 'Switch User' and leave the PC running in the rare occasion my wife needs use of the PC. I technically do not log out at all unless I am shutting the machine down for cleaning or will be away for most of the day. I have always done this on every machine I have built since my first build in 2002.

Thought being that some update or housekeeping process is being prematurely interrupted.

When I 'Switch User', I usually only have my e-mail client (thunderbird) and sound settings open (I use headphones a lot). However, even when I close them out during 'Switch User' the problem still occurs. Plus I have done it this way much longer than the problem has existed.
 

cmill78

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Feb 21, 2016
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What about agt.exe?

Is it expected that agt .exe would be somewhere launched and thus running?

Did a quick look through the previous posts: did not note any AV/Malware scans.

Has there been any recent scans?

Literally did a Malware scan right before posting this and it returned nothing. Windows Defender returned no issues. Running spyware scan now. Last time I ran scans was 91 days ago.

As far as agt.exe, I do not see it running in my processes currently. However, I searched the drive for it and it shows 13 entries of 'AppCrash' between May 30th and yesterday. However, this connectivity problem has existed longer than that. Apparently it is tied to the program MSI Live. This is the program that came with my mobo and is used to update the bios, as well as any other MSI product, though I use it only to check for mobo updates. Last tiime I used this program was in June.
 

COLGeek

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Literally did a Malware scan right before posting this and it returned nothing. Windows Defender returned no issues. Running spyware scan now. Last time I ran scans was 91 days ago.

As far as agt.exe, I do not see it running in my processes currently. However, I searched the drive for it and it shows 13 entries of 'AppCrash' between May 30th and yesterday. However, this connectivity problem has existed longer than that. Apparently it is tied to the program MSI Live. This is the program that came with my mobo and is used to update the bios, as well as any other MSI product, though I use it only to check for mobo updates. Last tiime I used this program was in June.
I would remove that application while sorting through this ordeal.