Dell precision T3400 broadcom netXtreme 57xx gigabit Controller (NIC disconnects network connection)
19 Jan 2009 07:07PM
UPDATE AS OF 2009-01-22 (1/22/2009)
Searched high and low on the DELL website and as it turns out. This problem occured about 3 years ago on a similar model computer from DELL. They eventually created a patch for the bios (which corrected the NIC falling asleep on that computer).
Another article suggested getting a pci nic and plugging it in (also to disable the onboard broadcom nic)
So I took a un-used 10/100/1000 NIC we had (that I knew worked in a computer about 4 years ago) and placed the network card in the spare pci slot. It has now ran for 12 hours with out a single hickup. I actually did this on 2 out of the 4 boxes we are having problems with. So far so good. BUT I REALLY HOPE DELL COMES OUT WITH A BIOS UPDATE or have BROADCOM deliver a driver that does not become dormant.
When I get to the office tomorrow, I am going to look again to see if their is a sleep option I am missing? I thought I checked but I will see.
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post af of 2009-01-19 (1/19/2009)
Problem: We purchased 4 DELL precision t3400 desktop computers on 10/15/2008. We placed all of them online around 1/1/2009. These four desktops now have problems with the NIC staying connected to the network. In other words, the computers just all of the sudden disconnects from the network with out any notice (not at the same time..random). All four computers are having the problem. Each computer came equipped with Windows Vista SP1 installed and we ran each computer through the same setup process via WDS.
To note: we replaced older desktop computers with these new computers and that is when we started having these ( new T3400 desktop ) network disconnect problems. In other words, the old computers never had this problem.
Other things we verified and tried:
1>We tried other computers and used the same ethernet rj45 jack. Those "older" computers continued to work as they did before with out any problems. So the network cable, switches and routers are not the problem. It is something on these new computers.
2>Tried different drivers (see below)
3>Tried enabling and disabling IPv6.
Summary of drivers I used:
In computer manager it says the card is a Broadcom NetXtreme 57xx gigabit controller
a> By default is comes installed with the driver date/version: 8/1/2006 10.10.0.1 (PROBLEM OCCURS)
b> Upgraded the driver to date/version: 6/10/2007 10.43.0.0 (PROBLEM OCCURS)
c> Called DELL to ask them what the chipset was on the Broadcom NIC (they stated 5754) which is listed as a Broadcom Ethernet NIC NetXtreme Desktop Driver. To note: Broadcom lists the drivers by Chipsets. So I download the Vista 32 bit driver and updated the driver. Once updated it stated it as version 11.7.3 (11/3/2008)..even though the web site page for the download suggested a date of 12/24/08.
Anyhow, no matter what I try, I keep getting the same result on these T3400 computers. The result "network automatically disconnects itself". To note: all of the same software, etc was installed on the "older computers" too.
PLEASE HELP...
Thanks, Doug Lubey of Louisiana
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