bad motherboard causes intermittent ethernet problems?

[RayLopez99]

I think so. Discussed in other threads, this desktop three year old i5 mobo has had power surges. Perhaps the infamous blown capacitors? (though I don't see any bulging capacitors).

I've changed the NIC land line ethernet card and it worked "for a while" but now yellow warning icon for 'limited internet access' (if you unplug the Ethernet cable however you get the red x icon, so it is being recognized). I also switched to a wireless card and again same result...works for a few weeks then stops.

Culprit was my ISP (illogical, but they are super slow, promising me 3 Mbps but delivering 0.3 to 0.6, and not just for me but for everybody in town) but as Paul points out, the ISP's DSL modem/router does not care how many PCs are connected to it. My laptop works fine always with this router, when the desktop does not.

Change the mobo? I tried setting to defaults and no avail. How can a mobo effect the internet? I think it does, since hardware driven?

What's a good source in the USA for mobos? Egghead? I can buy there and have a friend ship it to me here. I don't trust the 'used' stuff here in the Philippines, though I might have to buy one anyway.

RL

[Flasherly]

On Tue, 4 Aug 2015 18:22:28 -0700 (PDT), RayLopez99
<raylo...@gmail.com> wrote:

>What's a good source in the USA for mobos? Egghead?

Probably.

Newegg does keep prices reasonably low, might or not shave a couple
bucks from Amazon depending on the outlet storefront. I'd want a
volume turn over, which most major store names have. Amazon might or
not also offer the better return policy again and depending. NewEgg
is pretty cut and dry about you paying costs back if there's nothing
fundamentally wrong -- and if there is a real problem you might have
to do a little pushing on the horn to get through to cust service for
that free RMA. I used to like NewEgg exclusively, still do to an
extent, but I'll also go with Amazon now depending on how critical I
sense the parts are.

Your situation, Newegg probably be simplest. Just try and nail your
part, the MB for a product you feel you're unlikely to return.

Got a SSD from Tiger Direct -- they were a bit of a hustle to me. They
tried to push a slick up-front bait and switch discount for that
turned into a pile of crap-jumping for some 3rd-party finance agency
hoops. MicroCenter, seems they had a good name, tho haven't dealt
extensively with them. Other two, NCIX and CDW, I've heard more or
less of as presences.

I hate jerk off pricing most, going to a store's site to see something
way over readily-accessible, lower market means. I'm out'ta it and
never go back;- That screw-you very much overpricing could well be as
bad as everything else they do. An expensive RMA, though, is pretty
standard with all the buyers otherwise having bought stuff to return
for "test trials and snotty noses," that's essentially functional. I
really liked NewEgg at one time for their generous return policy
(Amazon's is perhaps a little better now), but they probably had
enough of it -- their fair share of abuse.

[RayLopez99]

On Wednesday, August 5, 2015 at 9:27:09 PM UTC+8, Flasherly wrote:
[stuff deleted]

Glad to see Amazon, which I like, has more competitive pricing. They used to not be competitive in electronics.

As for this problem, it is intermittent, which makes me think that somehow it might be related to the hardware from the ISP (the modem/router). If you wait a day, as in today, and power-cycle the modem on/off, the PC can connect to it (as now). Strange. It would not surprise me if the ISP has some sort of weird software/firmware that only allows 'known' PCs to log on. Maybe one or two per modem (I think two per modem, since I have three internet devices connected to this modem, but seems only two of three work at any time, or so it seems). Since already this modem has three PCs, it could be that for every 24 hour period, only the first two PCs that log on (I did not turn on my laptop today, when I power cycled) will be 'recognized' by the modem. Would not surprise me if this is an anti-piracy type measure since people here 'steal' power or cable TV signal all the time, using splitters. As a consequence, meters for electricity (where stealing occurs) are mounted on top of telephone poles and are read 'infra-red' using special readers. It's conceivable (10% chance) that this Bayan ISP is using some sort of modified special modem/router configured as I say above, maybe even the modem/router has SRAM that stores the data for the 'known' PCs and only allows a maximum of two to log on, unless you power cycle. The 90% chance is some sort of strange, intermittent mobo problem.

RL

[Flasherly]

On Wed, 5 Aug 2015 18:21:52 -0700 (PDT), RayLopez99
<raylo...@gmail.com> wrote:

>
Glad to see Amazon, which I like, has more competitive pricing. They
used to not be competitive in electronics.

--
Hey, when it's good, it's good. Been buying used gear off Amazon
lately, too. Just have to be a little selective about what it is and
who's selling it. ...Amazon's "As New" categories, they've some sweet
deals on occasion that'll blow the oars of the water from Ebay.

