network card clock latency

Laterilus · Post by **Laterilus** » Wed Mar 13, 2002 5:24 pm

For some reason, my network card latency is set at 128 clocks as told to me by the 'Sandra' software. It tells me to set it down to 32 so that it doesn't steal all the PCI bus from the other components, but I haven't the slightest clue on how to do that. It doesn't appear to me that it is in the BIOS, and I can't seem to figure it out on the 'TCP optimizer' I downloaded from Speedguide.net. Anyone have a clue on how to set the latency clock?

Lobo · Post by **Lobo** » Wed Mar 13, 2002 5:27 pm

Ask in software Forum please, they would know

HalfLifer · Post by **HalfLifer** » Wed Mar 13, 2002 5:36 pm

It runs at whatever your PCI bus is at, which default is 32 I believe. No need to change

Lobo · Post by **Lobo** » Wed Mar 13, 2002 5:40 pm

I fail to see this answers what he asked:

For some reason, my network card latency is set at 128 clocks as told to me by the 'Sandra' software. It tells me to set it down to 32

Kip Patterson · Post by **Kip Patterson** » Wed Mar 13, 2002 5:59 pm

The latency is set in the BIOS.

It should be under PCI slot configuration.

Kip

Laterilus · Post by **Laterilus** » Wed Mar 13, 2002 9:17 pm

Ok, that makes sense. I went into my BIOS, saw the PCI configuration section, and before I selected that area, there was a little description at the bottom that said, "IRQ settings, latency timers....... ". I thought to myself, "great, now I'll just change it". Not so, once I opened it up, the only things that I could change were IRQs and DMAs. There was something else that said VGA palleted snoop, but I figured that had nothing to do with what I am trying to accomplish. I am running a IWill KK266 motherboard with the VIA KT133A chipset. I have the 0426 BIOS running. I hope this will help you to know a possible more detailed explaination on how to fix my problem. Could it be I need newer drivers from VIA? Do I need to flash my BIOS to a newer version? I appreciate the help, I am definitely closer to finding an answer than what I was this afternoon.

HalfLifer · Post by **HalfLifer** » Wed Mar 13, 2002 9:50 pm

Originally posted by Lobo
I fail to see this answers what he asked:

I answered his question Lobo. You always have a pre-recorded message, so lay off.

Lobo · Post by **Lobo** » Wed Mar 13, 2002 9:53 pm

He asked how to change from 128 to 32, how did you answer

mnosteele52 · Post by **mnosteele52** » Wed Mar 13, 2002 10:23 pm

There is a PCI latency patch for Via chipsets, I'm not sure if it will fix your problem, but you can find it here.

Laterilus · Post by **Laterilus** » Wed Mar 13, 2002 10:39 pm

Well, I've already tried that latency patch. The only thing it did was raise my CPU temperature 7 degrees Celcius and cause my computer to take at least 2 minutes more to boot up.

Dragonplus · Post by **Dragonplus** » Thu Mar 14, 2002 9:17 pm

You can try using Powerstrip to reset the latency timing of various PCI devices, including your NIC.

Laterilus · Post by **Laterilus** » Thu Mar 14, 2002 9:42 pm

Great, I'l try it. What is powerstrip? are you talking about the the thing I plug all my devices into? The thing that goes into the outlet in the wall? I know, stupid question, but I didn't know if there is an actual program out there called powerstrip.

Lobo · Post by **Lobo** » Thu Mar 14, 2002 9:51 pm

What kind of NIC card do you have, Netgear

Lobo · Post by **Lobo** » Thu Mar 14, 2002 9:55 pm

Click on Cable Modem tips in my signature and see if it's in there

mnosteele52 · Post by **mnosteele52** » Thu Mar 14, 2002 10:05 pm

Laterilus are you actually having a problem or are you just concerned about the info Sandra gave you? Because to be honest I have used Sandra in the past and it gave me a number of incorrect results, if you aren't having any noticeable problems I wouldn't worry about it.

Dragonplus · Post by **Dragonplus** » Thu Mar 14, 2002 11:17 pm

Powerstrip is a widely used utility intended mainly for tweaking graphics cards and monitors, but which has other options as well. Web site is:

Powerstrip website

This is the module under options, adapter, in which you can adjust the latency timing of each device.

Laterilus · Post by **Laterilus** » Fri Mar 15, 2002 10:52 am

Call it concern and problems put together. Ever since something randomly screwed up with my internet connection, I have been having more lockups and my computer is just slowing down and not performing correctly at all the way it used to. I just put it together in August (Athlon 1400MHz, IWill KK266, 512 PC133) and it ran great until about 3 weeks ago. I don't know what the problem is. It started with my bandwidth slowing down to 75 kbytes/sec when I was averaging 400! I used TCP optimizer and it topped it off at 240, but I know what my computer is capable of. My computer has also had other slowing down issues so I downloaded Sandra to start picking apart at what it has told me. I understand taking it with a grain of salt, but I am getting fed up with the performance issues here so I thought for a last ditch effort I would visit the forums out there for some advice and see if changing a few values around would solve my problems before I reformat my hard drive to take care of the problem. Now.... to answer what the previous question was to yours, my NIC is an Allied Telesyn AT 2500TX. I used to have a Netgear, but I have had 2 of those just randomly break on me so I have decided that company cannot make decent hardware.

