Old rig onboard LAN stops working when it's cold

[Xungo]

Hello guys

I'm having a problem that got worse lately.

I use an old rig on my living room, just to watch netflix and youtube, the specs are:

 

AMD phenom II x4 955

mobo A790GXM-AD3

no GPU (broke years ago, I use onboard graphics)

PSU corsair 500W

Windows 7 (old rig as I said ^^)

 

My problem is, when we have a hot climate, everything works fine, but when it's cold the ethernet suddenly stops working. When I say that I mean:

I start up the PC then after 1 or 2 minutes the LAN goes down as if I remove the ethernet cable, every light indicator keep working as if was fine. the LAN indicator on windows got a red X and if I try to troubleshoot it says that I have to plug an ethernet cable ¬¬

This problem is happening for years and when I restart the PC it happens again and again until eventually get solved (probably because the PC is getting hotter, after all, it happens ONLY when it's cold)

BUT lately I cleaned up this PC and added some sparing coolers (did it on summer) but now that's winter (in south america) I got to restart my PC 10 times and remove one cooler in order to keep my LAN working for more than 5 minutes. (later records on the issue was 3 restarts until it got warm and keep working)

 

Said that, my question is:

The LAN controller need some interation with the processor that if I remove it completely and reinstall it may solve the issue (like happens when one DIMM on RAM doesn't work) or it's exclusively an chipset issue?

Getting an offboard LAN adapter may help?

Any ideas what may be causing it?

 

obs: I reinstalled windows several times in the past and it keeps happening.

[kelvinhall05]

No clue what it is but I feel like it's definitely not worth fixing. If you *really* need this system, drop $10 on a USB or PCIe ethernet cable or card (respectively).

[mariushm]

The RJ45 connector has 8 contacts inside that are basically springs. It's quite possible some aren't so "spring"-y anymore and don't make proper contact with the inserted jack when cold.

Also the ethernet cable more precisely the jack could be the problem - there's some pins that simply "bite" into the 8 wires and contact is made by friction inside the plastic. Heat/cold cycles can cause that contact to weaken...

 

Try another ethernet cable. If that doesn't solve your problem, buying an ethernet card is cheap. Your motherboard has PCI and PCI-e slots, but either a PCI ethernet card or a PCI-e ethernet card and disable the onboard network card in the bios (optional step, won't matter much if you leave it enabled)

 

Cards are less than 3$ on eBay with free shipping: ebay link

 

[Xungo]

2 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

No clue what it is but I feel like it's definitely not worth fixing. If you *really* need this system, drop $10 on a USB or PCIe ethernet cable or card (respectively).

lol

I agree with you, but I like to learn with my issues, if it needs warm up a soldering iron I'll drop the idea and buy an offboard lan or USB/LAN adapter. But if I get only to remount my processor, why not? More about learning the issue here ^^

[Windows7ge]

If you would happen to know what chip on the motherboard is your LAN controller I would wonder if pressing on it would help any. Weather it have legs or be BGA it's possible it wasn't soldered all to well and the micro shrinking & expansion with decent sways in temperature might cause a leg/ball to lose contact.

 

As someone said above you could buy a USB to 1Gig ethernet adapter. Personally I'd go PCI_e to Ethernet but I guess that's up to you.

[kelvinhall05]

5 hours ago, Xungo said:

lol

I agree with you, but I like to learn with my issues, if it needs warm up a soldering iron I'll drop the idea and buy an offboard lan or USB/LAN adapter. But if I get only to remount my processor, why not? More about learning the issue here ^^

Ah, I understand lol. I do the same shit all the time and end up breaking it more

 

 

 

Like I said above, I have no clue what the problem is. Maybe start with just checking if all your connections are good by using a multimeter in continuity mode.

[Xungo]

3 minutes ago, mariushm said:

The RJ45 connector has 8 contacts inside that are basically springs. It's quite possible some aren't so "spring"-y anymore and don't make proper contact with the inserted jack when cold.

