New build. Working, now network issues?

ohtheknives · 03-13-2009, 03:11 PM

I really have no idea where this would belong in the forums, so I put it under building, though it might apply to Networking more than anything. I recently built a computer consisting of the following:

Windows XP Home 32-Bit SP3
XFX nForce 750a SLi Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5800+ 3.0GHz CPU
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 SDRAM 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel
COOLER MASTER DK8-9GD4A-0L-GP 95mm CPU Cooler
2 x EVGA GeForce 9500 GT 1GB DDR2 SLi
Antec 650w PSU (more info if needed, I'm not sure currently)

Thus far, it's worked flawlessly. For standard computer use or gaming. Has run cool, hasn't froze, etc. I recently bought an EVGA 9800GTX+ 512MB GDDR3, switched the jumpers for SLi back to normal, disabled SLi in BIOS, etc. As far as I can tell it runs everything great as well... EXCEPT! (And here's where we run into problems...)

I cannot play a game online more than 5-10 minutes without it lagging out now. I play most of my games through Valve's Steam service, and it goes so far as to lag me out of the games ('Lost connection to server; retrying server connection; disconnect; the likes,) and then I get a "Local Area Network cable has been unplugged" message in my system tray. I get disconnected from Steam's service, from Trillian (my IM preference,) etc. It's literally killing the connection it seems!

So far as I know everything is still running cool. I haven't used a monitoring program for the CPU but I have reset it quickly into BIOS while running extensive games that would cause sufficient load (Crysis at High with 4x MSAA) and the BIOS has pretty much always set the CPU at 47 degrees max. I have ran RivaTuner and the card idles at 37 degrees, while the highest I've seen on load is 53 degrees. All celcius.

It has only done this since switching the cards out from the 2 x 9500GTs in SLi to the one 9800GTX+. And other than the network dying there seems to be no other problems! Forgive my naivety, but I really don't see why a swap in video cards would effect the network connection.

I am running my ethernet cable from the router into the onboard ethernet port on the motherboard. Could it possibly be the jump in juice needed from the PSU interfering with the ethernet port on the motherboard? And would it be worth my while to buy an ethernet card?

Any thoughts, ideas, solutions, input, or questions are welcome! Thanks!

**wrench97** · 03-13-2009, 04:04 PM

D/L hardware monitor run it in the back ground while playing lets see what the voltage does
http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php

ohtheknives · 03-13-2009, 05:13 PM

I forgot to mention I have a Western Digital 500GB HDD as well. I kept the program up for that image while running Call of Duty: World At War. I got through about a match and a half before it lost connection.

It also does this in Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead, Unreal Tournament 3... etc. And as stated it did not do this at all with the 9500 GTs. I can run the games themselves it seems for as long as needed with no problem, solo play works fine in everything. I played Crysis for nearly 2 hours earlier with no problem at all!

There's also one thing I failed to mention and that's that my PC2 8500 memory is only picked up as PC2 6400 @ 375Mhz rather than said PC2 8500 @ 533MHz (given dual channel) by CPU-z which seems to be a recommended informative program. From what I've looked up this seems to be common issue with the OCZ platinum series I picked up which is fixed by adjusting timings in the BIOS, I've not taken the time to do so, however. And being that it worked fine for 2-3 weeks I had the other cards in it, I don't see it being to blame?

Anyway, hope it helps out some. And I'm running the newest 182.08 Forceware drivers, btw.

**wrench97** · 03-13-2009, 05:36 PM

1066 ram is only supported by AM2+ CPU's which is a Phenom core all you'll get out of the Athlon is 800Mhz.

Unfortunately Hardware Monitor didn't give us a reading on the 12v rail I was looking for, so lets try speed fan> http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php

The CPU temp is kind of warm in the 60c range have you blown out the heat sink with compressed air?

ohtheknives · 03-13-2009, 05:48 PM

To my understanding my CPU is socket AM2/AM2+, as I had to buy an AM2+ heatsink for it. It was listed as a bundle with the motherboard and I'm pretty sure the 750a I have is only compatible with AM2/AM2+ CPUs. The max supported is DDR2 @ 1066MHz as listed in official specs.

I should be able to get part numbers to verify this.

The heatsink on the CPU is admittedly not the best quality, it was a $15 fan and considering the slim selection I could find for AM2/AM2+ it was $15 or $40. And considering at load it keeps it right around 60 degrees for $15 it suffices for me at the moment.

