Swinging/Inconsistent High Ping Only on One Hardwired PC

[jthill21]

Hello All,

I am new to the forum but I feel like there is always very helpful input when I have read other posts. I have a limited amount of knowledge when it comes to the PC world I did recently finish building my first PC. It booted right up and has worked great for the first two weeks. Then one day while playing a game the lag was out of control. The ping would jump from 60 to 400 back to 200 then 800 and all other the place. For the last few days I have tried a lot to fix the issue but I'm not having much luck. I had the ISP come out and they tested the connection from the modem and it was running perfectly, they then ran it from my router and said it wasn't reading at all. I replace the router with another one that I had and after they tested again it was running great. I then realized that it is only this PC that is having the issue. We can stream video all through the house and our phones work as well. The PC is hardwired into the router and I tried using a wifi adapter as well but it did the same thing. I also hooked up the same Ethernet cable to a laptop of ours and it runs great, all tests came in with normal speeds and ping around 4ms. I have tried updating drivers, changing Ethernet cables, changing Ethernet ports on router, I tried running the netsh reset, rebooting the modem, as well as several other tests. What does seem odd to me is that normally if I try something like this the first time I test the internet speed it runs perfectly but within minutes its back to it. I have listed my build below, if anyone wouldn't mind helping me I would greatly appreciate it as I am running out of ideas!

Running Windows 10 Pro
Intel Core I5-9600k
Cryorig H7 Quad Lumi Cooler
Gigabyte Z390 UD Motherboard
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 Ti GPU
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB
Corsair TXM550M Power Supply
WD Blue Nand 500 GB SSD

Thank you again in advance for your help!

 

[Jetster]

Shut down programs that are running in the background. You can use msconfig

 

[Solaris17]

You actually replace the Ethernet wire?

 

[biffzinker]

You actually replace the Ethernet wire?

OP said tried it with a laptop and the cable checked out as fine. One big paragraph of text means you probably missed it.

 

[jthill21]

Shut down programs that are running in the background. You can use msconfig

I will try to shut down programs when I get home shortly, are you suggesting that I see if a specific program is causing the issue?

OP said tried it with a laptop and the cable checked out as fine. One big paragraph of text means you probably missed it.

I apologize, yes I did try a new Ethernet cable that I just purchased.

 

[Kursah]

So if you run something like PingForLife or PingInfoView, and ping a few things like your router, Google.com, 1.1.1.1, etc., are the latency results the same across the board or just to things outside of your network, in this example being Google and 1.1.1.1?

You might consider getting a USB3-to-Ethernet adapter if you have USB3 on that system, or a cheap PCIe Intel Pro 1000 NIC from eBay for cheap if it is a NIC/driver issue. Intel NIC's for the win FYI. I have far far far fewer issues with Intel NICs than any other brand.

According to the Gigabyte page for your board it has:

• GIGABYTE Exclusive 8118 Gaming LAN with Bandwidth Management

Did you enable BWM? If so, disable it. Did you enable the gaming LAN features that may be included? If so disable or remove those... see if you can just install the bare driver without any software suite. The more basic the better.

Being a Realtek NIC, you might try to source the Realtek drivers and get rid of the Gigabyte software/drivers for that NIC.

You do mention however that even with a WiFi adapter you had the same issue? So that begs the question of what is running on your PC when you're experiencing this issue, is your system loaded and getting bogged down? Is it crashing or having issues? What do you have for security software on the system?

 

[biffzinker]

Did you enable BWM? If so, disable it. Did you enable the gaming LAN features that may be included? If so disable or remove those... see if you can just install the bare driver without any software suite. The more basic the better.

Being a Realtek NIC, you might try to source the Realtek drivers and get rid of the Gigabyte software/drivers for that NIC.

All I do is the driver and nothing else. OP extract the driver you download then install the Realtek driver through Device Manager and nothing else. You'll have navigate to the driver folder though.

 

[jthill21]

All I do is the driver and nothing else. OP extract the driver you download then install the Realtek driver through Device Manager and nothing else. You'll have navigate to the driver folder though.
View attachment 119673

I downloaded the Realtek driver and downloaded as you suggested. After it ran I did a speed test and like a few times before it ran great.

