intel nic drivers 19.3 huge 6000+ dpc latency spike once a few secs

[ATay3]

hi, i would like to report that the new intel nic drivers version 19.3 that just released recently has huge 6000+ dpc latency spike once in a few secs.

my specs

Intel(R) 82579LM Gigabit Network Connection

windows 7 SP1 32bit + lastest windows update

i downgrade to intel nic drivers previous version 19.1 and the problem is just gone.

[BartDG]

Ok, I'm having the exact same problem with a Gigabyte G1 Sniper M3 motherboard which also uses this Intel 82579V NIC chipset. Today I tried connecting my Traktor S4 midi controller, which is essentially an external USB sound card. The sound was all choppy, full of hisses and pops.

I had experienced the same with my laptop before, so I knew what to do: I simply disabled the wired LAN, and wallaaa: problem solved. I checked it with LatencyMon and all was well again. But this is hardly a solution that can be taken seriously. Unfortunately I have no choice if I want to use my midi controller: with the internal LAN still enabled I can even hear pops every 3 to 4 seconds or so through the speakers, even when NOTHING is playing. When I disable the wired LAN in the device manager, the pops stop.

From what I've read, this problem exits with virtually every USB external soundcard. I don't have any problems when I play mp3's via the internal soundcard (a Sound Blaster chipset). Please Intel, this is clearly a driver issue. Could you please fix this? It's very annoying having to disable my internal NIC card everytime I want to use my midi controller. (the most annoying part being completely offline then since this effectively cuts the internet connection).

And to think I selected this motherboard BECAUSE its NIC chipset is Intel! (oh yeah, and because the onboard sound card was Creative) Because I believed Intel NIC chipsets are know for their stability and good drivers! So please Intel, restore my faith!

I've been reading here the problem didn't exist with the 19.1 driver version. Is this correct? If so, could somebody please point me towards a download link of this driver version then?

[AKaga1]

BartDG,

I have a Traktor S4 as well and had the same problem with latency on this intel NIC. I'm currently using 19.1 drivers for win 7 x64 and I can confirm the problem does not occur with these drivers. We will have to wait till intel can come out with a new fix, for the time being 19.1 should do just fine.

The download can be found here: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/24175/Network-Adapter-Driver-for-Windows-7- https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/24175/Network-Adapter-Driver-for-Windows-7-

[BartDG]

AJK47 - Thanks very much for you quick reply! I had just found this driver version at this location: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/70831/Intel-Ethernet-Connection-I217-V Intel® Download Center (scroll down). I've just installed it, and hey presto: it works!! Jayyy!! No more hisses and pops! I'm VERY chuffed!!

Now, if that doesn't prove it's simply a driver issue, then I don't know what does.

I'm sticking with these drivers now. Is there any true benefit in using the v20 of the drivers anyway? If not, then I won't even give this a second thought and see to it the NIC driver never gets upgraded again.

Thank you!!!

[idata]

I spent almost my entire day trying to find from where the latency was coming, then was able pin point it only by luck when my internet connection dropped and the latency became finally normal.

Made few tests and finally removed the Intel network driver on my Asus P8Z77-V Deluxe motherboard, grabbed the last version of the driver available and it was still the same high latency spikes, then found this discussion here.

Tried the registry modification proposed in the previous pages, found 2 entries for "AlternateSemaphoreDelay" in the windows registry, set both to zero and restarted the PC but this seems to have absolutely no effect as we can see here on the first screenshot, then followed the advices on the previous pages and installed the 19.1 ones, and we can see the result in the second picture :

This problem seems to exist since a while and what worries me is the registry modification indicated is not working, you made something especially to bypass this issue and apparently even this workaround have no effect and i can't disable ME in my BIOS sadly.

Hope we get a solution to this quickly as win10 is around the corner and i was planning to switch from my win7 to this one at max in October and as the only fix for now is to use the 19.1 drivers I'll be screwed ...

Got a pci Intel ethernet card that i bought a couple of years ago for another PC but i guess it's pointless to move it from this other PC and try it on my main rig as they will probably use the same drivers :/

Hope you guys will come up with a fix for this, or make the registry modification work as supposed to at least bypass this issue.

Thanks in advance.

