[SOLVED] Getting disconnected every 2 hours and 4 minutes ?

[pugschamp]

I am on a MSI MPG B550 GAMING CARBON WIFI (MS-7C90) motherboard.

This has been happening ever since I put this PC together back in December, where it had a host of other issues related to internet access, such as straight up dropping the wi-fi connection over and over again just seconds at a time, although that has been remedied by using an ethernet cable. However, another issue presented itself, seemingly randomly I would be disconnecting from games I would be playing. I thought it to be the general game server's faults, i.e. Overwatch, Destiny 2, Apex services. I had started streaming about a month ago, and I found out that these disconnects in the game were not random, it was precisely every 2 hours and 4 minutes on the dot from when I establish a connection with the game servers, per application. This also would cause my stream to crash in the same time frame.

Everything is fine (no people running into walls, no signs of something going wrong), and then I get booted from the game, and ONLY from the game, other stuff open in the background such as Discord seem to stay connected, same with my web browser and Spotify. It doesn't all happen at the same exact time, but it happens as soon as 2 hours and 4 minutes after the connection of the specific application has been established, and once that time frame has passed, it boots me back to the main menu or whatever the game has where it reconnects me after a minute or so.

I have checked all over my router and general connectivity to the internet, the logs etc., this seems to only be on my computer's end. I don't know how to check the logs on my own computer with internet connectivity going out. I have also uninstalled, reinstalled, and updated my network driver for the ethernet. I have turned off any sort of power saving related function for it as well. It just seems strange that it is oddly application connection based, the entire computer does not lose internet access, just specific points of connect for only a few moments. I have all the Windows 10 updates, and have uninstalled all forms of software I can find that might be interfering with my connection that I can find online from other threads.

I can't seem to find my issue anywhere online. Anyone have an idea of what might be happening?

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

you may want to contact your ISP and have them do some diagnostics.

 

[pugschamp]

you may want to contact your ISP and have them do some diagnostics.

I guess I could try, but this does not occur on any other device on my network. And from what I can tell from looking at router and modem logs, neither of them notice a single thing regarding the PC.

 

[bill001g]

One of the common reasons is some issue with the DHCP lease time. The IP address assigned to your machine expires after a period of time. The machine normally requests a extension and it will never actually expire.

You can see the lease time with a ipconfig /all. Most home users it is set to a lease time of at least a day so even if there was a issue requesting a extension it would not happen a lot. The lease time is set in the router.

The simplest test is to go into the pc IPV4 settings and set a ip address manually. Use a high address like 192.168.x.210. The correct way is to pick a IP that is outside the dhcp pool in the router since the router assigned starting at low numbers it will work to just pick high ones.

While you are in there disable the IPv6 support. It likely is not your problem but IPv6 seems to cause strange issues for people.

If it is not dhcp you might find something in the event monitor in your PC at those times.

 

[hammerryan]

I am on a MSI MPG B550 GAMING CARBON WIFI (MS-7C90) motherboard.

This has been happening ever since I put this PC together back in December, where it had a host of other issues related to internet access, such as straight up dropping the wi-fi connection over and over again just seconds at a time, although that has been remedied by using an ethernet cable. However, another issue presented itself, seemingly randomly I would be disconnecting from games I would be playing. I thought it to be the general game server's faults, i.e. Overwatch, Destiny 2, Apex services. I had started streaming about a month ago, and I found out that these disconnects in the game were not random, it was precisely every 2 hours and 4 minutes on the dot from when I establish a connection with the game servers, per application. This also would cause my stream to crash in the same time frame.

Everything is fine (no people running into walls, no signs of something going wrong), and then I get booted from the game, and ONLY from the game, other stuff open in the background such as Discord seem to stay connected, same with my web browser and Spotify. It doesn't all happen at the same exact time, but it happens as soon as 2 hours and 4 minutes after the connection of the specific application has been established, and once that time frame has passed, it boots me back to the main menu or whatever the game has where it reconnects me after a minute or so.

