I need a new Network PC1 card to solve a problem.

Neil_Jones

Network card wise there's only really two chipsets on the market these days - Realtek and Broadcom. And Intel, but they're primarily processor and wi-fi based (in a laptop capacity) but may still be floating around as an onboard solution in some boards (indeed most motherboard manufactures go for on-board RealTek LAN because its cheap and cheerful feature wise)

Most other brands are almost certainly rebranded Realtek or Broadcom. TP-Link is repackaged Broadcom for a start.

That being said I'm not convinced buying another network card (or changing drivers) is going to fix the original problem, which suggests one of two things: Either the issue is with the router / firmware of the router (try powering cycling it) or there's an issue with the WIndows 10 installation. I suggest if you've a dual boot system fire up Windows 11 and if the issue goes away (bearing in mind 11 takes a bit longer to get going) then that will tell you where the problem is.

Keruge

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6654686/i-need-a-new-network-pc1-card-to-solve-a-problem

@neil Wouldn't power cycling just make it occur again as he said he has the problem when he starts the PC or does WOL.

For a 20 year old PC I always suggest using stuff that was around at the time the PC was new.

Thanks for clarifying the Chipsets he can use.

I have often found just blindly updating drivers creates more problems than if fixes.

Neil_Jones

The number one rule in IT support is if you have a problem with something, turning it off and on again will solve 95% of all computer problems.

Keruge

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81898234#Comment_81898234

And to me that is the lazy way to solve a problem, it was lampooned on the IT Crowd.

It does not solve the problem it just makes it go away for now until whatever is the cause starts again.

The proper way to resolve problems is to check the logs and try to figure out what is causing the issue.

Speak to the user and ask them what they were doing before it occurred etc.

Sometimes it might be when writing to a damaged area of the disk or SSD, rebooting will just cause it to happen again next time there may be data loss.

Looking at the services in Task Manager can often identify a problem, for example VLC can crash and leave a dead VLC that you can only see in the Task Manager but that prevents VLC from being reloaded and each time the user tries again another one starts up. Sure rebooting will get rid of those but it does not tell you what caused the first VLC to crash.

Browsers are a particular issue, again reboot it and you kick the can down the road but with websites like eBay generating never ending contend so pages go on forever it is not surprising to see a single tab using 1.5gb. You learn nothing by switching off and on again.

I have had issues where the speaker stops working, again rebooting it might have solved it but it would not tell you why and it would take valuable time. When stopping and starting certain services fixed it, not that I am saying users should have admin rights to do that, but that it can help get to the cause. For example that orphaned VLC can cause the sound to go, then you check the version of VLC and find that version had issues which were resolved in another version.

Imagine if IT Departments just rebooted servers and all the users lost their connections and data, it would be a bad idea to reboot that server, better to inspect the logs, maybe stop and start a service which only takes a few seconds. This is often how you get to figure out how to reproduce a problem and if you can reproduce it then you can start to diagnose it and fix whatever is causing it, like that later driver which it turns out has intermittent issues. For example a service may be better not starting up immediately but being delayed for a bit, a permanent setting that a man of your calibre would know about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn2FB1P_Mn8

Neil_Jones

To be honest most people don't care why something isn't working, they just want it working. So the reboot fix satisfies that objective. In the corporate world yes a reboot isn't ideal and is a last ditch solution and also why that sort of stuff happens out of hours. Domestically? Iff the issue is fixed with a reboot, Bob's your uncle and they can go away happy.

JSmithy45AD

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81898444#Comment_81898444

Yep, my cars infotainment unit froze on the previous played the other day (although it carried on with the playlist), turning off the car for a minute reset everything which is all I care about. Quite how I'm supposed to access the logs to do a bug search I'm not sure ;)

flaneurs_lobster

My partner had no service on their travel eSIM for a day this week while I diddled with the SIM, network, APN, roaming settings, website Faqs, account details. Didn't get as far as developer mode and logs because they turned it off and on and fixed it.

anotherquestion

I agree with the reboot to fix a lot of problems, has happened so many times with me, another reason I do a regular backup with Macrium reflect, rather than troubleshooting.

The new Lan card seems to be working a little better now, maybe it has managed somehow to hold on to the driver better, Changed antivirus from Kaspersky to Avast as well, as I believe that can sometimes have an effect.

The rule seems to be that if you install a PC! Lan card, you disable the onboard LAN controller in the bios, but I have found its better to let them both run.

Will see how things go with this old 16 year old computer, running fine otherwise, so putting off buying a new one as long as this one suits my needs so far.

anotherquestion

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81898155#Comment_81898155

I have tried all of that rolling back etc, with a bit of luck it might hold on to the driver now as my previous post states.

As regards ALiexpress, I have become a big fan but only for low cost items, the pluses I see are 1 Good prices compared to ebay 2 Order prepared within a few hours of ordering, and tracked all the way, you can see it on your order page, so you know at what stage order is at, warehouse shipping awaiting flight in transit etc. 3 all items so far have come within a week, not sure if its from mainland China or not

At the same time, I wouldn't buy a high cost item from Aliexpress, probably in excess of £30