1st Test results: 3ms Ping download speed 15mbs and upload 2mbs.

However, I waited about five minutes and ran again.

2nd Test results:

It didn't even run, it just said "Latency Test Error".

3rd Test results: 441ms Ping download speed 5.35mbs and upload 0.59

I can try to run the ping tests here shortly.

Also, I looked through some of the programs running but I don't really know what to look for. I ran the task manager and it doesn't look like anything is using up network besides one note and of course chrome. The only antivirus software that I am currently using is the windows 10 defender.

So if you run something like PingForLife or PingInfoView, and ping a few things like your router, Google.com, 1.1.1.1, etc., are the latency results the same across the board or just to things outside of your network, in this example being Google and 1.1.1.1?

You might consider getting a USB3-to-Ethernet adapter if you have USB3 on that system, or a cheap PCIe Intel Pro 1000 NIC from eBay for cheap if it is a NIC/driver issue. Intel NIC's for the win FYI. I have far far far fewer issues with Intel NICs than any other brand.

According to the Gigabyte page for your board it has:

• GIGABYTE Exclusive 8118 Gaming LAN with Bandwidth Management

Did you enable BWM? If so, disable it. Did you enable the gaming LAN features that may be included? If so disable or remove those... see if you can just install the bare driver without any software suite. The more basic the better.

Being a Realtek NIC, you might try to source the Realtek drivers and get rid of the Gigabyte software/drivers for that NIC.

You do mention however that even with a WiFi adapter you had the same issue? So that begs the question of what is running on your PC when you're experiencing this issue, is your system loaded and getting bogged down? Is it crashing or having issues? What do you have for security software on the system?

 

[biffzinker]

I downloaded the Realtek driver and downloaded as you suggested. After it ran I did a speed test and like a few times before it ran great.

Did you uninstall the Realtek 8118 Gaming LAN bandwidth Control Utility, and any of the utility bloat Gigabyte suggests installing. What happens if you were to run with just drivers short of uninstalling anything that is necessity to a driver such Nvidia's driver needing the control panel. What stuff is still running if you were to post a screenshot of Task Manager?

 

[jthill21]

I started turning processes off as you suggested and after awhile I decided to try the speed test and as of right now it is working fine and has been for around 30 minutes. Unfortunately I don't know which one actually helped so Ill likely have to do them one at a time once I reboot to figure it out. I will try that either tonight or tomorrow and update you on which one I believe it to be. Thank you all so far for your help!

 

[eidairaman1]

Anything that auto updates software in background will tax the network.

Make sure you have no torrents going either.

www.blackviper.com
www.askwoody.com are both great sites for os fixes, the top link is for services configuration.
The bottom are for stupid updates that break the OS.

Msconfig and services.msc are a must.

Also OEM software that supposedly changes bandwidth prioritization can cause problems.

Other than that, lan card, cable, modem, copper distribution lines from your jack to the crossbox/dslam/vrad, the card in the vrad/dslam even co problems...

Copper pairs make sure no bridgetaps/corrosion/metallic faults, shorts are on it.


Also make sure the lan ports on the rig and modem are dust free.

If a integrated lanport is troublesome get a pci/pcie lancard

Anything else @Kursah?

 

[FordGT90Concept]

View attachment 119677

This implies the problem is ISP, not your network.

Perhaps you're just noticing ISP hiccups more because of usage patterns on your desktop?


Maybe the other devices are doing something that is depriving your desktop of bandwidth? If this is the case, QoS settings should help.

 

[eidairaman1]

This implies the problem is ISP, not your network.

Perhaps you're just noticing ISP hiccups more because of usage patterns on your desktop?

Facilities issue somewhere

 

[Solaris17]

This implies the problem is ISP, not your network.

Perhaps you're just noticing ISP hiccups more because of usage patterns on your desktop?


Maybe the other devices are doing something that is depriving your desktop of bandwidth? If this is the case, QoS settings should help.

Lest we forget latency on the other devices during video "streaming" is not a good metric, those are probably going to be UDP and some banding may go unnoticed in the image. Online games though, are generally TCP when in instanced sessions and are going to be far more pissed about the spikes, not sure how to convey this to OP, but you guys seem to totally have this.