I have checked all over my router and general connectivity to the internet, the logs etc., this seems to only be on my computer's end. I don't know how to check the logs on my own computer with internet connectivity going out. I have also uninstalled, reinstalled, and updated my network driver for the ethernet. I have turned off any sort of power saving related function for it as well. It just seems strange that it is oddly application connection based, the entire computer does not lose internet access, just specific points of connect for only a few moments. I have all the Windows 10 updates, and have uninstalled all forms of software I can find that might be interfering with my connection that I can find online from other threads.

I can't seem to find my issue anywhere online. Anyone have an idea of what might be happening?

It's so strange that everything else remains connected while the game crashes, without showing any signs of lag prior to the incident. Perhaps the issue is with the game itself (i.e. you need to repair your client), you have a virus (use antivirus to kill it), or you are running out of space on your hard drive. That's all I can think of for now, I hope it gets better!

I wonder why it's 2 hours and 4 minutes specifically? No wonder you can't find it on other forums. Do update us when you get to the bottom of what's happening!

 

[Ralston18]

And I will add to @bill001g 's suggestions (Post #4) that you also look in Reliability History.

Reliability History uses a timeline format that may help identify any errors, warnings, or informational events that occur 2 hours, 4 minutes after connecting to a game server.

Task Scheduler is another place to look. Some Event A occurs and then, after 2 hours, 4 minutes, Event B is triggered.

 

[pugschamp]

It's so strange that everything else remains connected while the game crashes, without showing any signs of lag prior to the incident.

For sure. I have been asking around a lot about how this might even be possible on my end rather than a server issue to find a place to start, because I still have come up dry even after several months of off and on checking on this issue.

Perhaps the issue is with the game itself (i.e. you need to repair your client), you have a virus (use antivirus to kill it), or you are running out of space on your hard drive.

This isn't the issue, doesn't just happen with a single game, it happens to the internet connection of every application that has a steady connection to a server, so in the case of something like Rocket League, while I won't get disconnected from individual game servers because they change every 5 to 8 minutes, my in game parties get disbanded on the same time interval because that is a consistent stream to the main RL servers.
I've tried different antiviruses, hasn't changed anything, in fact I've reinstalled Windows about two or three times since this issue first started, so anything related to files seems unlikely. Also in terms of storage, my PC has a 2TB HDD as well as a NVME 1TB SSD, neither close to capacity.

I wonder why it's 2 hours and 4 minutes specifically? No wonder you can't find it on other forums. Do update us when you get to the bottom of what's happening!

This is a good indicator to me that it has to be software rather than hardware, and to be fair, other people who might have this issue might think it's random, I thought it was random until I started streaming where I noticed my streams ALWAYS gave out at the same minute mark, and then I would always check my games session timer on the Steam overlay and for sure it always took 124 minutes. Thanks for the suggestions though! Appreciate your time. Will do if something works.

 

[pugschamp]

=

One of the common reasons is some issue with the DHCP lease time. The IP address assigned to your machine expires after a period of time. The machine normally requests a extension and it will never actually expire.

You can see the lease time with a ipconfig /all. Most home users it is set to a lease time of at least a day so even if there was a issue requesting a extension it would not happen a lot. The lease time is set in the router.

The simplest test is to go into the pc IPV4 settings and set a ip address manually. Use a high address like 192.168.x.210. The correct way is to pick a IP that is outside the dhcp pool in the router since the router assigned starting at low numbers it will work to just pick high ones.

While you are in there disable the IPv6 support. It likely is not your problem but IPv6 seems to cause strange issues for people.

If it is not dhcp you might find something in the event monitor in your PC at those times.

Oh! This is actually a lot of good stuff to try, I will for sure dig through the things related to the DHCP and reply again if anything changes. It does take a bit to go through individual changes and tests as it does take 2 hours to find out whether something works. It would seem strange to me if it was a lease time issue set in the router as my computer is the only one having issues, even a laptop set up right next to me on the same internet never experiences something like this, but I will recheck everything in the router for sure!

