LAN problem with TM8204

When i first bootup the laptop, i can surf using WIRED LAN while it's auto-installing
the acer drivers and software..
But after it finishes, i can't surf using WIRED LAN anymore, but can surf using WIFI..

So i recovered the OS using the recovery DVD and same thing..
seems that something Acer installs on top of win xp cause my WIRED LAN to fail??

So what do i do now? anyone encountered this problem?
Tried using different lan cables, same result..
It would show connecting to the website and take a long time to load..
But i CAN ping the website..
tried everything to disabling all the drivers except LAN except install my own OS..

It's a intel pro 100/1000 wired card i think..

And i've not installed a single s/w into the Acer!

 

can you by chance download the driver strait from intel. Then uninstall the NIC (network interface card) from the device manager and then attempt to reinstall it?

If you need instructions just ask and I'll do my best to give you a step by step guide.

That's the only thing that I can thinik to try at the moment, that or perhaps try using a different catV cable (network cable).

 

Tried 4 diff cables, Cat 5, 5e and 6.. all no do..
Even tried different cable modem at a friend's place..
connection was direct to the modem..

Will try updating the drivers tonight when i get back..
now i'm on wireless on the laptop and everything is fine!

 

Please keep me updated, I'm about to buy one of these next week and I could NOT live without wired lan connection.

 

phiberx

Forgot to ask, how is the heat? I had an ACER 8000 in the past and it was like a space heater.

 

Philberx,

I ran into something similar to this with an IBM Thinkpad. It took a while to figure it out but the problem was the IBM Connectivity Manager. That software configured the network settings by profile and caused more problems than it solved.

Does the Acer 8204 have one? Can you disable it?

 

Yeah.. it has a Acer eNet management program.. but it's disabled..
Infact, i've uninstalled it and still got the same result..
Now i've recovered the factory default settings again..
Same thing..

Sometimes the page loads, sometimes it doesn't..
i'm thinking my network card could be screwed??

 

So the only way to use the wired LAN is reboot the laptop right with the LAN plugged in?

Will it work if you start off with wireless after a reboot, then hibernate the machine. Then resume and use wireless. And vice versa.

 

Er.. the wired lan is working in a sense.. but sporadically..
sometimes webpages loads fine, most of the time, it;s juz stuck at
"connecting to www.blahblah.com" or "opening www.blahlbah.com"..

It's down more than it's up..
don't need to reboot or anything to make the lan working..

 

i am having the EXACT same problem... check your windows event manager, system tab... you will see the card reseting it self constantly... I called acer as well as tiger direct... im working with tiger to get it RMAed... I tried alot, disable this, disable that etc etc... no such luck.. ive also experienced the system locking up when rebooting with the wireless lan on... I actully did reinstall the OS but you cannot use the eRecovery program if you do that... all the other empowering tech programs are on there except that one.. with I believe is the most important one...is anyone else seeing this? Is it an isolated innocent? Can anyone else use wired LAN without this interuption?

 

Acer's power management is probably the problem. I have an 8204 and what I have found is that if you boot without the ethernet connected, the power management will disable it. If you then plug in a cable, the LAN will not turn back on, you have to go into power management and turn it on, then the LAN works. At least that is how it works on mine.

 

YES!! Exact same thing!
The card keeps starting itself in the Event Viewer!
e1express right?? I didn't know what to make of it..
So did it work fine after u reinstall the OS?
When u reinstall the OS, u meant using ur own copy or the eRecovery?

So it's definitely a hardware issue here?

 

Have you tried creating a custom profile to leave it on at all times and did that work. eManager s**ks as it won't remember you setting after a reboot unless you choose a custom profile.

 

The problem is that when I reinstalled the OS i installed all the ACER stuff too! DOH!!! Maybe I can do some more testing before I send it back...Is anyone else in the comunity facing this??

 

Wiz33, did that.. created a new user profile in windows.. same issue..

euph_cf,

Try this.. Goto the lan connection properties..
What do u see for "Packets Sent" and "Received"?
Weird thing which i nvr noticed til i RMAed it juz now,
the packets received was like 5751 and the packets sent was ZERO!! 0!!
Or rather, it keep resetting itself to 0.. and my net acess via LAN was intermittent..

So the technician at my vendor concluded it was a h/w failure,
and allowed me to do a 1 to 1.. they had no stock on hand..
so i'm back to waiting again..

 

Yes it was resetting to 0... im going to restore it back to factory and play with the power settings... see what that does... where did you get it from? Im in the process of RMAing it from tiger direct... they seem to be taking their time...

 

Yeah.. that's my case too.. it resets, which is not supposed to happened..
I attribute it to a faulty network card and not s/w issue..
How could it be a s/w issue when it arrives with factory default settings?
Everything, especially something as basic as LAN connection, shld
work right out of the box w/o any tweaking!
That's something which is not acceptable for me..
when i'm paying top dollars for such a high-end laptop..

I've tried restoring factory defaults at least 5 times..
and even tried uninstall the acer programs 1 at a time to see
if any of them is causing it.. but still same result..

Also, in my Event Viewer for system, i noticed a few "Error" messages..
1. Gsensor s/w generated a file not found error.
2. O2crdsvr or something with the smartcard also generated error.
3. another one which i've forgotten..

Do u get all these errors too?

I got my notebook from my university vendor, it's already sent
in for a 1 to 1 exchange request.. i hope it gets thru..

 

I agree...im going to RMA it....

 

In my Event Viewer for System, i noticed a few "Error" messages..
1. Gsensor s/w generated a file not found error.
2. O2crdsvr or something with the smartcard also generated error.
3. another one which i've forgotten..

Do u get all these errors too?