[st4]

Hi Yanak,

Thank you for the information. We are still checking on this.

rgds,

wb

[EGurn]

I just spent three days tracking down the cause of these issues. When I read the posts on this topic I knew I had found it. I even had a little celebration.

I did try to install driver v19.1. It wouldn't let me. It said I had to uninstall some other stuff first. I found instructions for uninstalling the other stuff, and they were a page long. This was the last straw. Do I need to spend three more days getting 19.1 installed? I have other things to do. I ordered a new Realtek 8169 NIC. I'll endure the buzzing (ugh) and the sluggish network performance until it arrives.

In three days I have learned two things: 1.) This is not an isolated problem. Large numbers of users are struggling with it. And 2.) This is not a new problem. There's been plenty of time to resolve it.

Instead of a proper resolution, I get "We are still checking on this" and a fix the users themselves have come up with. My opinion of Intel is diminished. I think Intel needs to stick with chip fab, and stay out of the code writing business.

.........................................

[EGurn]

First, I owe the Intel NIC driver an apology. It was not the cause of my symptoms. Not directly, anyway.

I was fighting a driver conflict. I suspect that this came about when I used SlimDrivers to update 16 drivers at the same time. I've since deleted that little devil. I suspect this could have happened even if I had updated my drivers manually. But if I HAD updated my drivers manually, rebooting after each one, I might have known immediately which one caused the conflict.

In my case, high DPC latency was identified as being caused by ndis.sys. Of course I faulted the NIC driver. I played the version-switching game after all, in spite of complaining that it was too much work, but with no results. Then one day, in desperation and after a week, I uninstalled the Intel USB3.0 driver and rebooted. Voila! My DPC Latency chart went to small green blobs at last. I almost couldn't believe it. I imaged the machine immediately, just in case.

I've never fought a driver conflict before. It's the most difficult troubleshooting problem I've ever had. Judging by how many people have these same symptoms, and how many years these issues go back, driver conflicts must be more common in Windows than I realized. They can begin with a seemingly harmless driver update, and may not show up immediately.

Is it a coincidence that in my case, both drivers involved were Intel drivers? Mebbe yes, mebbe no.

[st4]

Hi ERGurney,

Thank you for the input. We are still checking about this latency concern issue raised by many.

rgds,

wb

[idata]

Hello wb_Intel,

I had the issue reported here : /message/317442# 317442 https://communities.intel.com/message/317442# 317442

Was coming into this discussion regularly and then forgot a bit about it last couple of months as there was no positive news and wasn't planning to upgrade immediately into win10, so the old working drivers were doing the job, now i came back and I just installed the 20.4.1 and it works nicely, problem fixed for me.

Thanks a lot for finally resolving this issue, it took time but now it's fine.

If i may ask one last thing without abusing of your patience :

on the settings when executing the wire diagnostic test we had a little visual graph representation yellow/green at the bottom, like this :

Now it is gone in the new drivers, is there a way to reactivate this ( maybe with a registry edit ) or it is gone forever ? I hope it isn't or can come back in the future, it was extremely useful for me as being a very nice indicator for some local issues.

Thanks again for solving this issue and have a good day.

[PLee27]

OK, so let me make it clear.

The version of the .inf file of the driver and the version of Proset service/program are two entirely different matters.

The inf file of the driver for windows 8/8.1/7 was released in last year until the driver inside proset 20.4.1 become "Aug 18th 2015". So the driver version changed, not just the proset version, then something working in the HAL layer changed, or maybe some parts of the real driver had been really rewritten, that's why the spikes in win 8/8.1/7 are all thoroughly gone.

But the version and the release date of the inf file of the driver for Windows 10 is still the same whatever proset 20.4.1, 20.3 or 20.x. That means nothing has been changed in the HAL layer and absolutely nothing has been changed in the driver files except the proset software. So by the same ethernet working way, spikes are still existed in Windows 10 even when 20.4.1 is installed.

I don't think that's the fault of Windows 10, but the fault of the lazy Intel programmers. I think somebody of the Intel staff should have to come out and say something about their lazy works, when they ignore the user of windows 10.......

[CX]

This is why Asus support says that the issue only exists on windows 10.

It's unbelievable that intel still can't fix this issue.