In fact my lease seems to be set to a day.
Although I will still look deeper into this stuff on my end. Gonna be honest, I wasn't aware ipconfig /all existed.

I also already run on a static IPv4 with a high number, but will try out disabling IPv6.

And I've gone through my entire event monitor, timing a disconnect down to the second and I usually never find anything around the same time as the disconnect that doesn't happen all the time, or is happening outside of times I have anything open, as well as usually not being related to internet connectivity. I've also gone through my Task Scheduler, nothing there either.

Thanks for the suggestions and ideas, will definitely get to checking them.

 

[pugschamp]

And I will add to @bill001g 's suggestions (Post #4) that you also look in Reliability History.

Reliability History uses a timeline format that may help identify any errors, warnings, or informational events that occur 2 hours, 4 minutes after connecting to a game server.

Task Scheduler is another place to look. Some Event A occurs and then, after 2 hours, 4 minutes, Event B is triggered.

Reliability History doesn't really show anything related to the issue, at least from what I can see. Unless there is any way to configure it to show more information, all the errors it shows are things that haven't happened around these disconnects, let alone any of the games I play being on there.

And yeah I took a look through my entire Task Scheduler, nothing was schedules to run around that kind of format, and I even disabled some that I suspicious of being the culprit, no dice.

I will also add that I purchased a PCIE Ethernet Port for my PC as I saw another thread that said it fixed their disconnect issue for them, but same issue, but a little worse actually, the disconnect per application lasts longer than it does when the cable is plugged directly into my motherboard. It just makes me wonder if it is the motherboard hardware or if it has something to do with my Realtek Ethernet drivers? I have updated and reverted updates to see if it fixed anything as well as disabling any power saving modes, but still arriving at the same conclusion.

 

[Ralston18]

Are you able to borrow another known working network adapter from someone?

Wired or wireless with USB connectivity. Pull the PCIE Ethernet port adapter and install the borrowed network adapter,

Manually download the applicable drivers via the borrowed adapter's manufacturer's website. Install and configure for your network.

Ensure that only one network adapter is enabled.

 

[pugschamp]

Are you able to borrow another known working network adapter from someone?

Wired or wireless with USB connectivity. Pull the PCIE Ethernet port adapter and install the borrowed network adapter,

Manually download the applicable drivers via the borrowed adapter's manufacturer's website. Install and configure for your network.

Ensure that only one network adapter is enabled.

I retried this, there was a time where a USB Netgear WiFi adapter did work without any issues, but it seems to fall to the same issue my built in Wifi chipset does now (an Intel AX200) which is that it does randomly drop the entire internet connection and no longer connect to my WiFi and randomly comes back on and then goes off again, which is a much worse issue to deal with than the issue specifically to do with the ethernet. At least with the Ethernet, the disconnects are predictable, take a bit, and only last for a blip, at least as far as I can see, whereas the wireless stuff just cuts the entire connection only a couple minutes into using them.

But yeah, couldn't seem to fix this issue either. If there's any other information I can provide or logs I can look into, just let me know.

 

[microtank]

I retried this, there was a time where a USB Netgear WiFi adapter did work without any issues, but it seems to fall to the same issue my built in Wifi chipset does now (an Intel AX200) which is that it does randomly drop the entire internet connection and no longer connect to my WiFi and randomly comes back on and then goes off again, which is a much worse issue to deal with than the issue specifically to do with the ethernet. At least with the Ethernet, the disconnects are predictable, take a bit, and only last for a blip, at least as far as I can see, whereas the wireless stuff just cuts the entire connection only a couple minutes into using them.

But yeah, couldn't seem to fix this issue either. If there's any other information I can provide or logs I can look into, just let me know.

802.11 AX is designed for the same room, or you would need nodes that can physically see each other to keep a consistent connection. A power line adapter or what I recommend is a coax over Ethernet adapter “Moca”. Moca does not need cable internet, and works with fiber, dsl, or even a great wireless set up. 2.4 ghz is the best solution for traveling through physical objects and distance. If you can 802.11 G is by far the best setting you probably could use for stability, and minimizing interference. AX and AC adapters should provide these functions including the routers

 

[Ralston18]

Make and model modem? Make and model router?

