topic Re: 82567LM keeps showing disconnect in event log in Ethernet Products

82567LM keeps showing disconnect in event log

idata — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 14:41:36 GMT

I just purchased 4 Dell Optiplex 960 computers with WIndows 7 x64. I am having this issue on all 4 machines. Intermittently the computer disconnects from the network and also at times it will show that it is a 10mb connection. I updated the drivers to 11.5.10 dated 12/10/2009. The error in the event log is source: e1kexpress Event ID 27 "Network link has been disconnected." The workstations all connect to a Dell switch.

I spoke to Dell and they have no clue.

Help is appreciated.

Re: 82567LM keeps showing disconnect in event log

Mark_H_Intel — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 21:58:14 GMT

I am sending your report to the factory engineers. Could you be more specific about the identification for your network connection? The driver information does not match the Intel(R) 82567LM Gigabit Network Connection. Do you possibly have an Intel(R) 82567LM-3 or 82577 Gigabit Network Connection?

Do your connection issues happen after the computer wakes up from sleep? If yes, as a temporary work around and to help narrow down the problem, you might try disabling allowing the computer and the connection from going to sleep.

If I think of any else for you to try, I will post it here.

Mark H

Re: 82567LM keeps showing disconnect in event log

idata — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 22:26:41 GMT

It is the Intel(R) 82567LM-3. The machine does not go to sleep. I think that it happens after a period of the computer logged off. If I reboot the computer will show at 100MB. If I connect to it several hours later, it will then show 10MB.

Re: 82567LM keeps showing disconnect in event log

mcbsys — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 02:05:14 GMT

Same issue here on Optiplex 960 with 82567LM-3. Connecting to Dell PowerConnect 2824 web-managed gigabit switch. Connection often drops for 2 seconds, then comes back up but sometimes only at 10 Mbps.

Latest Dell driver is 11.5.4.0, installed from the start and has errors. Updating to 10.5.10.0 11.5.10.0 direct from Intel site seems to have helped. No drops in 24 hours and seems to be maintaining 1 Gbps.

Saw this thread about SIPS but can't find that setting in adapter properties:

http://communities.intel.com/message/72773

Still fighting some logon/group policy errors on machine startup. Not sure if these are related to network connectivity.

Mark Berry

MCB Systems

Message was edited by: mcbsys - corrected driver version

Re: 82567LM keeps showing disconnect in event log

mcbsys — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 02:35:47 GMT

P.S. Forgot to mention I've installed 32-bit Windows 7 Enterprise.

Re: 82567LM keeps showing disconnect in event log

mcbsys — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 03:22:25 GMT

Spoke too soon. e1kexpress just lost connection, resumed 2 seconds later at 10Mbps.

Re: 82567LM keeps showing disconnect in event log

idata — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 23:56:42 GMT

OK, I am glad to hear I am not the only one experiencing this. I was pretty sure that it was an overall issue. There must be driver issues. we need to get more info from Intel on this. Dell is clueless. I called and they claimed not to have any report of this. I find it hard to believe.

Re: 82567LM keeps showing disconnect in event log

mcbsys — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 00:12:24 GMT

What model Dell switch do you have? Gigabit or 10/100? Managed or unmanaged?

I'm using a new PowerConnect 2824. Since I'm also seeing Netlogon 5719 errors, I found this article which talks about setting Spanning Tree to "portfast" mode:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/247922

So I went into the switch web interaface and found Switch > Spanning Tree > STP Port Settings > Fast Link and checked that. Not really sure what this means or why "Fast" isn't the default. It seemed to help at first but then the 5719 errors returned. Anyway my current theory is that there is some combination of driver and switch port handshaking and Windows 7 fast-startup processing that isn't happening fast enough.

Not sure if this is a Windows 7 thing or an OptiPlex 960 thing. Two OptiPlex 755s with gigabit ports and Windows XP are not not reporting problems.

Mark Berry

MCB Systems

Re: 82567LM keeps showing disconnect in event log

idata — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 11:52:02 GMT

I have a Dell 3348 managed switch. Personally, I think it is a bum driver for the NIC.

Re: 82567LM keeps showing disconnect in event log

mcbsys — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 03:31:14 GMT

bbazian,

At one point I uninstalled the NIC driver and on reboot, Win7 automatically re-installed version 10.5.1.0, I guess the Win7 PnP default. Since I was also having the drop-out problems with 11.5.4.0 (the latest from Dell), I am going to try explicitly rolling back to 10.5.1.0 and see if the issue continues. If you can spare a machine to try that on, I'd be interested to compare results.

Mark Berry

MCB Systems

Re: 82567LM keeps showing disconnect in event log

idata — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 10:47:05 GMT

I can give that a shot but I know that when I 1st got the computers the driver that shipped with the computer was worse then after I upgraded. The upgrade did make it a bit better as far as disconnects.