>
As for this problem, it is intermittent, which makes me think that
somehow it might be related to the hardware from the ISP (the
modem/router). If you wait a day, as in today, and power-cycle the
modem on/off, the PC can connect to it (as now). Strange. It would
not surprise me if the ISP has some sort of weird software/firmware
that only allows 'known' PCs to log on. Maybe one or two per modem (I
think two per modem, since I have three internet devices connected to
this modem, but seems only two of three work at any time, or so it
seems). Since already this modem has three PCs, it could be that for
every 24 hour period, only the first two PCs that log on (I did not
turn on my laptop today, when I power cycled) will be 'recognized' by
the modem. Would not surprise me if this is an anti-piracy type
measure since people here 'steal' power or cable TV signal all the
time, using splitters. As a consequence, meters for electricity
(where stealing occurs) are mounted on top of
telephone poles and are read 'infra-red' using special readers. It's
conceivable (10% chance) that this Bayan ISP is using some sort of
modified special modem/router configured as I say above, maybe even
the modem/router has SRAM that stores the data for the 'known' PCs and
only allows a maximum of two to log on, unless you power cycle. The
90% chance is some sort of strange, intermittent mobo problem.

--
That what I was thinking as soon as you mentioned ISP. I might
consider a router if I were in your shoes. Problem is getting them on
a future comparability and migrational basis. It's been awhile and
already established, ISPs want to clip the bills by geeking the f*ck
out of routers, some, in order to keep a rental charge for their gear
on the bill. I used to have an ISP, small outfit, I liked, even
though they'd buy bulk refurbished modems from, seeming, any swingin'
dick outfit;- real pain to set them up. Once I figured it all out,
their basic protocols and found a directly marketed modem widely used
across China - dirt cheap, reliable, and compatible for my application
(I even bought two units) - the monopolized powers of our controlling
State ISP (and former TELCO under State ByLaws and Legislation),
Verizon, weaseled itself out from under the thumb of accountable laws
while denying independent ISP providers carrier rental usages over
their infrastructure.

Wow. Telephone pole "activity sensors" for illegal activity. Real
fringe stuff you got going, guy. Wouldn't affect me, as I stopped
watching television ages ago (a few PBS, arts endowment stuff
excluded) and am "off the grid." Prefer a book to quite a bit of
wading in shite on normal or syndicated channels. Or, the way you're
locally describing creative engineering, maybe not -- "television
theft" might be interlapping indiscriminately to a fundamental of
streamed data.

Those things usually work themselves out, not the pain factor
involved, obviously, but from a time to get familiar with the "in's
and out's." I've been all over tech support centres from Bangladesh
to Manila. And, I'll buy a modem without thinking twice (and get damn
applicable precisely about using it, too);- that's been my course, WWW
connectivity having been indispensable to no-excuses for near life-
threatening (when I was aggressively involved in financials). Now I'm
going totally opposite. I don't like the cloud and metadata aspects
and am moving back into traditional paper trails, mail carriers and
such. What a ride! Whew!

Time and inclination. Good luck w/it.

-
'Diggy, diggy, diggy - no meat 'dar.' -Am., colloquial.

[RayLopez99]

I think it's Bayan, not me. Now the desktop is working fine re internet connection if and only if the laptop is not connected to the modem/router of Bayan. When and if the laptop is connected, the desktop stops working. Once the desktop begins working, the laptop does not work to get a connection. In Manila (I'm now outside of Manila, in eastern Philippines now) I had no problems with these two PCs connected to the same router (but from a different ISP, namely, Tattoo DSL). "Workaround solution" is simple: I bought a router, connected it to the proprietary Bayan modem/router, and now I can connect both laptop and desktop at the same time if one of the two is using the router.

Now having said all of the above, there's a small chance that in fact the desktop is having 'intermittent' problems and I'm in a phase now where the mobo is working fine, but in a week or so it will go back to being bad. But most PC failures are rarely 'intermittent' but 'binary' meaning it's either all bad or all good. But, if in fact this is a mobo problem, I will update this thread. But for now my "10% hunch" turned out to be 99.9% correct.

RL

"'Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, the third time it's enemy action.'" - Ian Fleming's Goldfinger (1959)

[Flasherly]

On Fri, 7 Aug 2015 08:02:12 -0700 (PDT), RayLopez99
<raylo...@gmail.com> wrote:

>
Now having said all of the above, there's a small chance that in fact
the desktop is having 'intermittent' problems and I'm in a phase now
where the mobo is working fine, but in a week or so it will go back to
being bad. But most PC failures are rarely 'intermittent' but
'binary' meaning it's either all bad or all good. But, if in fact
this is a mobo problem, I will update this thread. But for now my
"10% hunch" turned out to be 99.9% correct.

--
I've never had a perfect desktop;- laptops I avoid however and by all
means possible. (Computers are fun to build because their sum parts
are relatively cheap;- laptops, not quite so.) Between software and
hardware that's a lot to cover for a complexity of building and
subsequent software additions, although for what isn't ever that
perfect, there's still a lot of right ways they'll do things that are
pretty amazing. Guess the crossover and sum point to that would be at
where you can fix a computer that's not operational. Hopefully, the
amazing part will keep the business sufficiently stocked with parts;-
most, though, have moved along to something else: 1 out of 6 computers
sold now is a handheld device, limited to contractual services or a
proprietary subscription, simply because every five people that will
not touch a desktop, with a 10-foot pole, is due a complexity factor
requiring some technological literacy.

MBs go bad when they can't keep up with the benefits of buying a newer
MB. When a MB actually breaks, to me, it's badder than bad --
atrocious and irresponsible (if I didn't get my 5 years usage, at
least, out of it first).