 

[pugschamp]

Make and model modem? Make and model router?

ARRIS Surfboard T25 for the modem, Netgear Nighthawk R7000P for the router.

 

[pugschamp]

802.11 AX is designed for the same room, or you would need nodes that can physically see each other to keep a consistent connection. A power line adapter or what I recommend is a coax over Ethernet adapter “Moca”. Moca does not need cable internet, and works with fiber, dsl, or even a great wireless set up. 2.4 ghz is the best solution for traveling through physical objects and distance. If you can 802.11 G is by far the best setting you probably could use for stability, and minimizing interference. AX and AC adapters should provide these functions including the routers

Thing is I am in the same room as the router and modem. But I will look into the adapter, and see if it is worth giving a try.

 

[Ralston18]

This router?

https://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/R7000P/R7000P_UM_EN.pdf

Verify that I identified the correct manual for your router.

The router does have logs (Reference physically numbered Page 84 in the User Manual.).

Take some screenshots of the log entry actions that you can associate with the disconnects and anything that happened in the preceding 3 hours or so.

Post the screenshots in this thread using imgur (www.imgur.com)

Also on the router try to capture the UPnP screen via ADVANCED > Advanced Setup > UPnP

 

[pugschamp]

This router?

https://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/R7000P/R7000P_UM_EN.pdf

Verify that I identified the correct manual for your router.

The router does have logs (Reference physically numbered Page 84 in the User Manual.).

Take some screenshots of the log entry actions that you can associate with the disconnects and anything that happened in the preceding 3 hours or so.

Post the screenshots in this thread using imgur (www.imgur.com)

Also on the router try to capture the UPnP screen via ADVANCED > Advanced Setup > UPnP

Yeah that looks like the same router as the one I have here.
About associating logs with disconnects... it doesn't show up on the router logs, at all. I have it set to log all the possible things it can, and the router never registers a disconnect. Remember I said my computer as a whole doesn't lose internet access, it's just on an application specific timer, at least while on Ethernet.

As for my Wi-Fi, it actually might turn out that I don't lose connection to the Wi-Fi, however the Wi-Fi adapter refuses to process the fact that the Wi-Fi is connected to the Internet? It's weird, but I can try to confirm more about the Wi-Fi specifically if you need/want me to, I'm more trying to get to the bottom of my ethernet issue tbh.

Anyways, here are the images you wanted. Hopefully they might provide some insight or more options to try. Really do appreciate all the replies.

 

[Ralston18]

Logs:

In a time span of about 3 1/2 hours the router responded to 7 device requests for DHCP IP addresses.

However, I could not actually scroll the log image to determine if a particular device received an IP address and then, requested and received an IP address 2 hours and 4 minutes later.

The logs were overall interesting but did not (at least with the provided image) reveal anything specifically "related to" 2 hours and 4 minutes per se.

In any case, after reading back, with the timing ( 2 hours 4 minutes) affecting only your computer and being application specific [timer] the potential suspects are narrowing down.

As a result and as a process of elimination, I do not believe that it is a network problem per se.

I am left with two immediate suspects:

1) An access control setting on the router.

2) A similar Family View setting in Steam.

Check both for any restrictions.

There may be other ideas and suggestions as to additional possibilities.

Someone else may note something I missed in the logs.

 

[pugschamp]

Logs:

In a time span of about 3 1/2 hours the router responded to 7 device requests for DHCP IP addresses.

However, I could not actually scroll the log image to determine if a particular device received an IP address and then, requested and received an IP address 2 hours and 4 minutes later.

