PSA: Intel I226-V 2.5GbE on Raptor Lake Motherboards Has a Connection Drop Issue: No Fix Available

[btarunr]

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.

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[bug]

An innovative solution to the problem of users decrying the lack of 2.5Gbps ports on recent routers and NAS solutions, I guess

But as noted in the article, tables have turned, Intel was once the golden standard in on-board networking solutions

 

[P4-630]

I'm all good on Z690 with my 10G Marvell AQtion AQC113C.
Also luckily no issues with my Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX210...

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

So both the old version was ropey and it's replacement is worse and this is the first we here of it, odd.
Bit under the radar wasn't it I don't recall seeing the 225 V issue raised either.
Is it me, is it affecting me, no tbf but I will check the work laptop, might be cause for a swapgrade if I'm lucky.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

thats ridiculous, 2.5gbe isnt even hard to make FFS. All those billions and intel screws up this hard SMH.

 

[mechtech]

2 for 2 now?

 

[Parn]

Bloody hell. People thought they would get better networking by paying more for the intel 225/226 over the Realtek 2.5GbE and then get screwed over by the incompetent engineers at Intel. Totally unacceptable.

 

[Argyr]

2.5 Gbps? I have like 0.3 Gbps and I don't think I'll ever need more.

 

[Chaitanya]

Bloody hell. People thought they would get better networking by paying more for the intel 225/226 over the Realtek 2.5GbE and then get screwed over by the incompetent engineers at Intel. Totally unacceptable.

And those engineers in future are going to paid from taxpayers money of a country that believes in free market "capitalism"

 

[Dragokar]

Well since the i211 they seem to have an issue

 

[Fatalfury]

if i remember correctly , intel BOUGHT KILLER NETWORKING.. that special .. "horrific Gaming grade network port" which was plagued with driver issues and disconnections/packet loss in the 2012-2016 era

looks like Killer networking is back from the dead to haunt Intel this time around. lol

 

[uber_m0j0]

Well dang, I just bought an Asus Hero Maximus z790
Not wanting to use the wifi onboard, any suggestions for a stable card to use instead of this apparent buggy intel port?

 

[ymdhis]

Intel sometimes has issues like this. There was that time the Atoms/Celerons self destructed (affected basically the entire Synology line), and at one point they had motherboard chipsets with defective SATA ports, I think back in the Sandy Bridge days, I forgot. Then there's the X540/X550 10GbE controllers which are capped at 1/6th speed unless you disable interrupt moderation.

However every manufacturer tends to have issues like this, it just sounds worse because Intel is one of the biggest chip manufacturers of the world, and in many fields they don't have competition (that is competent). For example the Realtek network chips are widely known to be horrible implementations which are difficult to write drivers for.

 

[A Computer Guy]

Well since the i211 they seem to have an issue

Does that include i211AT? I notice from time to time I'm getting bandwidth throttled and have to reset the adaptor.

Is it time yet we just do away with the onboard NIC and go with more USB-C 3.2 Gen2 ports and using a network dongle instead?

 

[AnarchoPrimitiv]

And those engineers in future are going to paid from taxpayers money of a country that believes in free market "capitalism"

Yes, free market capitalism for the working class, socialism and big subsidies for the owning class....

Does that include i211AT? I notice from time to time I'm getting bandwidth throttled and have to reset the adaptor.

Is it time yet we just do away with the onboard NIC and go with more USB-C 3.2 Gen2 ports and using a network dongle instead?

Wouldn't that just introduce more overhead and additional points of failure?

This just makes me think of how 10GBASE-T NICs should be standard on consumer mobo's at this point...the Intel X540/X550 have been around forever (I have them installed for my home 10GBASE-T network) and should be more affordable by now than they are (my netgear XS728T seems like its had the same price for half a decade now, haha, but smaller 10gig switches, usually with only one or two 10gig ports, are becoming more affordable)...and while some may say "home users don't need that much bandwidth", my reply is that once that bandwidth is made available, new uses and applications are always found for it....with Full HD and 4K security systems, plex servers, IoT, etc ALL becoming more common, I feel like 2.5G networking will have a much shorter lifespan than 1gig

 

[Dragokar]

Does that include i211AT? I notice from time to time I'm getting bandwidth throttled and have to reset the adaptor.

Is it time yet we just do away with the onboard NIC and go with more USB-C 3.2 Gen2 ports and using a network dongle instead?

Probably since they are in the family afaik.

Maybe take a look here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ASUS/comments/kppyoi
Could be the same “duplex issue”.

 

[TheDeeGee]

Well dang, I just bought an Asus Hero Maximus z790
Not wanting to use the wifi onboard, any suggestions for a stable card to use instead of this apparent buggy intel port?

USB Lan adapter?

 

[Zunexxx]

USB Lan adapter?

Those are worse

 

[TheDeeGee]

Those are worse

I'd say return the board, get one with a Realtek chip then.

 

[Assimilator]

What weird parallel universe is this where we are having a conversation in which Realtek NICs are considered superior to Intel ones?

Oh right, the one where Intel stopped innovating a decade ago and has just been coasting on their brand name and previous successes. But that only works for so long.

 

[xSneak]

So these nics run fine on amd boards but misbehave on intel chipsets ?

 

[zlobby]

intel inside (tm)

And if only peiple knew how much shit intel have in their networking drivers, let alone the fact that they deliberately decided to drop .11ax support on below-9000 series of WiFi adapters... Same adapters that work with .11ax just fine under Linux!

What weird parallel universe is this where we are having a conversation in which Realtek NICs are considered superior to Intel ones?

Oh right, the one where Intel stopped innovating a decade ago and has just been coasting on their brand name and previous successes. But that only works for so long.

Their XMM line of wireless modems are nothing short of a joke as well.

Well dang, I just bought an Asus Hero Maximus z790
Not wanting to use the wifi onboard, any suggestions for a stable card to use instead of this apparent buggy intel port?

Any particular needs like UEFI boot, HW offloading, bonding etc.?

I'm all good on Z690 with my 10G Marvell AQtion AQC113C.
Also luckily no issues with my Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX210...

Oh, the stories on the web about the AX20x and the AX210...

 

[claster17]

2.5 Gbps? I have like 0.3 Gbps and I don't think I'll ever need more.

2.5GbE is useful for a 1G plan. Otherwise you would "only" get around 0.95G of usable bandwidth through a single connection.
My ISP actually delivers 10% more than advertised so I can take advantage of 2.5GbE to get 1.1G (138 MB/s) to my PC.

 

[dir_d]

So these nics run fine on amd boards but misbehave on intel chipsets ?

AMD does not run intel nics

 

[Daven]

2.5 Gbps? I have like 0.3 Gbps and I don't think I'll ever need more.

Its 0.0 Gbps if your connection drops.