Question Extreme Packet Loss while downloading - Cannot Voice Chat ?

[HoloTheWise]

Motherboard - Asus prime x670e-pro (BIOS VER. 1618)
CPU - Ryzen 9 7900x
GPU - 4080 FE
HDD - Crucial T700 (Issue also happens on my old WD_BLACK SN850)
ISP - VZ FIOS 1GBPS UP/DOWN

So I wanted to be fancy and get a new PCI.E GEN 5 M.2 since Crucial (who I personally like) released their new Drive! So I installed it, booted everything up and hopped in discord to talk to my friends. As I have always done, I downloaded games while trying to talk to my friends... but there was a MAJOR issue - everything was lagging beyond comprehension. This issue is new and I have never experienced it before. As soon as I noticed the horrible lag I did multiple packet loss tests, and can confirm I am sitting around 20%-26% packet loss while downloading games making is impossible to voice chat.

Now I fully understand that you can get packet loss from from downloading but it has NEVER occurred to me before. I checked my Network Adapter area on task manager and its not fully saturating my available download bandwidth so I really don't think its that. At this point I rage quit, uninstalled the new M.2 Drive, said "PCI.E GEN 5 drives aren't ready for prime time" and I put back my old WD_BLACK SN850 in, did a fresh install of windows cus its been a while cus why not, and booted back up...... the issue is still there. I am truly stumped on what to do. I've spent the last day and a half trying to fix it with many attempts.

What I tried:

• Cleared CMOS
• Re-flashed latest BIOS
• Reseated my RAM
• Inspected M2 Slot & board for damage
• Re-installed windows (both 10 and 11 same results)
• Confirmed all drivers and windows updates are installed.
• Manually uninstalled my network drivers and reinstalled (Multiple versions of ) drivers starlight form the manufacture.
• Changed my router to a different backup one I had
• Unplugged my router AND ONT for 10 minutes fully resetting network.
• Installing games on a completely different drive from my C: drive
• I tried downloading stuff on other devices on my network and my desktop isn't effected it seems
• I am going insane and I am completely out of ideas besides my network card is damaged, but the thing is I am 100% sure I didn't damage it at all during my M.2's install. If anyone has ANY ideas besides RMA I am open to anything. I waited years for Diablo 4 and cannot play it knowing my computer has this issue.

Thanks in advance

 

[kerberos_20]

try increasing MTU size in router settings
what connection type you have?

how are you checking packet loss? with tracert?
if packet loss is on first hop, then issue is in your network settings (nic card/modem), if its on second hop or higher, then thats outside of your house and your ISP should be fixing it

 

[Misgar]

I experienced problems with the built-in 2.5GbE Realtek chipset on my Asus X670-P WiFi motherboard, when it was connected to my 10GbE Netgear switch. After downloading several driver updates from the Realtek site, the problem persisted. In my case the network connection vanished when transferring Gigabytes of files between PCs.

I abandoned the built-in 2.5GbE Realtek NIC on the X670-P and fitted an Asus XG-C100C 10GbE PCI-e x4 NIC instead. I know my 10GbE switch is not 100% compatible with modern Ethernet chipsets, but there's no firmware update so I'd have to replace the switch with something new.

If you have a spare 1GbE NIC which you can plug into a PCIe port on the motherboard, give it a try. As a temporary fix I used an old dual-port 1GbE Intel server NIC which worked perfectly. Rather surprisingly, an external 2.5GbE Realtek USB3 network adapter also worked fine. Perhaps these older NICs were more compatible with my four year old 10GbE switch.

Many people are having problems with on-board Intel and Realtek 2.5GbE NIC chipsets fitted to current motherboards. If you can accept a drop in speed to 1GbE, fit a high quality NIC. It might fix your system.

 

[HoloTheWise]

I experienced problems with the built-in 2.5GbE Realtek chipset on my Asus X670-P WiFi motherboard, when it was connected to my 10GbE Netgear switch. After downloading several driver updates from the Realtek site, the problem persisted. In my case the network connection vanished when transferring Gigabytes of files between PCs.

I abandoned the built-in 2.5GbE Realtek NIC on the X670-P and fitted an Asus XG-C100C 10GbE PCI-e x4 NIC instead. I know my 10GbE switch is not 100% compatible with modern Ethernet chipsets, but there's no firmware update so I'd have to replace the switch with something new.

If you have a spare 1GbE NIC which you can plug into a PCIe port on the motherboard, give it a try. As a temporary fix I used an old dual-port 1GbE Intel server NIC which worked perfectly. Rather surprisingly, an external 2.5GbE Realtek USB3 network adapter also worked fine. Perhaps these older NICs were more compatible with my four year old 10GbE switch.

Many people are having problems with on-board Intel and Realtek 2.5GbE NIC chipsets fitted to current motherboards. If you can accept a drop in speed to 1GbE, fit a high quality NIC. It might fix your system.

