Friday, January 20th 2023
PSA: Intel I226-V 2.5GbE on Raptor Lake Motherboards Has a Connection Drop Issue: No Fix Available
The Intel Ethernet i226-V onboard 2.5 GbE controller appears to have a design flaw that causes the Ethernet connection to drop at random times for a few seconds. The I226-V is the latest version of Intel's cost-effective 2.5 Gbps Ethernet networking chips meant for PC motherboards with chipsets that have integrated MACs (i.e. Intel chipsets). It succeeds the I225-V, which was Intel's first consumer 2.5 GbE PHY. The I225-V was plagued by various issues that caused it to be unstable at 2.5 Gbps (but could be worked around by forcing 1 GbE mode). Many premium Intel 700-series chipset Socket LGA1700 motherboards integrate the new I226-V, which is the I225's successor, as their default onboard 2.5 GbE controller. Some enthusiast-segment motherboards have a second Ethernet controller that's either of a different brand (such as Realtek or Marvell), or a different kind of wired Ethernet (such as 10 GbE).
Since mid-December, users of Intel 700-series chipset motherboards (which debut the I226-V), have been reporting random connections drops to Intel's Support Community, Microsoft, ASUS and Reddit 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. These drops are momentary, last a few seconds, and you'll mostly not notice it; however for applications that need an uninterrupted connection (such as online gaming, video conferencing, VPN, Remote Desktop etc.), such a link drop will be noticeable. You can check if you are affected by opening Windows Event Viewer, navigate to "Windows Logs," "System" and search for "e2fnexpress," in particular Event 27 "Intel Ethernet Controller I226-V, Network link is disconnected." and Event 32 "Intel Ethernet Controller I226-V. Network link has been established at 1 Gbps full duplex." We've experienced the issue in our labs. We tried updating to the latest 27.8 drivers from Intel, and used the latest motherboard BIOS, at 1 Gbps speed, but the issue couldn't be fixed reliably. In the end, we just switched over to the motherboard's second network interface, which is not an Intel NIC, and the issue went away. Another option could be to buy a cheap PCI-Express network card or use the board's integrated Wi-Fi. Still, such issues aren't acceptable, especially not from a world-leading manufacturer like Intel, who once was reputed for the quality of its networking equipment. Intel and its motherboard partners need to get on top of this issue.
Update Mar 1st: Intel has issued a Windows workaround and patch for these issues. Let us know if this fixes it for you.
Update Mar 4th: User @lovingbenji reports that on his system this new driver version does not fix the disconnect issue.
Since mid-December, users of Intel 700-series chipset motherboards (which debut the I226-V), have been reporting random connections drops to Intel's Support Community, Microsoft, ASUS and Reddit 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. These drops are momentary, last a few seconds, and you'll mostly not notice it; however for applications that need an uninterrupted connection (such as online gaming, video conferencing, VPN, Remote Desktop etc.), such a link drop will be noticeable. You can check if you are affected by opening Windows Event Viewer, navigate to "Windows Logs," "System" and search for "e2fnexpress," in particular Event 27 "Intel Ethernet Controller I226-V, Network link is disconnected." and Event 32 "Intel Ethernet Controller I226-V. Network link has been established at 1 Gbps full duplex." We've experienced the issue in our labs. We tried updating to the latest 27.8 drivers from Intel, and used the latest motherboard BIOS, at 1 Gbps speed, but the issue couldn't be fixed reliably. In the end, we just switched over to the motherboard's second network interface, which is not an Intel NIC, and the issue went away. Another option could be to buy a cheap PCI-Express network card or use the board's integrated Wi-Fi. Still, such issues aren't acceptable, especially not from a world-leading manufacturer like Intel, who once was reputed for the quality of its networking equipment. Intel and its motherboard partners need to get on top of this issue.
Update Mar 4th: User @lovingbenji reports that on his system this new driver version does not fix the disconnect issue.
208 Comments on PSA: Intel I226-V 2.5GbE on Raptor Lake Motherboards Has a Connection Drop Issue: No Fix Available
tbf i wanted to do a post longer than :
well i am glad my 1G/2.5G on my actual board are Realtek ...
my previous board, bought 6ish yrs ago, had a standard Intel NIC and a Killer NIC and it was during the time they were considered "best" for Intel , neither of them were exceptional nor did they stand out ... and i deactivated the Killer just a few hours after finishing the rig :laugh:
now, they are exceptional ... in connection drop, that's a ... feat?