Lobo · Post by **Lobo** » Fri Mar 15, 2002 10:55 am

Who is your ISP, and did you used to have @home

Lobo · Post by **Lobo** » Fri Mar 15, 2002 11:13 am

It has been verified by experiment that certain auto-negotiating ethernet cards (both in PCs and in Macs), when connected to certain models of cable modem, sense the ethernet duplex setting incorrectly. Such a cable modem has ethernet hardware which is capable of operating only in half-duplex mode, at 10 Mbps, yet some auto-negotiating ethernet cards sense it as full-duplex. If an auto-negotiation card incorrectly starts operating in full-duplex mode, there can be collisions between ethernet packets being transmitted in both directions at the same time, leading to packet loss, and repeated re-transmissions. There is no visible evidence of this apart from poor performance. This problem can be avoided by manually configuring your ethernet card to be 10 Mbps half-duplex. No ill-effects will transpire from doing this, even when it is not necessary. The exact wording of the setting changes required varies from one manufacturer to another, so the instructions below are necessarily rather broadly defined.

To make this change under Win98/ME, follow these steps:

Open Control Panel.
Double-click Network.
From the scrollable list, select your Ethernet adapter (rather than any dial-up) with a green icon.
Click the button Properties.
Click the tab Advanced to bring it to the front:
In the Property box, the property name to be selected varies according to model of ethernet card. Examples are: Network Link Selection, Media Type, Connection Type, Duplex Mode, or any similarly-named property which can have Values looking like Auto-Negotiation, or 10BT, or 10BaseT.
In the Value box, select a value which either (a) explicitly says half-duplex or semi-duplex, or (b) at least does not say full-duplex [e.g. 10BaseT on its own is OK]. If there is a choice between 10 and 100 with half-duplex, choose the 10. Do not choose 10Base5, 10Base2, or AUI.
Click OK to exit the Adapter settings.
Click OK all the way out - you might need to restart.
To make this change under Windows 2000 or XP, follow these steps:

Open Control Panel.
Double-click Network and Dial-up Connections.
Identify the icon for your cable modem connection: usually Local Area Connection.
Right-click that icon and select Properties.
Under the ethernet adapter icon, click the button Configure.
Click the tab Advanced to bring it to the front:
In the Property box, the property name to be selected varies according to model of ethernet card. Examples are: Network Link Selection, Media Type, Connection Type, Duplex Mode, or any similarly-named property which can have Values looking like Auto-Negotiation, or 10BT, or 10BaseT.
In the Value box, select a value which either (a) explicitly says half-duplex or semi-duplex, or (b) at least does not say full-duplex [e.g. 10BaseT on its own is OK]. If there is a choice between 10 and 100 with half-duplex, choose the 10. Do not choose 10Base5, 10Base2, or AUI.
Click OK to exit the Adapter settings.
Click OK to exit the Connection properties

Nefarious · Post by **Nefarious** » Fri Mar 15, 2002 3:03 pm

SAME MOTHERBOARD AS MEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Laterilus · Post by **Laterilus** » Fri Mar 15, 2002 3:57 pm

Originally posted by Lobo
Who is your ISP, and did you used to have @home

Yes! I did have @home. They got bought out by mediaCom. That is when my bandwidth problems started. However, only my bandwidth on my network of computers was drastically affected. The other computers stayed the same. On top of that, I used 'TCP optimizer' on everyones computer, and everyone's computer topped out at 240 kbytes/sec or so, except for one computer that was already running at 240. I went to friend's houses that use mediaCom as well and used the TCP optimizer on their computers. They all went to 240 as well. I don't understand. Is mediaCom setting the bandwidth? If so, why would they set it lower than what @home used to have it? I didn't get a huge performance drop in bandwidth until mediacom completely took over. Like I said, before that I was getting 400/sec. I don't have a clue as to what would be causing a problem. I figured it was my latency timer causing hardware problems. Could MediaCom be the cause of this?

Lobo · Post by **Lobo** » Fri Mar 15, 2002 4:08 pm

To begin with Media-Com did not buy @Home, CONCAST & AT&T did and cut bandwith from 3.0 down to 1.5, so that may be reason for slowdown

Lee_Nover · Post by **Lee_Nover** » Fri Mar 15, 2002 4:21 pm

What version of bios? Guys, this is an easy one to figure out. Just ask the right questions. No need to go into software forum. This is set in the Bios. 32 is defaut, and I am afraid yours is set too high. 29 is optimum. There should be a setting, as per young Kip, in the Bios that lets you set "PCI Latency timer" settings, you're just not looking hard enough.

Lobo · Post by **Lobo** » Fri Mar 15, 2002 4:26 pm

VIA KT133A chipset. I have the 0426 BIOS running

Laterilus · Post by **Laterilus** » Fri Mar 15, 2002 4:36 pm

Originally posted by Lobo
VIA KT133A chipset. I have the 0426 BIOS running

Lobo, if you are running the same BIOS as me, do you know where the latency setting is in the BIOS?

Lobo · Post by **Lobo** » Fri Mar 15, 2002 4:43 pm

No I just posted what you did for Lee, I know nothing about it, sorry

Lee_Nover · Post by **Lee_Nover** » Fri Mar 15, 2002 5:11 pm

Let me help you out. Go into Bios, go under advanced settings, go under PCI latenct settings. There you will find adjustment to bring that puppy down to 29. If it is not there, goto website of motherboard manufacturer, and see if you can download a PDF user manual, or, if you have saved your original manual, look under index fpr PCI latency. Also, make sure you visit MB website to ensure you have latest version of Bios and that it is set to default. Then go to http://www.viahardware.com to get 4.37 4 in 1 drivers. It's really lots of fun.