Intel recently released a temporary patch for an issue that is affecting motherboards using its i226-V 2.5Gbps Ethernet controllers. The issue, which first came to light in reports going back to January this year, seemingly causes Intel motherboards fitted with said controller to suffer from intermittent disconnections while using the LAN port.
Once again, the new Intel patch is only serving as a placeholder, at least until the chipmaker is able to provide users with a more substantial and comprehensive solution to the issue. On a related note, if your Intel motherboard is also using an older i225 or a Killer E3100 2.5GbE controller, then you may want to have this patch installed on your system as well. For 13th Gen Z790 motherboards, these components are known to be fitted with the newer i226-V controller.
It should also be noted that if you’re connected to the internet via the onboard Wi-Fi of the affected motherboard, you won’t actually run into this particular disconnection issue, as it is mercifully limited to the Intel i226-V controller. In any case, the patch basically turns off the controller’s Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) Mode, seeing as how the issue seemed connected to a sort of energy-saving functionality within the driver.
Prior to the release of the temporary patch, workaround suggestions for the intermittent disconnection issue included reducing the i226-V controller’s maximum transfer rate to just 1Gbps. Needless to say, most folks just weren’t having it and we can’t say that we blame them. After all, no one wants to actively gimp their internet speeds, never mind on a hardware level.
To date, MSI has so far been the first company to release an updated i226-V driver for its affected Z790 motherboards, including the MPG Z790 Carbon WIFI. However, as pointed out by Tom’s Hardware, the download file doesn’t actually include release notes and it is unclear if the “patch” is the same as the one released by Intel.
(Source: Tom’s Hardware, TPU, Intel)
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