Download/Upload capping at unusually low speed

[jatexsiron]

my down/up is usually about 1000mb/s (I live on a college campus). However, this morning I noticed streams and downloads were running slow, so I ran a speed test and sure enough I was only getting about 10mb/s up/down, way slower than usual.

My first thought was maybe the internet on campus was being slow, so I tried my friends laptop and he was getting the usual 1000 up/down speed. My second thought was maybe it was my ethernet cable, so I tried 2 other ones. This made no difference and I was still getting the 10mb/s.

My other thought was maybe my wall outlet was the issue, so I tried using the same ethernet cable with my laptop, and that too got the usual 1000 mb/s. So now I know its a problem with my computer and not the network.

I ran a virus scan to see if maybe something was interfering, but Malwarebytes did not detect any threats, so I'm not exactly sure what else could be the problem. Is it possible that its a failing network adapter. I'm using the on-board Realtek GBE controller, but I havent had any problems with it. These problems just started happening today.

I looked up similar issues and I tried changing the 'speed and duplex' in the controllers settings, but this didn't affect anything. Are there any other settings or programs that might interfere with the speed? My ping is the same as it always is.

Thank you

ps: i've noticed some people had an issue with AMD quickstream. I don't have any AMD programs but is it possible NVIDIA has a similar program that could slow the download speed?

 

[Darkbreeze]

First of all, nothing ever had a problem, until it did, so I never understand why people say stuff like "I didn't have a problem with it until..." or "My car was running perfectly fine before so I don't understand what happened". Well, stuff fails, either later, or sooner, but all stuff fails. So, with that out of the way we can move past the idea that something CAN'T be the problem, because anything can and most usually has, failed, when somebody comes looking for an answer.

Something was working right before, now it isn't, let's move past that and figure out what it is.

First thing I'd do is flush DNS.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwigzMvezaXXAhUEzmMKHddKCk8QFggpMAE&url=https%3A%2F%2Fdocumentation.cpanel.net%2Fdisplay%2FCKB%2FHow%2BTo%2BClear%2BYour%2BDNS%2BCache&usg=AOvVaw2qj6lKpx7DyaZzqDDaH2XE




Next thing I'd do is go into control panel >device manager >network adapters and right click on your network adapter , select properties and then driver. If the driver has been recently updated by windows update you might try selecting Rollback driver. If Rollback driver is grayed out then it hasn't been recently updated. Try selecting Update driver in that case. If there is no driver update available then back out of there, right click on the network adapter again and select Uninstall device.

Reboot and then go back into device manager to see if it has automatically reinstalled the network adapter. If it has not, there may be an issue with the network adapter or you may need to connect wirelessly temporarily and get the latest driver that way.

Drivers, depending on your OS version, can be found here:

http://www.realtek.com/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=13&PFid=5&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false

If reinstalling or updating the drivers does not work, and there are no remarked devices showing a problem in device manager, then you probably have a failing network adapter and will likely either to purchase a USB network adapter, use Wi-FI or find out if the internal network adapter is replaceable. Usually replacing internal laptop components other than the memory, HDD or SSD or battery, are not for the faint of heart and can be a very involved process.

If you are fairly handly you might be able to do it or you might want to have a technician do it for you, assuming of course that it's even replaceable and not soldered or integrated to the motherboard. If it is, then a USB or Bluetooth network adapter might be your only options.

It's also possible that it's a software issue, so I'd make sure my malware and virus software have the latest updates installed and do the most comprehensive scans those utilities will allow you to do. Might even be worth booting into safe mode and doing the scans there since many malware programs protect itself from scans in normal windows environments.

 

[jatexsiron]

Flushing DNS did not fix it. I uninstalled the driver as you said, rebooted, and it seemed to install the device again, however it did not fix the issue. So I downloaded and installed the driver from the link you gave me. This too did not fix it. I'm going to try running in safe mode and virus scan to see if that finds anything. I'm not worried about installing a new adapter since I built the entire computer from scratch. If you have an idea of a good, cheap one I could buy I'd appreciate it. Something that gets 1000mb/s

Edit: I ran a virus scan in safe mode and still did not detect any threats. Also, I was looking at this adapter. Thoughts? https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833114004&cm_re=pci_ethernet_adapter-_-33-114-004-_-Product
Edit2: I noticed under connection status the speed is only 10mbps, which is what its capping at. Here is a screenshot: https://gyazo.com/1f8d33c3484d38d178ead91b068c5c10
Is there a way to change this?

 

[Darkbreeze]

Well, since you decided my help is not worth much, shown by the fact that you voted my answer down, I'll say good luck and hope you get it solved but I'm not going to waste my time here. Luck to you.

 

[popatim]

Open the Network & Sharing again (click the network icon down by the system date & time in the lower right)
In the window that opens click on Change Adapter Settings
Right click on the Loacal Area Connection and select propterites.
Click the Configure button.
On the Advance Tab, in the 'Property:' column, look for "Speed and Duplex" or "Link Speed" (its usually one of those two) and in the "Value" field you can see the current state.
If Value is Auto Negotiate (which is the default value) try setting it manually to 1.0Gbps Full Duplex and see if that now works. You likely will need to reboot for the change to take effect.