We have 30-50% packetloss on a Dell Optiplex 9020 AIO with Intel I217-LM nic, and this renders the machine unusable.
Bios version: A11 (but also tested with A01,A02,A03, will test more, but seems like a driver issue)
OS: Windows 8.1 64bit (but also tested with Windows 7 64bit)
Conditions:
Network interface connected to a FastEthernet port 100mbit with autonegotion on, forcing on 100mbit doesn't fix it.
With Gigabit we don't have any issues.
The issues only appear with the following driver setting:
Devicemanager -> Network adapters -> Intel Ethernet I217-LM -> Properties -> Advanced -> Wait for Link = On
In registry this setting reflects to:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e972-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0000 WaitAutoNegComplete = 1
If we set this to Off (0) this doesn't happen, but setting to Off brings other issues, because then the driver reports that it has link, and other depending services continue and try to use network.
I made a video to demostrate it:
Intel I217-LM packetloss problems on the Dell Optiplex 9020 AIO - YouTube
This does not happen when the machine is connected to a gigabit switchport.
Tried about 10 different drivers for the I217-LM nic.
Tested on Windows 7 64bit and Windows 8.1 64bit, issue is on both
Any ideas? Does this need fixing from intel's side? Or can this be bios related and does Dell need to release some fix for it?
If it needs fixing from Intel, can this be a new driver, or should it create new firmware.
Can anyone reproduce this? We have about 3000 machines with this NIC so this is a big issue for us.
PS: with the full driver installed there is an extra setting "Test hardware", funny thing is that when we run that whenever the machine is in a "packetloss/broken" state it seems to make it stable again?????