I'll try this program as well!

**wrench97** · 03-13-2009, 06:02 PM

The motherboard socket is AM2+ the cpu is AM2 the memory controller is onboard the CPU the cpu does not support 1066 the motherboard does, only the Phenom cores are AM2+.

ohtheknives · 03-14-2009, 05:43 AM

Ah! Thanks for clearing that up. Is there any way I can configure it to atleast run 800MHz? Because currently it's at 375Mhz. Two birds with one stone, hopefully! Heh

Well, I'm running SpeedFan, haven't went in a game yet, because I can't find a way for it to log something so much as just show current readings. The "chart" option seems to have information on the 12V rail and WOULD show differences, but I'm not sure how I would record and let you know what happened.

I'll go ahead and run Call of Duty again with the chart on and see what I can do!

ohtheknives · 03-14-2009, 06:00 AM

Well... It seems to be all over the place! Not sure if that's good or bad. Hope this helps!

If needed I could switch the SLi 9500GTs back in and do the same stats for comparison. Let me know!

EDIT: This was taken while SpeedFan had been running while I made the earlier post, through about 10 points in Call of Duty, then lagged out. Taken literally right after I closed it.

**wrench97** · 03-14-2009, 07:46 AM

On the Ram DDR -Double Data Rate it reads/writes on the Up and Down pulse so 375Mhz bus speed = 750 Mhz ram speed normal on the AMD chips.

The voltage is fluctuating quite a bit but staying above 11.8v
lets see what it does with the 9500's in, have you had them back in since this problem started?

03-13-2009, 03:11 PM	#1 (permalink)
ohtheknives Registered User Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 5 OS: Windows XP Home 32-Bit SP3	New build. Working, now network issues? I really have no idea where this would belong in the forums, so I put it under building, though it might apply to Networking more than anything. I recently built a computer consisting of the following: Windows XP Home 32-Bit SP3 XFX nForce 750a SLi Motherboard AMD Athlon 64 X2 5800+ 3.0GHz CPU OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 SDRAM 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel COOLER MASTER DK8-9GD4A-0L-GP 95mm CPU Cooler 2 x EVGA GeForce 9500 GT 1GB DDR2 SLi Antec 650w PSU (more info if needed, I'm not sure currently) Thus far, it's worked flawlessly. For standard computer use or gaming. Has run cool, hasn't froze, etc. I recently bought an EVGA 9800GTX+ 512MB GDDR3, switched the jumpers for SLi back to normal, disabled SLi in BIOS, etc. As far as I can tell it runs everything great as well... EXCEPT! (And here's where we run into problems...) I cannot play a game online more than 5-10 minutes without it lagging out now. I play most of my games through Valve's Steam service, and it goes so far as to lag me out of the games ('Lost connection to server; retrying server connection; disconnect; the likes,) and then I get a "Local Area Network cable has been unplugged" message in my system tray. I get disconnected from Steam's service, from Trillian (my IM preference,) etc. It's literally killing the connection it seems! So far as I know everything is still running cool. I haven't used a monitoring program for the CPU but I have reset it quickly into BIOS while running extensive games that would cause sufficient load (Crysis at High with 4x MSAA) and the BIOS has pretty much always set the CPU at 47 degrees max. I have ran RivaTuner and the card idles at 37 degrees, while the highest I've seen on load is 53 degrees. All celcius. It has only done this since switching the cards out from the 2 x 9500GTs in SLi to the one 9800GTX+. And other than the network dying there seems to be no other problems! Forgive my naivety, but I really don't see why a swap in video cards would effect the network connection. I am running my ethernet cable from the router into the onboard ethernet port on the motherboard. Could it possibly be the jump in juice needed from the PSU interfering with the ethernet port on the motherboard? And would it be worth my while to buy an ethernet card? Any thoughts, ideas, solutions, input, or questions are welcome! Thanks!

