[SOLVED] Gigabit LAN card only pushing 100mbps :(

Sep 23, 2021
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Hi!

I bought this thing ages ago and it advertises 1000mbps (Gigabit) speeds.. I never had internet that fast so it was never useful to me until recently.
Doing speed tests shows ~90-110 mbps download and viewing status on windows network connections shows it as 100mbps.
The card is rated for a gigabit it even has in properties the option to run at 1Gbs Full-Duplex (as well as auto-negotiate which is it's default) but when I select that it will crash until I unplug and plug the RJ back at which point it will run at 100mbps anyway...

I plugged the same cable that my PC uses into my laptop (which also has Gigabit LAN) and it was easily pushing 200mbps download speed so the router/cable are fine.

I also tried a bunch of other things including: installing the official drivers, reinstalling the drivers, changing generic drivers, forcing it to run in 1Gbps mode, unplugging and plugging the card physically. Nothing helped.

If I had to guess it's probably a defect in the card itself causing it to run that slow that is only now becoming apparent but im curious what others think, maybe I did miss something that could get the thing to work.

PS: The card is "Tenda TEL9901G" and has a lil' socket for a chip... bonus points if anyone can tell me what that is for. Google didn't help.
 
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It is likely the cable. Just because it runs in another device does not mean much. Some devices tolerate cables that do not meet specs better than other devices.

The other option would be a damaged pin in the adapter or other damage to the adapter.

The speed negotiation is mostly a hardware function so changing driver seldom has any impact. You want to leave it set to auto.
 
Sep 23, 2021
5
0
10
It is likely the cable. Just because it runs in another device does not mean much. Some devices tolerate cables that do not meet specs better than other devices.

The other option would be a damaged pin in the adapter or other damage to the adapter.

The speed negotiation is mostly a hardware function so changing driver seldom has any impact. You want to leave it set to auto.
Hmm, going to swap cables to make sure then. if it's a pin im not sure how to test that but at that point im not sure I care since I doubt ill be able to fix it anyway

EDIT: Not the cable, brought my whole workstation downstairs (which was a pain in the ass) and tested with a few different cables all in perfect condition and it was still all between 80-110 :(
I will get a multimeter and see if all the pins connect with the chips at the legs tomorrow but Im not all that sure its gonna be the fault im looking for, if its not that i might go through the trouble of trying another PC but for now my money is on a faulty chip.. at-least a new one costs like 10 bucks :p
 
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Sep 23, 2021
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What are the specs for your PC? Need make/model of installed components, especially the CPU and motherboard.
Definitely not the PC, I have an i5-3330, GA-Z77X-D3H and a GTX1060.. ig its worth noting the mobo has a gigabit ethernet on it but mine doesn't work after a storm zapped it (tried fixing it but it's fried)