Intel Patches Stuttering Ethernet Issues, but It’s Just a Workaround for Now
Intel continues to work on a comprehensive fix for the intermittent Ethernet connectivity issue highlighted in our January report. In the meantime, here’s a workaround that essentially turns off Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) mode. MSI is the first Intel partner to WorkaroundAccording to Intel, Ongoing “trying to find a solution”.
If you have the latest Intel motherboards with Intel I225, I226, or versions of the Killer E3100 2.5GbE controller, the headline update is for you. Users with motherboards with these controllers report intermittent disconnects when using Ethernet. So if I’m only using Wi-Fi for internet and his LAN connection, I don’t have this particular problem.
Intel Raptor Lake motherboards often utilize the new Intel I226-V controller, so this intermittent connectivity issue (which afflicted users of previous generation motherboards/controllers like the I225 in 2019 as well). continue to disappoint the latest generation of customers.
Previous advice on workarounds like lowering the maximum transfer rate of the controller to 1 Gigabit wasn’t bulletproof the last time I reported this Ethernet issue. However, Intel seems to have narrowed down the cause of the connection dropouts to some kind of energy saving feature present in the driver. Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time users spend a lot of time implementing energy efficiency. personal energy Finding and fixing faults reduces productivity and creates side effects.
Intel update shared by Chi11eddog, stated that it included a mitigation to “disable Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) at 1Gbps/2.5Gbps.” You can make this tweak yourself in the advanced settings of your Windows/Linux drivers, but the patch I downloaded could be a bit more sophisticated as at 100Mbps speeds he seems to apply EEE .
MSI has released updated drivers for the affected motherboards. MPG Z790 Carbon WIFII have checked the download file which does not contain release notes, but I am not sure if the file will work with other brands of motherboards/systems. I think that other people can install it by right-clicking the E2FN.INF file, but please apply at your own risk. Note that there are different drivers depending on whether you are using Windows 10 or 11. You should also check your motherboard vendor’s update page to see if there is an Intel Ethernet patch/update file available for your particular product.
Intel’s research has shown that this ongoing issue with network controllers can be fixed with a software or firmware update rather than requiring users to disable power saving features or require hardware revisions. I hope it becomes clear.