Re: 82567LM keeps showing disconnect in event log

idata — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 13:45:13 GMT

I rolled a PC back to the MS default install as you did. We will see what happens. It is a PC I do not have in production at this time so I can leave it a connect to it later to see the status.

Re: 82567LM keeps showing disconnect in event log

mcbsys — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 19:23:03 GMT

I rolled back to 10.5.1.0 on 1/11 about 6:30pm.

As of 1/12 10:10am, no dropouts.In fact, no messages from e1kexpress at all. Speed is 1.0Gbps.

Mark Berry

MCB Systems

Re: 82567LM keeps showing disconnect in event log

idata — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 20:06:02 GMT

So far I too have not seen any drop outs but that can be that the MS driver does not report like the Intel one?? I have not done this on a production machine yet so I do not know if it will cause any issues. On the production machines when I 1st got the machine, AIM kept on disconnecting. That was my 1st clue that there was an issue. I may bite the bullit tomorrow and do this to the production computer.

Re: 82567LM keeps showing disconnect in event log

idata — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 08:56:01 GMT

I have the exact same issue, reported in this thread:

/message/80336# 80336 http://communities.intel.com/message/80336# 80336

My believe is that the SIPS functionality disconnects the link because of power saving reasons.

This following datasheet has some nice info regarding the SIPS functionality for the 82567LM:

http://download.intel.com/design/network/datashts/82567.pdf http://download.intel.com/design/network/datashts/82567.pdf

I've opened a case at HP (we're using the 82567 in HP DC7900's) but so far they haven't come up with anything usefull. I think this issue can be resolved if the SIPS feature can be managed through drivers and/or pro set utilties.

By the way, if you install an older driver without SIPS functionality, the link disconnect doesn't appear...If you want I can look up the driver version witch I tested this on. Also, SIPS has to "detect" inactivity. So when you disable the monitor standby setting from the OS power management, SIPS won't kick in. That's my current workaround...

Re: 82567LM keeps showing disconnect in event log

idata — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 11:02:17 GMT

Since I rolled back to the MS supplied drivers in Win 7 there have been no disconnects and every time I connect to the machine I no longer see 10MB, I will try on one of the production machines. I agree that it appears to happen more during non activity.

Re: 82567LM keeps showing disconnect in event log

mcbsys — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 18:57:42 GMT

1/13 9:30am: no dropouts, no e1kexpress events at all, speed steady at 1Gbps in 39 hours since downgrading to Microsoft driver 10.5.1.0. On reboot, machine connects immediately at 1Gbps. NETLOGON, DNS lookups, folder redirection, group policy processing, Time-Service all work flawlessly (was getting various errors at reboot when connection failed to start fast enough).

Snee, that's a very interesting thread. Observations:

Intel rep Mark H confirms on 11/6/09 that the 82567LM-3 does not have a SIPS setting; that's only available on the 82567LM. He adds that "Any network connection or adapter that does not show the setting does not have support for the option or does not have support for the option in that OS."
Snee, you seem to have concluded on 11/20/09 that the 82567LM-3_is_ implementing SIPS but it's just not configurable, hence your workaround to disable monitor standby.
CGretski reports 1/12/10 that disabling power saving didn't help.
Several posters confirm that Microsoft driver 10.5.1.0 solves the problem.

So I guess the Microsoft 10.5.1.0 driver is the best option for now. Not sure what that may be missing that later drivers have.

Watch out for Windows Update optional updates, or updating the driver from the driver tab of the NIC. That takes you back to the November 2009 Intel driver, I think it was 11.5.4.0.

Intel: any news on this? Have you duplicated the issue? Is a fix in the works?

Mark Berry

MCB Systems

Re: 82567LM keeps showing disconnect in event log

mcbsys — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:29:11 GMT

A thought: maybe the newer drivers are programmed with the assumption that SIPS is available. But since it is apparently not available on the 82567LM-3, the driver tries to control the power but can't, giving these flaky connections.

Blogged here: http://blogs.mcbsys.com/mark/post/Optiplex-960-Network-Card-Dropouts-and-Slow-Speed.aspx

Mark Berry

MCB Systems

Re: 82567LM keeps showing disconnect in event log

idata — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 20:02:17 GMT

We where having this issue on the dell latitude e6400 laptop. It was an issue with Sips mode which according to dell Intel has decided to turn on in its drivers.

This is how we fixed it:

Error: E6400 systems Ethernet card disconnects after LCD screen turns off

Solution: Run Regedit.exe. Click on computer. From menu select edit/find. Search for SipsEnabled Change from 1 to 0. Press F3 to search for next until all are changed. Reboot

Im not sure if this with work for the 760/960 desktops but give it a try.

Re: 82567LM keeps showing disconnect in event log

mcbsys — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 20:12:01 GMT

Thanks Pete. On the 960, with the MS 10.5.1.0 driver installed, the string "SipsEnabled" does not appear in the registry.

Mark Berry

MCB Systems