 

yes i did... but it seems like it was just the smartcard looking for itself and the glock thing starting a bit early... nothing that would cause the LAN to fail... i have an RMA # and will get a new one by friday... hopefully it will not have the same issues...

 

I see.. Then it's cool then..
I was worried that it might be more h/w problems..

All the best for both of us!

 

Ok, I forwarded this thread to my contact at Acer, we'll see what they have to say. It might take a bit though as he's trying to put out another fire atm.

 

So I just got my 8204, and I think I'm having these problems. I plugged my laptop into my desktop using a crossover and used the connection to transfer a 4 gb DVD image from my desktop to the laptop. It took about 2 minutes, but watching the event manager, apparently the LAN reset itself 3 times in those 2 minutes. I also noticed that as it was transferring, the packets sent counter reset itself, but the connection time and packet recieved counter did not reset themselves. The file itself transfered itself over just fine, and didn't error out, so I don't know WTF. I hope this helps somehow- I'm leaving the country for 6 months on the 10th, and I don't think I have time to RMA it. Even if I did, the problem seems to be widespread.

 

3 times is an improvement to what I had... i had the card resetting every 10 seconds... the event log was huge...It curious... so this looks like 3 of us so far on here.... interesting... no one besides myself has seen this in notebookforums.com...Maybe its an issue with a particular batch? Where did you get yours? I wonder if we should check S/N to see if its in a particular run of these...

 

I got mine at Tiger Direct, just like you.

 

interesting.... makes ya wonder if they got a bad batch....and we were the lucky ones to benefit...

 

Also, Tiger Direct apparently is offering NO return service for this particular laptop.

From the website:

That's kind of cruddy.

Edit: Also, they're out of stock so doing a replacement through them would be silly.

 

Hmmm.. ur card is exhibiting the same symptoms as us..
Is ur LAN connection working? did u try to surf pages on ur lan connection?

 

No internet connection over LAN. Like I said, it transfers just fine, but it has intermittent pauses while it does so which I assume results from the card resetting itself.

 

Call acer... tell them whats going on...And get a case #. Then call tigerdirect.. tell them your laptop isnt working and give them the case #. They will then issue you a RMA # and schedule a replacement... they just need that case # from acer before they can do anything...


also they are expecting like 70 of them tomorrow...

 

The problem is that I leave the country on Friday. Im not sure what I should do in this case.

 

call now... get your case #.. call tiger.. get the RMA, send in the old one... have tiger overnight the new one... it may double charge your credit card but the old charge will be removed once they get your old one in...

 

Okay, I've done this. My fingers are crossed hoping that I'll get one that works, with no dead pixels. Will I? It is a mystery! But I can hope.

 

****, they're on backorder.

 

Hello, I have same problem. In save mode with network it works ok, so it is probably driver problem...

 

So it works fine in safe mode with network... hmmmmmm... interesting...its strange that only a handful of us are experiencing this issue... what could be causing this on some and not others?

 

euph_CF,

Is it just the wired-LAN acting up? And the wireless works fine right?

Are you running ethernet-gigabtye or 100Mb? Have you tried both to see if there was any difference?

 

Hello,

Try following:
1.startup camera app (Acer OrbiCam)
2. close it

and LAN network is working....

strange, but it works

Anh

 

I did try both gig and 100... i also tried it without the camera on as well as it on...

 

The last thing it might be besides being a driver or hardware, is an IRQ conflict. Where you able to confirm that it works in Safe Mode with Networking?

 

It's true- in safe mode it works just fine with a transfer rate of about 32% constantly at 1gbs. I assume that it must be a software issue then.
In any case, it doesn't look like TigerDirect is going to have them in stock today, so I wouldnt be able to get the replacement shipped to me in time. Bollocks.

 

ShotgunW,

I just got mine today. Will try to see if I can replicate it and if so, play around the IRQs to see if the problem goes away.

 

There seems to be no BIOS options for IRQs. Any suggestions?

 

When is tiger getting them?

 

Apparently, they were supposed to get them today, but they said it 'might' come later, which means I'm screwed, and I'm going to have to have a friend ship it to me in Australia. The porblem is, is if the new one has the same problem, I'll be SOL.

 

positive thoughts...positive thoughts...positive thoughts........

 

I am hoping this was just a driver issue. I found on Acer Europe's FTP site a older version driver that was just uploaded this week. Installed it. And had to reboot before I saw any change.
zc1_lan 9.0.15.0_logo.zip is the name of the file. If you can't find it I will post a link when I can. (got a client meeting soon)

I have done 5 shutdowns each time transferring about 500mb of data between machines without the issue occuring.

So am I hoping that this will work until the next driver update.

ftp://ftp.support.acer-euro.com/notebook/travelmate_8200/driver/

 

I buy it from buy.com and i have this problem too. And I found that if you put laptop into the Sleep or Hibernate mode then after wakeup a LAN work fine. If hibernate don't work on your laptop then see http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=909095
I think that the problem in the Acer Utils. I change Intel LAN driver to newest version but it don't solve problem because the external application reset driver each 10 seconds.

 

I got mine yesterday and experienced the same problem.

I've even had problems copying files from a Buffalo lan station. I backup all my data and development files there and was trying to copy to the ACER and it would just lockup sometimes. Had to cancel out of the copying and start over.

Ditto on the web page loading. Just seems to freeze up with the page loading indicator going ever so slowly, but never really loading.

Could this be a driver issue? Has anyone checked for a more current driver for the NIC card? Or is it a problem with the NIC card itself?

 

I call to the Acer and he want to check it itself. But i can't send my notebook to the Acer because i install too many programms and very important data to it. Does anybody already send own notebook with this problem to the Acer?

If you have this problem please call to the Acer because if he will have many cases about this problem then he must resolve it shortly. If you want you can send me email and i send back my case number for this problem to association
all cases in one big case.

[email protected]