LAN problems after upgrade to Phenon II 940

[danieldasilva]

Hi. I wonder if somebody has any insights about this particular problem I'm having. So I just upgraded the CPU from this system I build some time ago. It's got a Gigabyte GA-M57SLI-S4(rev. 2.0) motherboard. My old processor was an Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 5600+ 2.8 GHz. I upgraded to a Phenom II 940 3.0GHz. The upgrade went smoothly for the most part, everything seemed to be according to plan. Booted right up to Windows Vista 64-bit and everything seemed fine, except it wouldn't connect to the internet. When I clicked the Networking and Sharing Center it showed that it was connected to an unidentified network and the connection was local only. I rebooted the PC 2 or 3 times and the problem persisted. So I downloaded (from another PC) and installed the latest version for the onboard LAN adapter from nVidia, but the problem persisted. I then booted up to Windows XP, and the same problem was happening. It would not connect to the internet. Even if I manually set up IP addresses, DNS and all, it still will not go online. I then proceeded to remove the Phenom II processor and put the old Athlon back. This time the LAN adapter worked just fine, connected to the internet with no problems. If I put the Phenom II back, the problem comes back.

Does anybody has any idea of why this happens? It seems like the onboard LAN adapter of this motherboard doesn't like the Phenom II for some reason. Besides that, everything else works like a charm.

Here's the full specs for my system:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-M57SLI-S4(rev. 2.0) BIOS v. FHD
Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 940 @ 3.0 GHz
Graphics: 2 x BFG GeForce 8800 GT OC 512MB
Memory: 4 x 1GB G.Skill PC6400 @ 800Mhz
Sound: Creative Audigy 2 ZS
Main HD: WD Caviar Blue 400 GB, 3 Gb/s, 16 MB Cache, 7200 RPM
Secondary HD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA 3.0Gb/s 320GB
Optical Drive: Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-110D ATA
PSU: RocketFish 700 Watts SLI certified PSU with 4 12V rails
OS: Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit

Any inputs would be appreciated.

Thank you.

[richierich]

fresh os install?

[danieldasilva]

fresh os install?

It is now. At first it wasn't, and I was having this problem. I decided to wipe out the HD and do a fresh install of Vista 64-bit, but I still have the same problems. I then did a fresh install of XP 32-bit and I have the same problems. This tells me it is a hardware problem, not a software problem.

I've been in touch with Gigabyte technical support, but their replies take a very long time and their suggestion was to try and use the driver provided by the manufacturer of the chip used by the onboard Ethernet adapter of this motherboard, which is a Marvell 88E1116 Gigabit Ethernet controller. I downloaded the driver from the link they suggested but that also does not work.

I know the onboard ethernet adapter is not defective because, as I said, whenever I put the old Athlon processor back, it worked without any problems. It just won't work properly when I have the Phenon II processor there.

It is not completely dead, the ethernet port's LEDs are on when connected to the router, the OS recognizes the adapter, but it just doesn't connect to the network, no matter what I do.

This is very frustrating and if anybody has any ideas about it I'd be glad to hear them.

[Akira3234]

Man, I had the SAME problem with my motherboard. Do yourself a favor, go to the gigabyte website, http://www.gigabyte.us/Support/Motherboard/BIOS_Model.aspx?ProductID=2539 and download the FG version of your bios. I updated to the version you are using, and exactly the same issue. Did a rollback of my bios to the previous version, and now everything is working great. I was also having several blue screen crashes in Windows Vista at the same time. I don't know if those were related, but they did stop at about the same time as I rolled my bios back.

[danieldasilva]

Man, I had the SAME problem with my motherboard. Do yourself a favor, go to the gigabyte website, http://www.gigabyte.us/Support/Motherboard/BIOS_Model.aspx?ProductID=2539 and download the FG version of your bios. I updated to the version you are using, and exactly the same issue. Did a rollback of my bios to the previous version, and now everything is working great. I was also having several blue screen crashes in Windows Vista at the same time. I don't know if those were related, but they did stop at about the same time as I rolled my bios back.

Well, I am not having any blue screen issues, everything works just fine except for the onboard ethernet adapter that will not connect to the network. The reason why I updated the BIOS to version FHD is because on the CPU support page it says it requires this version for the motherboard to support the Phenom II X4 940. But, like I said, before the processor upgrade I was having no issues, they just started after I upgraded to the Phenom II.

You say that you rolled back to FG and it works fine now, but are you also using a Phenom II? Because according to the CPU support list for this motherboard, as said, it requires BIOS version FHD to run the Phenom II.

I've been in touch with Gigabyte tech support but they're rather useless. They say that swapping the processors should not affect the onboard ethernet adapter and suggested me to release and renew the IP settings, as if that wasn't one of the first thing I've tried.

But I'm glad to know this is not an isolated problem, I guess Gigabyte will have to come up with a BIOS update to fix this.

[danieldasilva]

Well, it seems like the problem is indeed BIOS version FHD. I have rolled back to version FG and my ethernet adapter suddenly works again. However the motherboard doesn't recognize the Phenom II X4 processor with this BIOS and I have to manually set the core speed and multipliers for it to run @ 3.0 Ghz. Cool 'n' Quiet also does not work with this BIOS and it is not very stable with the Phenom II processor, as I ran into a few BSODs.

I guess I'm gonna have to go back to FHD and use a PCI ethernet adapter until Gigabyte can come up with a fix for it (if they ever do). I'm seriously considering getting a newer mobo tho.

[Akira3234]

I do apologize, I didn't read your post carefully enough. I do use an older Athlon 5400+. So FG works fine for me.