I wonder why it worked with 0 issues until now…. Maybe I just got lucky with some weird driver combo that I lost when I reinstalled windows? I’m tempted to buy another mobo and see if that works….. but idk I’m just so confused. I could install a PCIE Nic but I would have space constraints and would have to take out my sound card which I really love… hmmmm

I don’t have any laying around. What would be your suggestion for a good quality one, I’ll spend more for a good one then cheap out!

 

[Misgar]

I appreciate that some of your empty PCI-e slots may be covered by your graphics card and you don't want to remove your sound card. Are there any free slots remaining in your system? If not you could try a USB3 network adapter (dongle).

I have a small collection of USB3 Ethernet dongles, primarily for use on various laptops without an Ethernet port. Some of them are 1GbE, others are 2.5GbE. I consider "branded" items as being potentially more reliable than cheap no-name versions, e.g. I use a 1GbE HP dongle on my HP laptop, but the laptop works equally well with a 2.5GbE dongle costing roughly £20/$25. I'll go through my collection of dongles and post details later on today.

What speed do you want from your Ethernet connection (1, 2.5, 5 or 10GbE) and is latency important? If so and a reliable network connection is more important than your sound card, have you considered an external USB DAC for audio playback?

Is your computer's Ethernet cable plugged directly into a broadband router, or into a separate network switch as in my system? As I said earlier, my 8-port 10GbE Netgear switch has known problems with some NICs, but I'm reluctant to get rid of it because it cost over £300/$350.

 

[Misgar]

I've just installed a 2.5GbE USB3 Ethernet dongle (made by ProSafe) on my Asus X670-P WiFi motherboard running Windows 10 Professional 64-bit.

Driver installation is not exactly easy, because Windows does not recognise the dongle as an Ethernet adapter the firts time you plug it in. Instead (if you're observent) the dongle appears as a logical CDROM drive with a folder containing the drivers. In my case it shows drivers for Windows 7, 8 and 10, because the dongle was purchased 3 years ago.

Before installing an external USB adater, I recommend disabling the internal 2.5GbE Realtek LAN controller in the Asus BIOS under 'Advanced/Onboard Devices Configuration', then uninstall the driver for the disabled (internal) 2.5GbE Realtek Network Adapter in Control Panel, to avoid confusion with a new external 2.5GbE Network Adapter. If memory serves me right, you only get one chance to open the logical CDROM, so make a copy of the drivers before proceeding, in case you need them again.

After installing the Windows 10 drivers, the USB dongle appears in the list of Network Adapters in Control Panel with a Device ID of 'USB\VID_0BDA&PID_8156&REV3000', which indicates the chipset is a Realtek RTL8156. Why this works better than the internal Realtek chipset on the Asus motherboard is a mystery to me. The internal chipset might be different, e.g. an RTL8152 or an RTL8153.

I don't know what part of the world you live in, but I purchased my ProSafe dongle from CPC/Farnell.

https://cpc.farnell.com/c/computer-office/computing?st=usb+ethernet+adapter&showResults=true

Prosafe have changed the shape of the plastic housing on their USB 3.0 adapter PSG90932 with Type A plug from a 'rounded end' to a 'square end'. My USB Type A dongle looks the same as the Type C dongle PSG91498 apart from the connector. If you can't purchase from CPC/Farnell, try Amazon, eBay or your local suppliers.

A USB dongle is much cheaper than buying a new motherboard and you can keep your sound card. The only possible disadvantage is latency on a USB Ethernet dongle might be higher than latency on an internal/PCI-e bus adapter. For £25/$30 it's worth a go.

 

[Misgar]

I note that your X670-E Pro has only two full length PCIe slots to allow a fourth M.2 drive, whereas my cheaper X670-P WiFi has three full length slots, albeit with reduced support (x4) on the two slots furthest away from the CPU. As a result, I'm able to run an LSI SAS controller in the second slot (in x4 mode, not x8) and an Asus XG-C100C 10GbE NIC in the third slot. My PCIex1 slot is covered by the GPU and there's no room for an extender card.

If you're prepared to temporarily sacrifice your audio card, you could try an Intel server NIC featuring the i350AM4 or similar chipset. I pulled an old HP 361T dual-port 1000Base-Tx card from one of my ML350P servers and it worked perfectly as a replacement for the troublesome 2.5GbE chipset on the Asus motherboard. Shortly after, I purchased another XG-C100C and removed the 361T. The 361T (with Intel i350AM4 chipset) was by far the most stable NIC in my X670-P WiFi with my Netgear XS508M 10GbE switch. The 361T or similar can be purchased second-hand for around £25/$30.

