Ethernet NIC card: slow browsing/downloading and buffering

[supashaka]

PC developed slow browsing/downloading and buffering of video. All other devices (laptop, tablets, PS4 and PS3) work as normal with fast speeds even wirelessly. I have tried:

1) Ran anti-virus/malware scan with avast and then malware bytes and in safe mode also.

2) Tested with spares (ethernet phone cable/micro filter/RJ11 from router to PC).
Connected the router to the micro filter/BT phone master socket and even tried direct without the micro filter into the test socket.

3) Tried 2 other browsers and with antivirus uninstalled.

4) Deleted the Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller driver and updated to the latest from the MSI website.

5) In Device Manager right clicked on ethernet/network adapter - Properties - Advanced tab; for the 'Speed & duplex' property tried changing to different values, beginning with 100 Mbps full duplex to 10 Mbps full duplex

6) Bought a new SSD and did a fresh install of Windows 7


My Build:
CPU: Intel - Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor Motherboard: MSI - Z97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
On-board network interface controller: Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller
Memory: Kingston - HyperX Fury Black 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: MSI - Radeon R9 285 2GB Video Card
Case: Corsair - SPEC-03 Red ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: XFX - TS 650W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply
Monitor: BenQ - GL2250HM 21.5" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor
Keyboard: Cooler Master - CM Storm Devastator Gaming Bundle Wired Gaming Keyboard w/Optical Mouse
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate
Antivirus: Avast free

 

[rgd1101]

From your other thread, did you run anti-virus/malware scan

 

[supashaka]

From your other thread, did you run anti-virus/malware scan

Yup with avast and then malware bytes and in safe mode also. I'm sorry for naming the sites that worked in my previous thread, really didn't realise it came across as a piracy topic, only tested other sites and included it in case it helped someone on here with (developer skills or something) to diagnose, it's really weird that there are some exceptions to the buffering problem!

 

[rgd1101]

what the cpu/ram/sdd usage? try other browser?

 

[supashaka]

what the cpu/ram/sdd usage? try other browser?

Yup I tried 2 other browsers. How do I check usage and post it here?

 

[bill001g]

What does speedtest show. Is only certain types of traffic. Try a non browser based download....steam is a common one people use and there is lots of large files/games you can download for free.

 

[supashaka]

What does speedtest show. Is only certain types of traffic. Try a non browser based download....steam is a common one people use and there is lots of large files/games you can download for free.

I've already signed up to virgin media fibre optic up to 100mbps which activates next month, but it seems like the above suggestion is to improve/check the speed of the internet connection on my PC, and I'm not sure if my problem is that simple?

9-12Mbps is what I always used to get in the past and it's always been good enough for 1080p video streaming which is good enough for me. I just want to be able to fix whatever problem has caused my PC to develop these problems while all my other devices are running as they always did. So it's not just a general speed problem, the speed on my PC actually goes up and down wildly indicating some kind of fault surely?

 

[smorizio]

make sure your mb bios is up to date and the intel chipset and mei drivers are up to date. if you installed full amd package do a ddu uninstall and just install the driver. some of the other amd software act like malware.

 

[supashaka]

make sure your mb bios is up to date and the intel chipset and mei drivers are up to date. if you installed full amd package do a ddu uninstall and just install the driver. some of the other amd software act like malware.

I custom installed AMD drivers. What's mei and ddu?

 

[supashaka]

what the cpu/ram/sdd usage? try other browser?

So I wanted to update you guys since you helped me. The network card arrived the same day as the virgin media installation. On the new 100MBPs virgin media connection I got 110 MBPs and....all the problems were completely solved (with the original built in network card)!

When I changed back to the old origin broadband connection I disabled the normal network adapter in device manager and installed the new one, and that also solved all the problems. The speed is now constant and doesn't jump up and down, the buffering is (mostly) gone and downloads are back to normal (original) fast speeds. I think the fact that some buffering does still occur (3 times in 15 min on Iplayer) reflects the only thing which hasn't changed: the max speed is still coming up as 8.9 MBPs (but at least it's now consistent).

So the big question: what actually caused all this? With the original NIC when I plug in the virgin ethernet the problems are gone, so at 1st I thought the culprit must be the Openreach connection (probably within my premises). Then the new NIC solved the problem also so I'm back to thinking it could still be the old NIC which somehow developed a fault (taking into consideration the fact that all other devices were always working fine)?

Before we had the torrential down-pour of rain that day, we used to get around 12 MBPs and immediately after that day and all the problems it brought (re-read the OP) it was 9 MBPs max and completely unstable. Now it's still 9, but stable. The problem is when my current Virgin contract expires the price will go way up and I'll have to go back to an openreach connection, so I really do want to try to figure out the solution. But Origin broadband (and any other company I'm guessing) say if they send out an openreach engineer and their equipment shows my PC to be at fault then I'll be charged £175 or whatever it was!

 

[smorizio]

try in your router to use another open dns server like google or open dns see if it your isp server.

 

[supashaka]

try in your router to use another open dns server like google or open dns see if it your isp server.

I'll try it out, do you think it will make much of a difference even with the virgin connection? The ping is still around 9 or 10. Also which would you recommend as best: Open DNS or google?

 

[smorizio]

google

 

[supashaka]

try in your router to use another open dns server like google or open dns see if it your isp server.

google

So I tried changing the DNS but it made no difference. Just to update, when I changed ISP to Virgin media the problem vanished when I connected to their router. The problem persists if I plug back into the original router, but I bought a new network card just to test it and the old router works with it! So it must be that the router somehow stopped 'communicating' correctly with the old network card.

Anyhow problem is now solved, thanks for the advice