I'm gonna get a game I play to disconnect for me in the next two hours or so, and I will re-screenshot the logs, but get a better view of everything this time; I kinda forgot I could make the logs larger so you could see more in one image, that's my bad. But I don't think it has much to do with DHCP, at least for the computer as you kind of point out, but yeah the router does have a lot of DHCP requests in general, I guess a lot of stuff in the house turns off and on? My dad has a lot of smart home equipment, such as the thermostat, smoke alarms, doorbell, smart TVs, etc. My brother and I also turn our PCs off and on a couple times a day as we leave and come back home for stuff, but the IPs don't seem to necessarily be us, so it is kinda interesting.
As for the two suspects you list:

1) An access control setting on the router.

Here is a screenshot of the page. I blotted out some of the names of devices as it contained some family member's names. Nothing seems out of the ordinary to me, no devices are blocked or put on some sort of restriction, it's fully open.

2) A similar Family View setting in Steam.

I have family view disabled. I have always been the owner of my steam account and at most have allowed some friends to borrow steam games by library share, but it would always give me a notification if they wanted to play a game or were playing a game from my library, which most (if any of my friends) haven't done in a couple months now. I also do have 2FA enabled on my account, and this does not just affect steam games, this affects everything on my PC. Overwatch on Battle.net does the same 2 hours and 4 minute thing, same with Battlefield 4 on Origin. Thanks for the relatively quick replies by the way, hopefully some other options may open up to try.

 

[Ralston18]

Quick count: your home network tallies to 39 devices, 6 wired and 33 wireless.

Is that expected/reasonable?

About 10 "Device Names" are Unknown or -- . Do you have any idea what they might be?

No devices with Static IP addresses?

On your computer run the following commands via the Command Prompt:

ipconfig /all

arp -a

To clarify: "this affects everything on my PC. " the 'this' being the 2 hour 4 minute shutdown - correct?

 

[pugschamp]

Quick count: your home network tallies to 39 devices, 6 wired and 33 wireless.

Is that expected/reasonable?

I would guess so, with the amount of things my parents own and have connected in the past, also considering that this counts each network adapter as a separate device with its own MAC address, with the wired devices being the Ethernet power adapter, my pc, and the devices around the home that are connected to the power adapter.

About 10 "Device Names" are Unknown or -- . Do you have any idea what they might be?

No devices with Static IP addresses?

I can only assume and guess that these devices are smart home devices, the thermostat, video doorbell, cameras, etc, as I feel like I don't see them on here very much and I know they're connected to the internet in some fashion through our home network.

As for static IP address, yeah pretty much, my PC is the only device with a static IP, everything else is automatically assigned.

On your computer run the following commands via the Command Prompt:

ipconfig /all

arp -a

To clarify: "this affects everything on my PC. " the 'this' being the 2 hour 4 minute shutdown - correct?

Command Prompt Screen
I just had a thought, it wouldn't have anything to do with a DNS server, would it? Like if my router wants to connect to one DNS and my PC is trying to prefer another? Just curious.

And yes, I was referring to the 2 hour 4 minute shutdown, and loss of internet access in general. Nothing else on the network is affected outside of when Comcast loses internet distribution in my area due to power outages and other issues that come up, but none of that has really happened recently, it's just been my PC consistently doing this.

 

[Ralston18]

Your computer does not have an assigned static IP address.

At the time of the ipconfig/all check, your computer is shown as a wired connection with an assigned DHCP IP address of 192.168.1.69 assigned by the router at 192.168.1.1 (Subnet 255.255.255.0).

That and other things are consistent with the previous screen images in your Post #19.

Regarding: "I just had a thought, it wouldn't have anything to do with a DNS server, would it? Like if my router wants to connect to one DNS and my PC is trying to prefer another? Just curious. "

What DNS servers?

Overall, the information thus far does not support a networking issue.

More specifically the symptoms seem to indicate some specific block on your computer. Likely via Steam/Family View. Could be elsewhere....

Looking for "2 hour limits", "networks" etc, I also found this:

"However, there are limits to how long you can have a game before returning it. To return a game, you can't have owned it for more than two weeks, and you can't play it for more than two hours total. If you try to return a game outside of these limits, there's a good chance your request will be rejected. And when it comes to the two hours of playtime, Steam counts every second the game application is open as playtime. The timer runs even when the game is minimized or paused — something to keep in mind if you're on the fence about trying to fix the game or refund it early in your experience. "

(My underlining. That is as close to anything as I could find with respect to time, steam, etc.. However as your computer is the only affected device then something else is going on.)

