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I have a frustrating network connectivity issue on my work machine. It's not a crippling problem, but it's driving me bananas, and I would love some advice on how to diagnose the issue.
Whenever I walk away from my computer, I habitually lock it (usually using Win+L). When I return to my computer, whether it be minutes or hours later, and unlock it, I experience a dropped network connection.
I noticed at first when I'd come back, load up a website, and it would time out. After a while, I started looking at the network icon on my taskbar. Sure enough, it would indicate that there was no network connection. Then it will search for a connection, find it, and reconnect. Sometimes, it immediately loses the connection again, and then has to re-establish it. It's usually all over and settled down within 30-60 seconds, and experiences no more problems until the next time I unlock the machine.
This never happens while I'm using the machine; only immediately after I unlock it. No one else in the office has reported this issue. We have no dedicated IT staff; the IT responsibilities are shared by the software engineers, of which I am one.
I have no idea how to go about diagnosing this issue, and I would welcome any advice or ideas. Here are the salient specifics of my configuration:
- Win7 Pro, 64-bit
- Domain network membership
- Intel 82579LM gigabit network adapter
- Wired connection
I've disabled "Energy Efficient Ethernet", which is the only power setting that indicates it can spin the device down...will let you know if this helps. Thanks! – Ethan Brown – 2013-01-25T23:14:34.197
Nice idea, but not the problem...I made sure there aren't any settings that's allowing it to go sleep, and the problem persists. Good suggestion, though! – Ethan Brown – 2013-01-27T01:33:02.317
That's not the setting I meant. In Device Manager, go to the NIC. The last tab should be Power Management. Uncheck "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power." – mfinni – 2013-01-27T15:48:33.143
That's what I did...the last tab is indeed "Power Management", but it's a custom Intel tab, and there is no option "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power", only the options I described above. – Ethan Brown – 2013-01-28T17:53:07.677