03-13-2009, 04:04 PM	#2 (permalink)
wrench97 Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2008 Location: S.E. Pennsylvania Posts: 18,485 OS: Win7	Re: New build. Working, now network issues? D/L hardware monitor run it in the back ground while playing lets see what the voltage does http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php __________________ Power Supply and Selection

03-13-2009, 05:13 PM	#3 (permalink)
ohtheknives Registered User Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 5 OS: Windows XP Home 32-Bit SP3	Re: New build. Working, now network issues? I forgot to mention I have a Western Digital 500GB HDD as well. I kept the program up for that image while running Call of Duty: World At War. I got through about a match and a half before it lost connection. It also does this in Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead, Unreal Tournament 3... etc. And as stated it did not do this at all with the 9500 GTs. I can run the games themselves it seems for as long as needed with no problem, solo play works fine in everything. I played Crysis for nearly 2 hours earlier with no problem at all! There's also one thing I failed to mention and that's that my PC2 8500 memory is only picked up as PC2 6400 @ 375Mhz rather than said PC2 8500 @ 533MHz (given dual channel) by CPU-z which seems to be a recommended informative program. From what I've looked up this seems to be common issue with the OCZ platinum series I picked up which is fixed by adjusting timings in the BIOS, I've not taken the time to do so, however. And being that it worked fine for 2-3 weeks I had the other cards in it, I don't see it being to blame? Anyway, hope it helps out some. And I'm running the newest 182.08 Forceware drivers, btw.

03-13-2009, 05:36 PM	#4 (permalink)
wrench97 Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2008 Location: S.E. Pennsylvania Posts: 18,485 OS: Win7	Re: New build. Working, now network issues? 1066 ram is only supported by AM2+ CPU's which is a Phenom core all you'll get out of the Athlon is 800Mhz. Unfortunately Hardware Monitor didn't give us a reading on the 12v rail I was looking for, so lets try speed fan> http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php The CPU temp is kind of warm in the 60c range have you blown out the heat sink with compressed air? __________________ Power Supply and Selection

03-13-2009, 05:48 PM	#5 (permalink)
ohtheknives Registered User Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 5 OS: Windows XP Home 32-Bit SP3	Re: New build. Working, now network issues? To my understanding my CPU is socket AM2/AM2+, as I had to buy an AM2+ heatsink for it. It was listed as a bundle with the motherboard and I'm pretty sure the 750a I have is only compatible with AM2/AM2+ CPUs. The max supported is DDR2 @ 1066MHz as listed in official specs. I should be able to get part numbers to verify this. The heatsink on the CPU is admittedly not the best quality, it was a $15 fan and considering the slim selection I could find for AM2/AM2+ it was $15 or $40. And considering at load it keeps it right around 60 degrees for $15 it suffices for me at the moment. I'll try this program as well!

03-13-2009, 06:02 PM	#6 (permalink)
wrench97 Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2008 Location: S.E. Pennsylvania Posts: 18,485 OS: Win7	Re: New build. Working, now network issues? The motherboard socket is AM2+ the cpu is AM2 the memory controller is onboard the CPU the cpu does not support 1066 the motherboard does, only the Phenom cores are AM2+. __________________ Power Supply and Selection

03-14-2009, 05:43 AM	#7 (permalink)
ohtheknives Registered User Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 5 OS: Windows XP Home 32-Bit SP3	Re: New build. Working, now network issues? Ah! Thanks for clearing that up. Is there any way I can configure it to atleast run 800MHz? Because currently it's at 375Mhz. Two birds with one stone, hopefully! Heh Well, I'm running SpeedFan, haven't went in a game yet, because I can't find a way for it to log something so much as just show current readings. The "chart" option seems to have information on the 12V rail and WOULD show differences, but I'm not sure how I would record and let you know what happened. I'll go ahead and run Call of Duty again with the chart on and see what I can do!

03-14-2009, 06:00 AM	#8 (permalink)
ohtheknives Registered User Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 5 OS: Windows XP Home 32-Bit SP3	Re: New build. Working, now network issues? Well... It seems to be all over the place! Not sure if that's good or bad. Hope this helps! If needed I could switch the SLi 9500GTs back in and do the same stats for comparison. Let me know! EDIT: This was taken while SpeedFan had been running while I made the earlier post, through about 10 points in Call of Duty, then lagged out. Taken literally right after I closed it. Last edited by ohtheknives; 03-14-2009 at 06:02 AM. Reason: Clarification

03-14-2009, 07:46 AM	#9 (permalink)
wrench97 Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2008 Location: S.E. Pennsylvania Posts: 18,485 OS: Win7	Re: New build. Working, now network issues? On the Ram DDR -Double Data Rate it reads/writes on the Up and Down pulse so 375Mhz bus speed = 750 Mhz ram speed normal on the AMD chips. The voltage is fluctuating quite a bit but staying above 11.8v lets see what it does with the 9500's in, have you had them back in since this problem started? __________________ Power Supply and Selection