Also the ethernet cable more precisely the jack could be the problem - there's some pins that simply "bite" into the 8 wires and contact is made by friction inside the plastic. Heat/cold cycles can cause that contact to weaken...

 

Try another ethernet cable. If that doesn't solve your problem, buying an ethernet card is cheap. Your motherboard has PCI and PCI-e slots, but either a PCI ethernet card or a PCI-e ethernet card and disable the onboard network card in the bios (optional step, won't matter much if you leave it enabled)

 

Cards are less than 3$ on eBay with free shipping: ebay link

 

The odd it looks like it's not the ethernet cable. Changed it a lot over the years, even the modem was changed and nothing happens. Unplugging the cable and replugging it doesn't work too. Only restarting windows make the ethernet work again (for 2 minutes or forever if it get warm eventually)

[mariushm]

Then it could be cracked joints (soldering on the connectors on the IO shield) or bad soldering job on the network IC or components around it

As the board warms up the traces/metals expand slightly and good connections are established and so on... You can try to figure out if this is the case by warming up the io shield area where the plug is and the network card chip area with a hair dryer positioned a few inches away from the board for 20-30 seconds before you turn on the pc. Network chip is the one close to the analogue audio jacks, above the "Giga LAN" text on the motherboard (if yours is like in the google pictures)

 

Could be bad capacitors on the motherboard or in the power supply causing the voltage going to components to fluctuate and it may just happen the network chip is more sensitive to bad power... same idea, as they heat up capacitors or other components can become a bit "better" than when they're cold... as the power supply heats up it the output can become a bit better. Unlikely ... capacitors on the motherboard really unlikely as they're polymer caps... in the power supply could be, as those use older style electrolytic capacitors which degrade faster..

 

Anyway... I'd say just buy an ethernet card.

 

[Xungo]

6 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

If you would happen to know what chip on the motherboard is your LAN controller I would wonder if pressing on it would help any. Weather it have legs or be BGA it's possible it wasn't soldered all to well and the micro shrinking & expansion with decent sways in temperature might cause a leg/ball to lose contact.

 

As someone said above you could buy a USB to 1Gig ethernet adapter. Personally I'd go PCI_e to Ethernet but I guess that's up to you.

That's exactly what I ever thinked about it. Micro shrinking/expansion causing the issue.

By the evidence the only explanation is this. But I remembered the DIMM issue for low pressure over the cpu (AMD is PGA so i think it's a more rare to happen then LGA) and I realised that if the CPU may control the LAN so this issue may be resolved without a soldering iron. lol

I'll probably buy the adapter but I came to this forum because I thought the issue was intriguing and it would be interesting solving it in it's core.

[Xungo]

28 minutes ago, mariushm said:

Then it could be cracked joints (soldering on the connectors on the IO shield) or bad soldering job on the network IC or components around it

As the board warms up the traces/metals expand slightly and good connections are established and so on... You can try to figure out if this is the case by warming up the io shield area where the plug is and the network card chip area with a hair dryer positioned a few inches away from the board for 20-30 seconds before you turn on the pc. Network chip is the one close to the analogue audio jacks, above the "Giga LAN" text on the motherboard (if yours is like in the google pictures)

 

Could be bad capacitors on the motherboard or in the power supply causing the voltage going to components to fluctuate and it may just happen the network chip is more sensitive to bad power... same idea, as they heat up capacitors or other components can become a bit "better" than when they're cold... as the power supply heats up it the output can become a bit better. Unlikely ... capacitors on the motherboard really unlikely as they're polymer caps... in the power supply could be, as those use older style electrolytic capacitors which degrade faster..

 

Anyway... I'd say just buy an ethernet card.

 

lolololol

I did that with the hair dryer just before posting on this forum. (used in i/o shield and inhale fan)

It worked for 7 or 8 minutes (longer then before) but happened again. After this I turned off one exhaustion cooler and it managed to work without problem.

I like the capacitor explanation, didn't think of that. I was betting on bad solder until I came up with the poor processor contact idea.

Thx for the suggestion, I'm trying to solve it more for fun and curiosity, I'll buy the adapter later.