[aasus]

hmm my problem seems to be a little bit different.

now i updates Win7SP1 to Win10,

Unfortunately i still got the same interrupts during webradio streaming and multitasking Internetactivitys (Updates and browsing the web)

so i decided to record a video and post in on youtube..

here is the link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=li1Fygv-jCk&feature=youtu.be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=li1Fygv-jCk&feature=youtu.be

I don´t know if its a microsoft or an intel problem. What i know is, WinXP didn´t behave like this.

[PPend]

Hi there,

I just wanted to add my voice to this. I signed up here only for this purpose after reading the above (and other related posts).

This is definitely still an issue. And the problem is (for me) as below:

• Huge audio spikes when using latest official Intel 82579 Proset drivers.
• WOL (and other tweaks) will not work without the Intel drivers.
• Windows 8.1 - I was able to find an older INtel driver that did not cause the DPC spiking
• However - That driver does not work with Windows 10

So I am now left with only the following as I run a recording studio: No WOL and use the Microsoft Driver. Of course this is not ideal.

I have been through every setting on the latest official Win 10 driver, tweaked, changed, disabled etc. Also tried the older Win 8 driver that worked without the DPC latency but it doesn't get picked up in Win 10.

Many people have reported this issue and it is very easy to reproduce. I am surprised and disappointed that Intel are not acting.

Thank you for reading.

System info: OS: Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit - Intel i7 + 64GB RAM. RME FFUCX. Mobo: ASUS Rampage iV Extreme.

[st4]

Hi Xiexiema,

Thank you for sharing your test result, we are hearing many voices concern this and we value all your input, currently we are checking on this.

rgds,

wb

[st4]

Hi XieXiema,

Just want to double check :

1) What is the version of Windows 8.1 driver that works as mentioned by you

2) For Windows 10, what is the driver version as I understand you mentioned you are using official driver from Intel website, are you referring to PROSet 20.2 ( contain the latest driver) on our downloadcenter?

Feel free to update me. Thank you.

rgds,

wb

[PPend]

Hi there,

The downloaded files unfortunately do not contain version numbers in the file name or details.

Luckily I do have the old file saved, although it doesn't work with Windows 10. I opened the archive with WinRAR and viewing the readme.txt shows

Intel(R) Network Connections Software Version 19.1 Release Notes

================================================================

March 10, 2014

The Windows 10 version (same procedure):

Intel(R) Network Connections Software Version 20.2 Release Notes

================================================================

June 25, 2015

Thanks for following up. :-)

[st4]

Hi Xiexiema,

Thank you for the info. We will further check on this.

rgds,

wb

[PLee27]

Same here, I'm using windows 8.1 with all latest windows updates installed.

When there was Ethernet driver 19.1 installed, my Echo Audiofire (that's absolutely not a toy in professional area too) sounds very fine without any dropouts.

After installed driver 19.3 even until 20.2 now, dropouts keep never stop. Around 2-3 dropouts come out in playing back a 4 minutes music, even worse when recording.

So I check it with Latencymon, god! 6ms latency by NDIS.sys!

Can't imagine how low programming quality of you such large company! Which could leave such terribly huge bug for a year that never give a sh*t!

Do your programmers just sit and chew gums everyday and then nothing have to do?

How can you do nothing with this bug for a year, e.g.:

1. Replace the buggy new interlocking with the old one and fine tune it, or just give both of them and let users have a choice by themselves.

2. Why can your MEI just scan the ethernet with multi-threading parallel way instead of interlocking?

3. Employ new programmers to replace your original incapable programmers, or just outsource your driver programming works to capable programming companies instead if your company really can't stand this work.

4. Your MEI driver is seems too old (latest version 2013 WTF??!!), or maybe if you really need to upgrade and improve your MEI too and make it work better to solve this latency bug?

Do you know? your this bug is ruining our professional works for a year and never stops! Is this really the actual way you service your customers? Is this your hospitality?

So now, when are you going to really solve this bug? A bug we have tolerated for a year and please don't fool us around anymore!!

[kc6]

I remember giving up on this issue over a year ago. Its shocking to see that it is STILL an issue. :(

[PLee27]

Yup, even through I'd tried to modify the value of "AlternateSemaphoreDelay" in registry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e972-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0000 to 0, 1, 4 or 5, but nothing helps!

[st4]

Hi Parco,

Thank you for your input. This is issue is being investigated and we are checking on this.

rgds,

wb