Basically, on my PC, I started experiencing random bluescreens (nothing had changed, it just started bluescreening with a 0x7e error every 5 minutes or so.) I didn't think much of it as I was lucky and was able to have a session where it didn't bluescreen for an hour or two. Then it got worse and worse and today I come back from work to have it booting in a loop, which usually NEVER happens. I try firing up Ubuntu, that works, but I notice my internet doesn't work which has never happened either. Being terrible with Linux I close out of it, boot Windows into Safe Mode with Networking of course, and I see the NIC is constantly switching between "Network cable unplugged." and "Enabled." every 3 seconds or so. In Safe Mode. I think it could be related to Citrix which I installed to RDP to my work computer and hence I uninstalled it. That had no effect, so I uninstalled ANYTHING that could affect the network and restarted. It booted into regular mode without fail, bluescreened, then I went back into Safe Mode and the NIC is doing the same thing. Installed the Ethernet drivers on the CD, and it had no effect except for changing the name of the NIC to be less technical sounding. I reinstall the default Windows driver and, well, still the same constant switching.
So. Symptoms:
-Random bluescreening that is probably Windows but I have not checked Ubuntu as I am not motivated to use it without internet. But it still randomly started, stop code 0x7E, no additional information.
-NIC unable to establish connection to network after directly wiring it to the router, changing the cable, and examining for any defects in any cabling proved ineffective. Cross-OS specific problem, whether it's Ubuntu 11.04, Windows 7 or Ubuntu 10.10 on a LiveCD.
-I have had a few moments where after a bluescreen it took significantly longer to post, but still was successful, just after an extra 10-20 seconds.
The motherboard is an Asus M4A785-M MicroATX board with 4GB of RAM that passed memtest86 a month ago when I thought that was bad, but it turns out I had a process eating up a core (Skype.) Processor is an extremely old AMD Athlon 6400+ 3.2GHz Dual Core. I did check the temps, well within average range.
If the motherboard is dead, remind me to not get ASUS, because that would be the 5th time an ASUS board has failed on me in the past 5 years. Not kidding, I had all sorts of problems with my Crosshair mobo freaking out after plugging in frontpanel USB, not posting randomly, etc.
Bump. I'm curious because I've never had a motherboard start dying on me like this, it would just "go".
Bumping again. Please help.
[url]www.memtest.org[/url]
I did run memtest to no avail. Everything is in perfect working order except the NIC.
I did test the processor in another computer and that worked, and I'm pretty sure the graphics works seeing as I can... well... see things.
NIC works when forced to 10Mbps. It works I guess. At least I can troubleshoot.
I'd recommend trying these things:
1) Try a different power supply.
2) Try different RAM. Even though you used memtest, the RAM could still be bad. I had a bizarre case where two sticks of APACER RAM would generate massive errors when used in dual channel mode, but run fine in single channel mode.
3) Examine motherboard for damaged components (most specifically the capacitors), but also the network chip on the motherboard. I've worked on several machines which had the network chip fry itself (literally got so hot it had a bubble melted in it) from a power surge through the network due to lightning strikes.
Well I've identified it's not the NIC since I can run it at 10mbps which from my research tells me it's cabling down the line somewhere. And I plug into an RJ45 wall jack. But I'll clean off everything with a q-tip, play with different cables and post back here if something works.
I do have a power supply from some brand I barely know but it doesn't have a lot of empty space, IIRC that's an indicator of at least higher quality. Either way I don't have any other PSUs to try.
Where do you think the network card is? Is it part of the north/southbridge?
Thanks for your help, by the way. Much appreciated.
What do you know, the simplest fix was the one that not only did I overlook, but fixed the issue.
I cleaned the port on the motherboard and now it's at 100Mbps as it should be.
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