You don't need a dual-port card for the test, but I do recommend using a tried-and-trusted 1000Base-Tx server chipset and not one of the cheapo 2.5GbE Realtek or Intel chipsets which are causing so much grief. A quick search on Intel/Realtek 2.5GbE motherboard chipsets reveals a large number of complaints. Long-standing 1GbE and 10GbE systems seem far more stable than modern low-cost 2.5 and 5.0GbE implementations.

 

[kerberos_20]

USB dongle is much cheaper than buying a new motherboard

it sure is, but usb dongle overheats fairly quickly and thermal throttled ethernet isnt really reliable

 

[Misgar]

At least an external USB dongle might prove the internal 2.5GbE chipset is causing the packet loss. From there the OP can decide on a course of action, e.g. fit a NIC instead of the soundcard or replace the whole mobo.

I agree a PCIe NIC with a heatsink on the chipset will be less prone to overheating. I add 40mm fans to SAS controllers in desktop PCs with less forced air cooling than my servers.

I've been using a 2.5GbE USB dongle on the back of an old AMD 955 system for years and it's not given any trouble. Contrast this with the Realtek chipset on the Asus mobo in my latest AM5 build which has been a PITA from day one.

 

[HoloTheWise]

I've just installed a 2.5GbE USB3 Ethernet dongle (made by ProSafe) on my Asus X670-P WiFi motherboard running Windows 10 Professional 64-bit.

Driver installation is not exactly easy, because Windows does not recognise the dongle as an Ethernet adapter the firts time you plug it in. Instead (if you're observent) the dongle appears as a logical CDROM drive with a folder containing the drivers. In my case it shows drivers for Windows 7, 8 and 10, because the dongle was purchased 3 years ago.

Before installing an external USB adater, I recommend disabling the internal 2.5GbE Realtek LAN controller in the Asus BIOS under 'Advanced/Onboard Devices Configuration', then uninstall the driver for the disabled (internal) 2.5GbE Realtek Network Adapter in Control Panel, to avoid confusion with a new external 2.5GbE Network Adapter. If memory serves me right, you only get one chance to open the logical CDROM, so make a copy of the drivers before proceeding, in case you need them again.

After installing the Windows 10 drivers, the USB dongle appears in the list of Network Adapters in Control Panel with a Device ID of 'USB\VID_0BDA&PID_8156&REV3000', which indicates the chipset is a Realtek RTL8156. Why this works better than the internal Realtek chipset on the Asus motherboard is a mystery to me. The internal chipset might be different, e.g. an RTL8152 or an RTL8153.

I don't know what part of the world you live in, but I purchased my ProSafe dongle from CPC/Farnell.

https://cpc.farnell.com/c/computer-office/computing?st=usb+ethernet+adapter&showResults=true

Prosafe have changed the shape of the plastic housing on their USB 3.0 adapter PSG90932 with Type A plug from a 'rounded end' to a 'square end'. My USB Type A dongle looks the same as the Type C dongle PSG91498 apart from the connector. If you can't purchase from CPC/Farnell, try Amazon, eBay or your local suppliers.

A USB dongle is much cheaper than buying a new motherboard and you can keep your sound card. The only possible disadvantage is latency on a USB Ethernet dongle might be higher than latency on an internal/PCI-e bus adapter. For £25/$30 it's worth a go.

I ended up just going with the This one. I did it without reading this first and it ruined my windows install lol. It just would not boot into windows after that. So I re-installed, followed your instructions and now it works. Sad to say it didnt fix the issue.

So I thought a little outside the box. I tried downloading a game on steam on a different desktop I have and the packet loss was still there. I even tried on PS5 and check and the packet loss is there too. SOOOOOOOOOOO I'm starting to think its an ISP issue and not anything with my desktop (sadly...?).
I've basically confirmed the issue is still there on ANY device on my network if someone else on the network is using about 300~400mbps of data.

I talked to FiOS and they've been useless. They simply run a speed test and tell me "your speeds are great no problems" and none of them understand packet loss, and won't listen to me.

Thank to everyone for their help though! You all had a lot of good insight and suggestions. Now I'm going to have to figure out what to do

 

[kerberos_20]

I ended up just going with the This one. I did it without reading this first and it ruined my windows install lol. It just would not boot into windows after that. So I re-installed, followed your instructions and now it works. Sad to say it didnt fix the issue.

So I thought a little outside the box. I tried downloading a game on steam on a different desktop I have and the packet loss was still there. I even tried on PS5 and check and the packet loss is there too. SOOOOOOOOOOO I'm starting to think its an ISP issue and not anything with my desktop (sadly...?).
I've basically confirmed the issue is still there on ANY device on my network if someone else on the network is using about 300~400mbps of data.

I talked to FiOS and they've been useless. They simply run a speed test and tell me "your speeds are great no problems" and none of them understand packet loss, and won't listen to me.

Thank to everyone for their help though! You all had a lot of good insight and suggestions. Now I'm going to have to figure out what to do

start downloading, then run tracert command to some server where you experiencing packet loss