On Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 6:55 PM, Ben Scott <[email protected]> wrote:
> PROBLEM SUMMARY
>
> When plugging in or unplugging the network cable, the link state
> change does not propagate to the whole system immediately.
> Network-related UI elements may freeze until the system "notices" the
> change. The "network cable is unplugged" and/or "now connected"
> balloons do not appear until the system notices the change.
For anyone still looking for an answer or searching the list archives:
We seem to have arrived at the conclusion that this can be solved by
(1) using the Intel NIC drivers that Dell provides and (2) turning off
a particular power saving feature.
Dell provides a driver package, Dell release ID R211478, driver
version 14.2. Intel does not publish an EtherExpress PRO software
release with that version number (Intel goes from 14.0 to 14.3.), so
perhaps Dell's driver is actually different.
Control of the power saving feature is not exposed in any part of
the NIC driver UI that I could find.
The Dell ControlPoint software does expose it. (Power Manager ->
Advanced Settings -> Network Card -> Negotiate the link speed to the
lowest available.)
By using Process Monitor, I was able to track down the registry entry involved:
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002bE10318}\*\AutoPowerSaveModeEnabled
The * in the above means that there are multiple subkeys. You've
got to enumerate the subkeys to find cards with this setting. So a
simple .REG file won't help. I wrote a VBScript which does the job
for us. You can find it at <http://pastebin.com/f6b8b3fb>.
YMMV. HTH.
-- Ben
~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