 

[Kursah]

Run it for an hour or better, get a better resolution...27% failure rate is pretty poor, but I'm curious if it comes and goes or is consistent loss-wise, that requires a longer run time.

I'd be looking at the ISP as well as others suggested, but I'm not sold yet.

What router are you running?
If you run PingInfoView from a different PC/laptop on your network do you see the same results?
If you connect your PC directly to the modem and ping 8.8.8.8 and 1.1.1.1, does it continue?

Seeing that our router had no packet drops in the short 11 packet test is a good thing, but that covers its response on the LAN-side. Seeing that you've now identified a WAN-side issue, let's make sure it isn't the router's handling of WAN (internet) traffic by connecting directly to the modem if possible. Run it for at least 5-10 minutes, take a screenshot and save the logs if it's failing again, give that to your ISP and demand they come back out and resolve the issue. If the issue goes away at the modem, then you have some sort of issue with your router or how your router is handling (or lack thereof) your traffic.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Lest we forget latency on the other devices during video "streaming" is not a good metric, those are probably going to be UDP and some banding may go unnoticed in the image. Online games though, are generally TCP when in instanced sessions and are going to be far more pissed about the spikes, not sure how to convey this to OP, but you guys seem to totally have this.

Actually games (especially fast paced ones) tend to use UDP where video streaming tends to use TCP. When TCP is not getting acknowledgement packets, that's when you could start running into buffering. Other than MPEG2, video protocols are really intolerant when it comes to packet loss. TCP can take care of that which means video protocols themselves are looking for higher efficiency over recovery from data loss.

 

[Jetster]

I will try to shut down programs when I get home shortly, are you suggesting that I see if a specific program is causing the issue?

Maybe a anitvirus that also has a firewall, or any program that is security oriented, stuff like that you just have to take it to a bare system and see if that helps/ Then add what you need one by one
Might be something else so run it for a few days before you start adding stuff. Could also be your house wiring, cable drop or grounds and the ISP is still suspect. You download torrents? Forget they are running?

 

[Solaris17]

Actually games (especially fast paced ones) tend to use UDP where video streaming tends to use TCP. When TCP is not getting acknowledgement packets, that's when you could start running into buffering. Other than MPEG2, video protocols are really intolerant when it comes to packet loss. TCP can take care of that which means video protocols themselves are looking for higher efficiency over recovery from data loss.

Odd all MMOs I’ve looked at use TCP maybe they have changed it

 

[FordGT90Concept]

MMOs likely use TCP, yeah. If there's networking problems, MMOs like to slow their game clock to keep everyone on the same page and kick people out of instances that can't keep up.

Quake/GoldSrc/Source all are biased towards UDP, for example, because dropped packets are made up for by more packets on the way (usually). A downside to that is that clients are dropped based on inactivity rather than explicitly network issues. There's also more potential for exploitation (hacking).

 

[jthill21]

I just wanted to update everyone that has been helping and let you know that it appears to be Microsoft's One Drive service that is causing the issue. If I stop it from running the ping and connection works great.

 

[eidairaman1]

I just wanted to update everyone that has been helping and let you know that it appears to be Microsoft's One Drive service that is causing the issue. If I stop it from running the ping and connection works great.

Only have it running when you need it if at all, cloud based services are meh.

Glad you found the stupid service, it was phoning home like sutomatic updates, antivirus software does, it all taxes the network, I would report your finding to microsoft for sure as it is their screwup, not yours.

 

[biffzinker]

Only have it running when you need it if at all, cloud based services are meh.

Glad you found the stupid service, it was phoning home like sutomatic updates, antivirus software does, it all taxes the network, I would report your finding to microsoft for sure as it is their screwup, not yours.

I was going to say the same except for the packet loss seemed odd so I'm wondering if something else isn't right.

 

[Kursah]

I agree, good that it seems to be fixed with OneDrive being closed out, but I've never seen OneDrive do that and I work with it very frequently in all forms that its offered. Maybe something with this combination is the culprit. The true test would be running a constant ping while things are good and starting OneDrive back up. I wonder if the system event logs might have something to show if it is in-fact related to OneDrive, might be worth a look.

 

[jthill21]

Thank you for everyone's advice! I will try running those tests later today and see what I come up with.