Windows 7 x64 Network Adapter Stops working on high load

Question

My Network has been failing and it has been happening for about a month or so on Windows 7 x64.  I dont think that the system configuration is the problem as it is happening on 2 seperate machines.  One being a relatively beefed up "white" box, 4 gig OCZ ram, EVGA nForce 790I SLI Mobo, Q9600 Quad core processor, dual raid 1 - 150 Gig Raptors, 2 8800GTX SLI cards, Pure Power 800W PS.  The second machine is an IBM Netbook S10.  I use the Netbook as a media center connected to a Pioneer Elite 1050HD.  One thing is I have a PS3 and have several 1TB Esata drives connected to an IOGear 3132 Esata 3.0Gb pciX card to my desktop.
My typical usages:
1. FTP from a private server
2. Streaming music via Winamp
3. Streaming video 720, 1080 from pc to PS3 via the PS3 Media Server
4. DLing demos or movies on the PS3
5. Network streaming a movie from the Esata drives to the bedroom or kids rooms
6. Streaming video from abc.com or southparkstudios.com from the Cox cable modem
7. RDC over VPN to work machines
Now I have noticed that when I am streaming HEAVILY, from any 2 of the above mentioned, my network connections will simply stop working with a yellow exclamation mark on the task bar network icon after a few moments, nothing in the event logs, no logs or ANYTHING at all.  It will simply stop working no notifications or anything poof, gone.  I have EVERY single patch, driver anything I can think of installed.  Nothing works, the timing is completely random.  FYI I have a NETGEAR ProSafe VPN Firewall FVX538 with a cable modem connection on WAN 1 and a cellular connection on WAN2, these have no impact I feel on the connections because the PC may go down or the Netbook will go down depending on which one has the most load.  So this simply tells me that it it not a firewall router problem as I have tried using a cisco unmanaged 24 port 1GB switch and I get the same problems.  From analyzing the systems and layout I am led to believe that it is either a network adapter driver OR a Windows 7 problem (collisions, unhandled exception?), this NEVER happened with XP or Vista.  I have tried everything but a new network adapter, I have tried the secondary adapter card on the mobo, I have tried bridging the two, I have tried daisy chaining the switch and putting each machine on its own dedicated switch linked to each other with no change.  When the network goes down it is only that box effected, all other machines still connect to each other fine, only the one with load shuts down and the only ones that shut down are Windows 7.  These machines are all wired with commercial cat5e patch cables, they have all been swapped for new ones lately.  All networking and PC equipment are on UPS so I doubt voltage variations.  Windows Firewall is disabled I only use the hardware firewall, I do not use any antivirus.
I am completely out of options, can anyone recommend a new route?
In addition when I go to the command prompt and attempt to do an ipconfig /release.  I get an error saying that the adapter is not in a usable state.  Very irritating, this forces me to reboot, or right click disable/enable on the network adapter.  The right click route takes almost a minute to complete.
Tried update driver in nvidia control panel, no luck.  I have also turned off the networking power saver option in the adapter settings.

Answer 1

Hi,
Considering this issue occurs on 2 different machines, I also think this issue may be more hardware related. You may also try the following:
1.    If the computers are connecting to a router, please ensure the router’s firmware is up-to-date.
2.    Please run the following command in an elevated command prompt in Windows 7:
netsh interface tcp set global rss=disabled
netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled
netsh int ip set global taskoffload=disabled
3.    Disable SNP in Windows 7 by setting Registry as following:
Note: Please perform a full-system backup first.
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters]
EnableTCPChimney=dword:00000000
EnableTCPA=dword:00000000
EnableRSS=dword:00000000
If the keys do not exist, please create them and assign the value.
An update to turn off default SNP features is available for Windows Server 2003-based and Small Business Server 2003-based computers
4.    If the issue persists, please add another network adapter to this computer and see how it works.
Hope this helps. Thanks.
Nicholas Li - MSFT
Hi, I'm experiencing a simular problem here.
My PC was using Asus P5Q-E motherboard but exchanged it for Asus P5Q TURBO Pro because it loses 'connectivity ' after an interval between a few hrs to 26hrs. During this state, I can't browse or my Outlook to check emails. The only thing that can send/receive data is Vuze. Plus, the strange thing is that the network icon says there's nothing wrong at all (when it obviously there is). Even the currency desktop gadgets says the time elapsed since it 'lost connectivity '.
I initially thought P5Q-E was faulty so now I'm using the TURBO Pro. However, the problem still persisted.
I am using Win 7 Ultimate x64 with all the updates and drivers. Connected via LAN cable to the router and the firmware is the latest. My ISP sent me a replacement router to confirm that their equipment is not faulty, which is true.
I have tried the above methods 1-3.
Although I'm not sure if I implemented Method 3 correctly since I don't usually go to the registry but here's what it looks like after creating it:
EnableRSS   REG_DWORD   0x00000001 (1)
EnableTCPA   REG_DWORD   0x00000001 (1)
EnableTCPChimey   REG_DWORD   0x00000001 (1)
There are 3 more PC's and 1 laptop in the house. 2 PCs use Win XP, 1 uses Win 7 Ultimate x64 and laptop uses Linux Ubuntu.
My PC has a second OS, Linux Ubuntu, I used it to time trial both motherboards (before and after switching) and found no problems at all even after 48hrs, so it confirms it's not a hardware issue.
The other PC's apart from mine are connected wirelessly. As far as I've been told, they don't experience the same issue I have.
I've been trying to tackle this problem for months now and I'm frustrated to reboot my PC every time it 'loses connection '.
I chatted with Asus about the issue when I still had the P5Q-E mobo, they said that they built a simular system to mine with the same mobo and said they couldn't reproduce the problem I'm having. THey even tested on other mobos with the same LAN chip and found nothing wrong. That's why I got the TURBO Pro that has a different LAN chip.
Anyone got anymore suggestions???
Thanks in advance.