Now you have brought up a possible reason to at least try it tho wouldn’t my Routers 1Gbit port just mitigate that possible gain? For me to really try it properly I’d have to plug directly into my connection or get a switch to be able to trun the rest of my MESH(I just have my PC wired and about 10 other devices usi wifi)But then my PC would be “out of my network“ which won’t work for me.
But this is definitely an interesting point. I will just plug into my 2.5 just for “kicks” nowLOL my current AM4 board is the first one I’ve had that DIDN’T have an Intel NIC…
The original i225-V and its B2 revision (identified as Intel Ethernet Connection (2) i225-V) have occasional dropouts even at gigabit speeds which will require a driver reset.In this case, yes, you have the initial, buggiest revision. The B2 and B3 steppings have a (2) and (3) appended to the name. B3 is most desirable, B2 is still problematic with multiple connection drop problems as your original revision is. My B550-E has the B2 stepping. There were weeks it'd go without disconnecting, there were days it would crash, 3, 4, even 5 times, and this is accounting for the fact I use gigabit connection only.
This was the corner stone of my existence and now it's gone.
I just checked my Event Viewer, System, Filtered e2fexpress,..
There have been multiple revisions of all these chips, even Realtek have been up to this, as I had the same problem with the chip built into my ASUS motherboard, so I went out and bought an Intel I225-T1 pcie card, which seemed to not have the issue. The Realtek chip was unusable as it was constantly disconnecting and would often be down until a reboot, but I notice when I look in the log, my I225 has the issue too, just once every few days, and I don't notice it.
This is so odd considering that 2.5g ethernet is not even cutting edge, yet all vendors have the same disconnect issue. VERY suspicious and should be up for a class action lawsuit.
Furthermore, I think the addon cards do better than any onboard because they dissipate heat better, but that's a separate issue.
I find it VERY odd that every manufacturer across multiple chip revisions, model changes, years of development, dozens of driver updates etc are all having the exact same problem, with only severity and frequency being the variables. Just Googling this, back when I was having issues years ago with my Realtek nic showed this was a thing, and here we are 3 years later, and even the so called latest chips are having identical issues.
Regarding Killer ethernet though, Intel purchased the rights but I don't think they have touched the drivers, at least for the older models. My X99 has Killer E2400 and i218-V networking, the Killer driver is still signed by the original creator of this brand (Rivet Networks).
My brother has a strix e and no issues either
My modem/router (AVM Fritzbox 6660) happened to come with one 2.5GbE port.
I can easily tell which machines in the office have the Intel 2.5GB NICs in them because they all have add-in cards for ethernet, like it's 1995 again. Realtek weren't great in the early days of 2.5G but their issues were fixed and certainly not carried over, unfixed, to a second generation.
My chip is stepping 2, revision B2.
The dropouts are unnoticeable during normal usage, and cause no glitches, or issues. I never would have known about the dropouts if I hadn't seen the article here, and checked my event viewer.
After monitoring event viewer It seems perhaps my dropouts are occurring when DHCP Lease Expires, and new DHCP Lease is obtained.
The Intel controller automatically reconnects instantly, so is unnoticeable and has no adverse effects during normal PC usage.
However,.. I wonder if the dropout issue would effect Folding, if occurred while uploading a finished WU,.. if perhaps the folding client would crash, perhaps drop the finished WU and need to be manually restarted, or if issue would just go unnoticed. :confused:
Same with online gaming, would issue cause glitches during gameplay, or go unnoticed?
Personally the Intel NIC drop has no effect on my daily usage, and for me is not a concern at this point.
Here is what solved it for me.:
I manually set the speed/duplex settings instead of auto. Downgraded the driver version to the 27.8 release directly from intels website (2.1.1.7 in device manager) then set "Idle power down restriction" to "Disabled" and unchecked "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power". The problem has vanished and what was dropping every ~10 mins before has been stable for 2 days through multiple sleep/resumes and reboots. No idea which of those changes made a difference but figured I'd try to post some useful information that worked for me for anyone else that might stumble upon this.