ASUS P5K-VM fails to maintain 1000Base-T?

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nray

Limp Gawd
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Mar 20, 2006
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On two recently built P5K-VM systems I've discovered the on-board Marvell gigabit ethernet fails to maintain 1000Base-T speeds. Typically after first install of the drivers (off the ASUS driver CD or the latest from the Marvell web site, v10.22.7.3) it will negotiate and maintain 1000Base-T speeds, but every subsequent reboot afterwards, will only come up at 100Base-T speed.

Installing and using an Intel PRO/1000 GT gigabit adapter in the same systems negotiates and maintains 1000Base-T speeds consistently and without problems. Other systems, plugged into the same ethernet ports with the same ethernet cables also have no problems.

This appears to be a problem with the on-board Marvell gigabit only in these systems. Has anyone else seen this behaviour in this board?
 
Haven’t heard of issues, but it looks like you have found your solution. Is this for a wired LAN?
 
sleepeeg3 said:
Haven’t heard of issues, but it looks like you have found your solution. Is this for a wired LAN?
Click to expand...

I wouldn't call using an ethernet card a solution, it's just a workaround.

And yes, it's wired LAN. If I were talking about wireless I would have described the max data rate as 11 Mbit/s (802.11b), 54 Mbit/s (802.11g), or 248 Mbit/s (802.11n), rather than 100 Mbit/s or 1000 Mbit/s, which are wired-only speeds.
 
As "sleepeeg3" seems to be confused as to why I'd post here, and in case other suffer the same confusion, I'm trying to determine if the problem I'm seeing is a) limited to the two motherboards I currently have in-house or b) a symptom of the P5K-VM in general or c) a symptom of the specific Marvell gigabit controller used by the P5K-VM. Finding out whether it is a, b, or c will determine both my future purchases and future recommendations to other people.
 
I asked, because some people seem to misunderstand what gigabit ethernet is used for. If you are only using your ethernet to connect to your router, there is no difference between 100Mbit or 1000Mbit. I was worried you might recommend it to someone else for the wrong reasons! :eek:

Even on a LAN you are only talking about an extra minute to xfer a gig of data.
 
sleepeeg3 said:
Even on a LAN you are only talking about an extra minute to xfer a gig of data.
Click to expand...

Trust me, when you are developing software where each build is many gigs of data and you are transferring many builds and many many many gigs of data every day across that LAN between many machines, you *need* gigabit. It saves a tremendous amount of time, and ultimately money. My users absolutely need gigabit.
 
Its the first I have heard of the P5K-VM having this problem. Its a solid mobo generally speaking. Have you tried contacting ASUS tech or read their forums to see if its a known problem? I would try there first.
 
Skott said:
Its the first I have heard of the P5K-VM having this problem. Its a solid mobo generally speaking. Have you tried contacting ASUS tech or read their forums to see if its a known problem? I would try there first.
Click to expand...

I will, but there are some higher priority problems I have to attend to first, and was interested in getting people's reactions here, since I knew this was a popular motherboard on these boards. (Frankly, it wouldn't surprise me if this was a Marvell issue, as I've seen some odd issues with their Yukon family on other motherboards from other makers as well, but before I jump to conclusions I like to explore all avenues...)
 
nray said:
On two recently built P5K-VM systems I've discovered the on-board Marvell gigabit ethernet fails to maintain 1000Base-T speeds. Typically after first install of the drivers (off the ASUS driver CD or the latest from the Marvell web site, v10.22.7.3) it will negotiate and maintain 1000Base-T speeds, but every subsequent reboot afterwards, will only come up at 100Base-T speed.

Installing and using an Intel PRO/1000 GT gigabit adapter in the same systems negotiates and maintains 1000Base-T speeds consistently and without problems. Other systems, plugged into the same ethernet ports with the same ethernet cables also have no problems.

This appears to be a problem with the on-board Marvell gigabit only in these systems. Has anyone else seen this behaviour in this board?
Click to expand...

I have the same board and am having the same problem. I did the same work around.
 
You mention that the driver install goes fine but booting has issues. What happens if you disable and then re-enable the connection?
 
BigBadBiologist said:
You mention that the driver install goes fine but booting has issues. What happens if you disable and then re-enable the connection?
Click to expand...

I didn't try doing that in software, but I did try replacing the CAT-6 cable with another CAT-6 cable, which triggered a link re-negotiation, and it came back at 100Base-T. The only time I ever saw 1000Base-T with the onboard ethernet was immediately after installing the drivers. Ever reboot following that it would revert to 100Base-T.

I opened up a ticket with ASUS last week, but haven't heard back yet. I'm assuming Thanksgiving affected their staff, and hopefully they will be getting back to me soon.
 
I tried disable/re-enable and it will go back to 1000. It seems to do it in XP and Vista 64 bit.
 
TType85 said:
I tried disable/re-enable and it will go back to 1000. It seems to do it in XP and Vista 64 bit.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the datapoint. I still haven't heard back from ASUS yet since I opened that ticket. I guess I need to bug them. (I really wish they had discovered this in their quality assurance testing before finalizing the board...)
 
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