Very Frustrating/Odd Networking Problem

[edwarrior88]

Hello All,

I am having a very odd problem with network connections. One of my friends asked me to take a look at his computer. It wouldn't display any video or even give beep codes for that matter. After testing the power supply, I concluded it was the motherboard. We ordered a new motherboard off of eBay (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWN:IT&ih=014) and when I put it in, it booted up to Windows just fine. However, there was tons of spyware and adware present. Even after running Ad-Aware and Spybot, we were still getting popups and the internet was randomly disconnecting. I told him it would probably be best just to start with a clean install of Windows XP Home SP2 (Yes, it is legit). He agreed. I formatted the hard drive and reinstalled Windows. Even after a fresh install, Windows Update would freeze up after about 13.7 MB of download. Going to the command prompt, you cannot even ping the router but you can ping the loopback. An ipconfig /release works fine but ipconfig /renew errors out. The only way to get internet back is by rebooting the machine. Then the internet will disconnect again after about 10 minutes or 15MB of data. I thought it was possibly just Windows Update so I tried downloading Open Office and it also froze at about 15MB download. I tried Firefox, same results. I then figured possibly the integrated network card was bad and I inserted a Netgear PCI card and disabled the integrated card in the BIOS. The Netgear card gets the exact same results. I have also tried all the following steps to no avail:

*I flashed the BIOS of the moterboard to the most current (MSI MS-6590 KT6 Delta is the motherboard by the way)
*Tried a fresh stick of RAM (Corsair 512MB DDR)
*Tried a new power supply
*Changed the RAM slot
*Tried a new hard drive
*Installed a fresh copy of XP Pro instead of Home
*Removed/disabled all other devices connected to/integrated on motherboard (1394, modem)
*Played with about every other BIOS setting seeing if it would help
*New Cat5 Cable/Router (Same results at work and home networks)

I am leaning to it being a motherboard problem since I have practically tried everything else. I just don't get why Internet will work for about 10-15 minutes and suddenly disconnect. Plus, it is a new motherboard. Everything else on the computer works fine. You can install programs from CD, flash drive, etc just fine and even use those programs. It is all tied to the network connections universally failing whether it is PCI or integrated.

I am waiting to hear back from the motherboard company but figured I might be able to get some feeback here first. Thanks in advance for any suggestions/help.