Three immediate things you can do:

1) If you own the games, then you need to contact Steam regarding being able to continue the play time beyond two hours ( + or - a few minutes). You are able to re-establish game play by restarting correct? Do you make any other changes or do anything else in order to be able to play again?

2) Double check the Family View settings by logging into Steam and ensuring that all settings are correct or otherwise as expected. E.g., no restrictions in place. There is a wizard to guide the process. However, there may some other add-ons involved.

3) If you have not already done so, ask/tell your Dad about the 2 hour disconnection time(s). With so many wireless devices there may be other related issues that could be placing the entire wired/wireless network at risk. A couple of things did not make sense to me but that I am only working with snapshots. Unknown (at least to you) devices on a network are always a concern. Your Dad should know about those unknown devices and, if not, figure out what those devices are and what they are doing.

 

[English68]

Have you tried looking in the " Event Viewer " to see if there is any common link.
Just my penny's worth.
Hope it helps though.

 

[pugschamp]

Well it seems like my issue has been resolved for now, although I am not exactly sure what it may be. I can maintain a connection much longer than two hours and four minutes for my applications.
The things I did were the following before finding out it was fixed.

1. I switched from manual IP addressing to DHCP on my computer, although I still have an IP reserved for the PC ethernet adapter's MAC address, so the router automatically assigns the IP to be what I have in the settings. Manual settings also require to input a DNS server, in which my router automatically uses one, and it could've been possible it was using Comcast's DNS and I had set my PC to use Cloudflare's DNS servers, so maybe there was a conflict between the devices? Although nothing appeared in the logs.
2. I turned off iPv6 and turned it back on again.
3. I activated SIP ALG under my NAT settings on my router.

I remember having these issues before I manually set my computer's IP on the machines end rather than the router's end, but I guess it might have been what was causing it? I don't know, but it had nothing to do with Steam or any of the installed software on my computer, including drivers.
Thank you everyone for your help.

 

[GooseUnderFire]

Well it seems like my issue has been resolved for now, although I am not exactly sure what it may be. I can maintain a connection much longer than two hours and four minutes for my applications.
The things I did were the following before finding out it was fixed.

1. I switched from manual IP addressing to DHCP on my computer, although I still have an IP reserved for the PC ethernet adapter's MAC address, so the router automatically assigns the IP to be what I have in the settings. Manual settings also require to input a DNS server, in which my router automatically uses one, and it could've been possible it was using Comcast's DNS and I had set my PC to use Cloudflare's DNS servers, so maybe there was a conflict between the devices? Although nothing appeared in the logs.
2. I turned off iPv6 and turned it back on again.
3. I activated SIP ALG under my NAT settings on my router.

I remember having these issues before I manually set my computer's IP on the machines end rather than the router's end, but I guess it might have been what was causing it? I don't know, but it had nothing to do with Steam or any of the installed software on my computer, including drivers.
Thank you everyone for your help.

I had this same issue for about 6 months. It started when I switched to Spectrum internet from a local DSL service. I finally found the solution however I never found the reason.

I too disconnected from battle.net servers after exactly 2 hours 4 minutes. I tried everything in every forum. I ran tests while I still had both internet connections switching my Nighthawk R7000p back and forth. I never had any issues on the DSL but the cable had the disconnects every 2 hours 4 minutes without fail.

I can say with certainty the solutions above did not work. The only thing that does resolve the disconnects is enabling dynamic QoS. I had only 6mbps on DSL and 1 gig through cable. The speed tests on Spectrum average 920 down 32 up. Enabling QoS does limit the bandwidth on the connection even if the priority is set to Highest however it does not affect the latency. The speed test now average 600/28 but that is worth the sacrifice to no longer have disconnect issues.
If anyone knows the reason for the disconnects or how QoS resolves it, I would be interested to know.

I hope this helps!