I am having Ethernet problems with the Realtek RTL8201CL

[JordanPlayz158]

I have a Biostar N68S3+ Motherboard with the Realtek RTL8201CL Lan chip and whenever I try to use the onboard Ethernet port, it works for a couple minutes then turns off and then on for a couple minutes then goes off.. and I have yet to find a driver or posts about this chip for lan. So if anyone has any clue why this might be happening or have a driver for this lan chip that would be much appreciated!

[ruwolf]

What do you get from e.g. ethtool, which query/control network driver and hardware settings?

[JordanPlayz158]

When I run "ethtool enp0s7" (The interface my built-in ethernet controller is on, rn I'm using usb to ethernet adapter to get smooth internet without cut outs but i'd like to stop using the adapter) the output is

Code: Select all

Settings for enp0s7:
	Supported ports: [ MII ]
	Supported link modes:   10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 
	                        100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full 
	Supported pause frame use: No
	Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
	Supported FEC modes: Not reported
	Advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 
	                        100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full 
	Advertised pause frame use: No
	Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
	Advertised FEC modes: Not reported
	Speed: Unknown!
	Duplex: Unknown! (255)
	Port: MII
	PHYAD: 1
	Transceiver: internal
	Auto-negotiation: on
	Supports Wake-on: g
	Wake-on: d
	Link detected: no

This is with nothing connected, do you want me to do it when an ethernet cable is attached to it?

[ruwolf]

Yes, with cable.
And if it differs when it is on and seems to be off...

[JordanPlayz158]

Ok, so the issue is, whenever I try to do anything that requires internet such as a simple low bandwidth thing like sshing into the machine it will work but if I do something like ifconfig with a lot of lines of text it will stop working and resets the connection to the router i.e Orange Light for around 20 seconds and then Green Light until I do something that transmit a couple lines of data but I was able to get the output of ethtool with the cable connected!

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Settings for enp0s7:
	Supported ports: [ MII ]
	Supported link modes:   10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 
	                        100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full 
	                        1000baseT/Full 
	Supported pause frame use: No
	Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
	Supported FEC modes: Not reported
	Advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 
	                        100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full 
	Advertised pause frame use: No
	Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
	Advertised FEC modes: Not reported
	Speed: 10Mb/s
	Duplex: Full
	Port: MII
	PHYAD: 1
	Transceiver: internal
	Auto-negotiation: on
	Supports Wake-on: g
	Wake-on: d
	Link detected: yes

[LE_746F6D617A7A69]

Ok, so the issue is, whenever I try to do anything that requires internet such as a simple low bandwidth thing like sshing into the machine it will work but if I do something like ifconfig with a lot of lines of text it will stop working and resets the connection to the router i.e Orange Light for around 20 seconds and then Green Light until I do something that transmit a couple lines of data but I was able to get the output of ethtool with the cable connected!

Code: Select all

...
	Speed: 10Mb/s
...
	Auto-negotiation: on

Check/replace the cable first - it looks like it can be damaged.

[JordanPlayz158]

Do you really think it's the cable? because the cable works perfectly fine with the adapter and I highly doubt an adapter could fix a broken cable

[LE_746F6D617A7A69]

Yes, I think that there's 98% probability for broken cable, 1% for damaged insulating transformer behind the RJ45 socket in the eth card(*) and 1% for other possibilities.

(*) this is quite common damage caused by sudden power grid outages or by storms.

[JordanPlayz158]

Ok I will switch it out with another cable and tell you how it goes!

EDIT: Tried it with new cable, same exact issue as the other cable, but as I said in the first post I believe it's because there seems to be no official driver for the RTL8201CL ethernet chip

[LE_746F6D617A7A69]

OK so the most obvious possibility can be excluded.

You can try disabling auto-negotiation and set the speed manually, using ethtool with autoneg and speed options.